Chef dices and entices students with tomatoes

Florian Wehrli knows how to captivate his audiences.

The Windsor chef used three different colors of tomatoes to entice Windsor Middle School students to their taste Wednesday.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter proclaimed Wednesday as "Colorado Proud School Meal Day," and along with Wehrli, chefs around Colorado demonstrated to students, with locally-grown ingredients, on what makes a good and healthy meal or snack.

The tomato is the Harvest of the Month in the Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District and Wehrli blended together red, yellow and green tomatoes to make Vine Ripe Tomato Gazpacho Harlequin.

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders had mixed reactions to the smoothie-type drink.

"It tastes like shrimp."

"It smells weird."

"I actually like it."

"Can I have seconds?"

As some students had bitter faces and threw their cups out, others became more interested in what went into the concoction.

"It's really good," said Hannah Thornton, 11. "It tastes like tomatoes with a twist at the end."

Sixth-grader Justin Wojtysiak, 11k did not like tomatoes before trying the strange mix, but got used to the unique taste and went back for more.

"I only like tomatoes in things like spaghetti, salad and salsa," Justin said. "It kind of had a good aftertaste. It has a good ring to it."

Laura Stoneman, the school district director of nutrition services, brought the Harvest of the Month into the district because she wanted students to be introduced to Colorado farmers, become familiar with different fruits and vegetables and learn to eat them in a variety of meals. In August, student lunches incorporated more melons, and in October and November students will be introduced to meals with squash and mushrooms.

"Just being introduced to different vegetables other than what we normally eat ... maybe they will go home and asked their parents to try it," Stoneman said

Stoneman said the tomatoes were from Pope Farms Produce and Garden Center in Greeley and Loveland. She said Wehrli used those tomatoes to demonstrate unique ways to eat them.