Zucchini Bread

"If you don't have zucchini, you don't have friends."

- Unknown

There are few vegetables which are as rewarding to grow in a children's garden as zucchini- the results are usually both massive and prolific. Additionally, zucchini are really interesting to look at in conjunction with a unit of study about the parts of a flower because the petals of the squash blossoms are slow to fall off (ours were still attached when we picked it), making it possible for children to see that the zucchini is really the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower.

After much anticipation, the zucchini were finally ready to be harvested. The children went out to the garden and returned with a smooth, oblong courgette, nearly as large as some of the smaller students. While our zucchini plant appeared to have concentrated all of its resources on producing this one exemplary specimen, it turned out that one of our families had a bumper crop of even larger squash which they were generous enough to share.

Naturally, when confronted with lots of excited children and a large stockpile of fresh zucchini, there is only one thing to do: break out the grater and bake bread!

The children spent much of the morning happily grating zucchini

and grating fresh nutmeg.

After the ingredients were ready, our little brigade of enthusiastic bakers busily combined the ingredients and mixed the fragrant batter. The bread baked and filled the school with the irresistible aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla.

Then the children concluded the afternoon with a special treat of homemade zucchini walnut bread, still warm from the oven.