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WONDERPLANTSHealthy Food

Osnovna škola Bartola KašićaVinkovciErasmus+ Young citizens of Europe – our future

April, May 2015

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Spring fatigue

• With the beginning of spring a lot of us experience spring fatigue. Our students are no exception. Spring fatigue is characterized by a state of low energy and exhaustion. One of the reasons may be that the body's serotonin or „the happiness hormone“ reserves empty out in the winter because its production depends on daylight. Another reason is vitamin deficiency since our vitamin D production also depends on daylight and the vitamin level in fruit and vegetables available in winter are not equal to those we consume in spring and summer.

• So, we need vitamins! A great source are fruit and vegetables. The problem is that fruit and vegetables available in stores may not be a good source of vitamins. We don't know how long they had been stored before they reached the stores. So, we wanted to do something different with our students – grow our own vegetables the healthy way!

• We believe that we can find „wonderplants“ in nature and use them in many different ways – as food, tea, fertilizers etc.

• We asked our students if they knew anything about wild plants. Their knowledge was scarce. They were asked to do a research - ask family members or look up on the internet and in books. They came up with several plants and their different uses. The next step was to determine these plants with the help of illustrations.

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Here is a list of books and magazines we studied.

List of references• Toplak Galle, Katja: Hrvatsko ljekovito bilje, Zagreb, Mozaik knjiga, 2001.• Martić, Ivan: Čovjek i ljekovito bilje, Zagreb, Školska knjiga, 2003.• Su Bristow:Ljekovito bilje, priručnik: Zagreb, Veble commerce, 2005.• Bruno P. Kremer: Ljekovito bilje, Zagreb, Begen d.o.o., 2007.• Marčinković, Juro: Božja biljna ljekarna, zagreb, Školska knjiga, 2001.• Theiss, Peter: Ljekovito bilje za zdravu obitelj, Zagreb, Naturprodukt, 2004.• Stangl, Martin: Vrt moj hobi, Split, Marjan tisak , 2008.• Kreuter, Marie-Luise: Bio vrt, Split, Marjan tisak, 2008.• Dubravec, Katarina-Daniela, Dubravec, Ivo: Biljne vrste livada i pašnjaka,

Zagreb, Školska knjiga, 2001.• Gospodarski list: Broj 10, lipanj 2005.( Paić, Milana: Biljne juhe za biovrtlare,

str. 45.-50.) Broj 13/14, srpanj-kolovoz 2005. (M. Kranjčević: Stolisnik- biljka velikih iscjeljiteljskih moći, str.19.) Broj 8, svibanj 2008. (Kranjčević, Marija: Mirisni cvjetovi bazge- za čaj i desert, str. 19), Zagreb, Gospodarski list

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These are the plants we chose for the spring part of the project. We believe they are „wonderplants“ since they can be used in many different ways.

daisy tratinčica Bellis parennis

dandelion maslačak Taraxacum officinale

yarrow stolisnik Achillea millefolium

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chickweed mišjakinja Stellaria media

nettle kopriva Urtica dioica

elderberry bazga Sambucus nigra

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After a very long and cold winter, our students could hardly wait to get on their bikes and head to the country. They usually don't notice the abundance of plants surrounding them. This time we wanted them to identify as many plants as possible using illustrated books about healing plants. As soon as they started looking for plants and reading about their benefits, they were astonished to see that we live in „God's pharmacy“.

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Yummy FridaySome of the plants we identified are edible, so we found some simple recipes and some students' mothers volunteered tocome to school and prepare tasty and healthy meals. That was the beginning of „Yummy Friday“.

Nettle strudelTo prepare this yummy strudel we needed eggs, thin pastry, cottage cheese, nettle leaves, salt and oil.

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Fritata with daisies

Mothers are always welcome to come and help.

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Stewed chickweed

Chickweed is full of vitamins and can also be eaten as salad.

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Yarrow spread

Some of the recipes are so simple that it was no problem for a couple of our students to prepare. For this theyneeded only French bread, cream cheese spread or butter andfinely chopped yarrow leaves. Another success!

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Fried elder flowersElder flowers and pancake batter made a very tasty school snack. Most student have never eaten it before and enjoyed it very much.

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Elder syrupElder tree was believed to keep the witches away, so, most peoplehave them in their gardens. A lot of people still make thispopular and refreshing syrup today. It's much healthier to drink elder juice than commercially available drinks full of artificial colourings and additives.We used only elder flowers, lemons and some sugar.

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Fried dandelion flowers

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We decided to dry some plants and make refreshing, healthy tea.

nettle

yarrow

elder

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Project songMembers of the school choir and orchestra wrote their own lyrics to the tune ofCarl Orff's „Ding Dong“ and it became our official project song „Vitamins“

(Give, give, give Give us vitamins Nice and healthy vitamins)

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GardenNew organic vegetable gardenFor years we have had a beautiful flower garden and with thetrend of growing one's own vegetables, we decided to start avegetable garden. In order to be eco-friendly our garden will be purely organic. A part of our gym hallway is used as a greenhouse where our students can grow seedlings. Plans will be treated with organic fertilizers and sprays.

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Organic fertilizersStudents collected plants, from which we prepared two different fertilizers. For one we used nettle leaves and the other was a mixture of three different plants – comfrey, field horsetail and shepherd’s purse.

comfrey gavez Symphytum officinale

nettle kopriva Urtica dioica

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Plants were chopped and placed in plastic containers, which were then filled with water and left tobrew for at least ten days and occasionally needed to be stirred.

field horsetail preslica Equisetum arvense

shepherd’s purse rusomača Capsella bursa-pasoris

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SprayingNettle spray can be used as an aphicide in our rose garden.

FertiliserWe use our liquid fertilisers in our flower and vegetable gardens to make ourplants grow better and improve the soil quality.