Schools

Grasso Tech Hosts Farm to Chef Week with Very Local Ingredients

Some of the produce featured in this week's menu was grown by Grass Tech students on school grounds.

Grasso Technical High School culinary students are participating in the Farm to Chef week but before they took a trip out to Holmberg Orchards in Ledyard for some fresh apples, they were able to open their back door and harvest fresh vegetables and herbs from a garden grown by Bioscience and Environmental students over the summer. 

The group 10 or so students installed a vegetable and herb garden in the abandoned tennis courts in back of the high school. The project has been a work in progress that began four years ago. Back then, students had the hard task of clearing the tennis courts of baseball cages, as the space was then used to practice softball. Lately, they are consumed with procuring donated or free materials to make the raised garden beds or the “magical concoction” of soil and manure, all the way to sorting seeds and finally harvesting vegetables. 

“It was a lot of work for everyone,” said Anita Anderson, a senior at Grasso Tech who has been involved in the program since the beginning. “But it was a great experience.” 

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Anderson said the experience inspired her senior project and has shaped her career plans. She’ll be creating an exotic garden of plants that don’t grow in Connecticut (orchids, Venus Flytraps, etc) and she wants to be a botanist. 

Although the group has not quantified their many harvests, the chefs in the culinary program have been taking notice. 

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Chef David Miguel, a culinary arts instructor at Grasso said he’s been able to do a lot with the tomatoes, corn, chard, kale, garlic, and lettuce harvested since last Spring. 

“You can’t be fresh picked,” he said of the garden. 

Some of the Grasso garden’s produce will be used this week during the school’s participation in the Farm-to-Chef Week, like the cold weather crops, but much of the produce was used in the spring. 

This week, culinary students at Grasso will be cooking with fresh-picked apples and other produce sourced no further than 30 miles from Groton to showcase their learning and to put their culinary arts education into practice by preparing dishes with the locally grown food.  

The locavore movement is gaining ground in Southeastern Connecticut. There are a few restaurants like the Oyster Club on Water Street that use locally sources ingredients and Farm-to-Table style events are popping up more and more. 

“Preparing our students for college and career means providing them with rich opportunities to expand their horizons and develop a deeper appreciation for their chosen trades,” said CTHSS Interim Superintendent Dr. Nivea Torres.  “Participation in Connecticut’s Farm-to-Chef Week delivers on both these fronts and inspires us to continue to seek and seize upon creative opportunities to augment our students’ education in a meaningful way.” 

As the second year of Connecticut Technical High School System's participation in Connecticut’s Farm-to-Chef Program, Marc Hussey, CTHSS Culinary/Tourism, Hospitality, Guest Management Program Manager, explained: “This year, we wanted to provide a greater enrichment opportunity for our students and present them with the occasion to meet the farmer who produces the food.  In doing so, students receive a deeper learning experience and greater awareness of quality fresh produce that better informs their culinary practice.”

Farm to Chef lunches wil be served at Grasso's restaurant, Top of Fort Hill. Call (860) 448-0220 for restaurant hours and to make reservations.


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