Week 3: June 21-25

Culinary Camp Teen Week 2010: It's definitely more exciting than watching bread rise :)

DAY 1

To begin this Monday's culinary adventures, we took a tour of the herb garden to see our blooming sunflowers and taste some lemon balm, oregano, chamomile, and cinnamon licorice. A volunteer from the Missouri Conservation society spoke to us about Missouri's most common snakes and spiders, told us what to watch out for (brown recluses and black widows) and what not to be afraid of (snakes in general...they are friends of the garden!)

After spending some quality time in the garden, we moved on to baking! The focus this week is... AFRICA! This morning, we made Sweet Corn Bread and learned about the properties of yeast that are needed to make a successful bread.

We also made African Rusks with Currants and worked on our dough rolling and cutting techniques. Check out that professional product!

DAY 2

This morning was FIELD TRIP DAY! The campers went to Kraut Run, an organic farm in Wentzville, MO. There, the campers heard about the importance of composting, practiced growing seeds, and learned the basics of organic farming.


This lucky pig enjoys a more natural lifestyle than the commercial-style farm raised pig, which results in a healthier and happier animal

Rather than using low quality, environmentally destructive plastic planting trays, farmer Chris utilizes reusable wooden trays. When planting new seeds, he uses a special tool to stamp out soil into small blocks that already have an indentation at just the right depth in which to place the seeds. All of the campers were able to try their hand at using the tool and did a great job!

Since Culinary Camp is designed to be as hands-on as possible, the campers also had the opportunity to try some real farm work... they helped position a large, black tarp used for solar soil enrichment and worked as a team to place hay around a garden to help the plants grow big and strong.


When we returned to SLU, we went out to the garden to help welcome the new baby chicks to campus! These chicks will be used to provide eggs for Fresh Gatherings (the delicious Doisy College cafeteria) and to help maintain good soil quality.


An article about the baby chicks can be found on the SLU connection page by clicking on this link: https://www.slu.edu/x37585.xml and a video about the chicks can be found on the St. Louis Post Dispatch website by clicking on this link: http://videos.stltoday.com/p/video?id=15476885

Day 3

Today the campers celebrated our weekly Disabilities Awareness Day in which we learned hands-on how individuals with disabilities cope with challenges in everyday life.

Trying to tie shoes while using a wrist and hand splint

Propelling a wheelchair up an incline is hard work!

Using straight leg splints

After their first night at SLU, the chickens are still doing quite well. One was even friendly enough to socialize for a while!

After spending the morning in the garden, the campers went back up to the kitchen to cook some colorful Ethiopian cuisine.

And of course... the best part of cooking is getting to taste the end result!

Day 4

It's cool at the pool! After a fun morning of preparing food for campus kitchen, the campers took a well-deserved break and spent the afternoon at SLUruba pool on the main campus. The weather was perfect for swimming, sunbathing, volleyball, and enjoying the beautiful outdoor scenery!

Campers enjoy a quick game of Spoons before heading out to the pool

Whitney's pet rabbit, Gigi, even joined us for a while!

DAY 5

Cooking up some delicious Moroccan cuisine was the perfect end to a great week! The sweet Cardamom vanilla ice cream with a poached apricot sauce and the almond crusted tangy Moroccan chicken were definitely the highlights of the menu.

Every good chef knows that tasting everything you make is important!

After working hard in the kitchen all morning, we went outside to play a game of kickball and cool off with a water balloon fight

Pounding chicken allow it to cook more quickly and evenly

Flour isn't just for cooking...

Demonstrating knife skills to the parents



Check out the rest of the pictures at:
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2401333020/a=2492798020_2492798020/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/