“What makes this carrot prettier than that one?”
“Believe it or not, this carrot tastes exactly the same as that one!”
“That’s a pickle? But why is it so… white?” Oh I get it… It tastes just like a pickle, it’s just an ugly pickle.”
As we are fully immersed in San Francisco Fall – or technically a San Francisco summer? Here at the Edible Schoolyard we are wrapping up our summer harvests of tomatoes and peppers, while also beginning first rounds of of collards. We made good use of these fresh ingredients to make collard greens for our Greens Over Grains class – a popular lesson shared with us by the broader Edible Schoolyard network. 
We also had the pleasure this month of making homemade salsa to accompany our Lettuce Leaf Tacos. With these tacos, the black beans provide a solid source of protein, and the lettuce acts as a nice substitute for tortillas while still providing that desired crunch! 
We are now seeing the beginnings of our winter vegetables, starting with our carrots. Not only did the kids enjoy wrestling these delicious roots from the dirt, but they also found a few prime examples to go along with one of our class readings for the day, “The Ugly Vegetables” by Grace Lin. 
This month we spent some time challenging youth members ideas of what certain fruits and vegetables are supposed to look like, introducing exotic heirlooms of beans, carrots and even introducing (as indicated by an opening quote) the albino cucumber. It was fun to see how the kids envisioned what a perfect fruit or vegetable looked like, and to show them that the albino pickles made from our heirloom cucumbers, tasted just as good (if not better) than the typical store-bought ones. Along with our lessons focusing on calories and vitamins, another major theme of this month was that there is more to your average vegetable than what meets the eye!
Now that we’ve peeked an interest, we hope that our members will keep exploring, both in the garden and in the kitchen.