3 days 2 nights with 24 kids menu!

[shroomgirl]

I have a cahallenge job....3 days 2 nights in NE Missouri on a farm with 24 4th graders and 6 adults the food budget is nominal....$300 for 2 breakfasts 2 lunch and 2 dinners
Day one dinner
Day 2 break lunch and dinner
Day 3 breakfast and lunch....
No professional equipemtn ther than the butane stoves. There can be a bonfire one night
So the gig is that these children are studying local food.
April in Mo....the product list is
eggs
rices, arborio, baldo, long grain jasmine
tempeh tofu
dried black beans
I can find other grains or we can use off the shelf if need be
baby greens
beets, kale, chard (green houses on a farm in the south)
sorghum
honey
lamb, brats
pork
chicken
breads, chevre, dairy oproducts,
I can get any cuts of meats and there is the option of making jerky also.
there are catfish ponds in the area, one of the farmers can scoop them out if it is on the menu
it'll be morel season...can't count on finding um, and I'm still skiddish about feeding kids other than my own morels
I may be able to snag some rhubarb or first of the season berries...can't count on it but jams and preserve or apple butter are available.

Id like the kids to help source and prepare the foodSome things can be made prior to going....I invision bars or some pastires that can be made a few days prior to leaving (it is following Morel Madness weekend and I don't want to miss it this year)
$300 is not alot considering you are buying from local farmers....remember 4th grade kids.

[Peachcreek]

What is the theme or activity for the weekend? I'd try to tie in the activities with the food. Will lunches be sack lunch or something else? How much time do they have for breakfast. I think the logistics will determine the food this time. More important are the social aspects. The kids will eat just about anything and PBJ would be huge if they had any input. You could do one dinner of a farm meal from 100 years ago. The next night a meal from contemporary food. All kid friendly. As for foodcost I don't see it as a problem. 10-11 year olds don't eat that much.

[phatch]

This seems to be the perfect scenario for some "dutch oven" cooking. Not the Le Creuset kind you're used to but the pioneer cast iron kind. Some food history and local history could enter into it too.

Perhaps even some sourdough bread?

The Championship was just held for this style of cookery last weekend.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595049448,00.html

A good starting point is http://www.idos.com/

Phil

[shroomgirl]

Moi? nono monsieur I use castiron, not enamel. The theme for the class is local food, you are what you eat. So other than sourcing from local growers it's learning how to cook. I started out mass cooking at mushroom hunts in the woods on a camp stove or over butane burners.
For numerous years I cooked 4 meals in a girlscout camp for 100 shroomers 3 hours from STL on a nominal budget. The catfish will be totally interesting, skinning a catfish is bizarre to begin with, then I hate frying with kids around but is there any better way to experience fresh catfish than cornmeal dipped and fried? (this from a girl that fished in ARk 7-11yrs old.)
Breakfast can be a large pot of oatmeal with sorghum, pecans and dried apples. Lunch should be easy on the full day there...dinners can be more elaborate...I'm thinking about black bean and pork stew on night 1 catfish and cornbread with dessert (?) on night 2 Big breakfast the morning of Day 3...biscuits with apple butter, scrambled farm eggs or even flour tortillas with scrambled eggs and salsa
2 butane burners and at least one camp stove. There is a full energy stove if we do pasta. I can see arborio rice pudding for dessert one night.