Every month UC CalFresh provides teachers with healthy foods to taste test with their students as part of our "Tasting Time" program. We also send newsletters for parents along with the tastings.

Can you guess what this Muir preschooler drew to show her parents what she tasted in class today?

That's correct, a round, orange, Fuyu persimmon!

Great use of the Tasting Time parent newsletters Muir!

UC CalFresh provides a "2-bite" taste of a new food for each student to try every month. This month's tasting is: Fuji apples and Granny Smith apples.

There are so many varieties out there for students to try. Apples cost about $0.55 cents each, or $1.69/lb and can be found at all grocery stores.

It's apple tasting time!

If you haven't already received it, your cutting board is on the way! Your apple kit will include two kinds of apples, and two plastic knives (just in case one breaks.) Your kit will have your name on it, and should be located in your cafeteria refrigerator. It'll look like this:

Tasting Time Kit

Don't miss out on the opportunity to discuss fractions, and guess how many seeds each apple has! This is also a great opportunity to discuss edible plant growth. Your UC CalFresh curriculum provides information on how our food grows. You can also watch a video on our website.

Don't forget to discuss apple seeds

Ok, let's get started preparing our apples! Remember, apples brown pretty quickly after slicing. Plan to serve apples immediately after slicing them into pieces.

Apple preparation steps:

***After washing, apple slicing will take about 5-10 minutes.

1) Wash cutting board with dish soap and water. Rinse clean.

2) Rinse apples off under clean, running water. (Apples can be rinsed ahead of time, but try to use them within a few days of rinsing)

For best results, rinse in cool water

3) Grab a few paper towels, as slicing apples can get a little juicy!

4) Start by slicing the apple into fourths, around the core.

Slicing apples: one side at a time

Slice apples into four large pieces

5) Next, slice those fourths in half, or into thirds---like so:

Slice 4ths down into 3rds

6) Slice those thirds in half.

Chop, chop, chop!

7) One apple yields about 16 bite-sized pieces. Three apples yield about 48 pieces.

One apple yield

3 apples yield about 48 pieces

Enjoy your tasting time! Let us know which variety students like the most!

Well folks, the yellow tomatoes are getting ready to head to Fresno County classrooms!

We took a sneak peak this afternoon. Those golden beauties will be in route first thing tomorrow morning, arriving at Fresno Schools before 9a.m.

Wednesday morning all schools outside of Fresno Unified will receive their Tasting Time kit.

Here they are ready to be re-packaged

They will come in boxes like this, labeled with "Tasting Time" on the exterior of the box.

Label on exterior of box.

Bags inside the box will have enrolled teachers names on them.

Your classroom label will be on your bag of tomatoes.

Let us know how students like the tasting!