Safe cooking with children

I've been helping children learn how to cook simple, healthy foods in after school cooking clubs. One thing that crops up is helping children develop skills in using kitchen implements safely and effectively. 

One thing I've learnt is that using proper equipment is much safer than equipment that is "for children".  A good, sharp kitchen knife is better than a blunt "safer" one as children can cut without straining and pressing hard which is much more likely to lead to slips and cuts. I've found that children seem happier using a knife with a serrated edge as this gives a better grip when cutting. 

Having effective ways of explaining something is at the heart of helping people to learn new things. I found "the claw" and "the bridge" good ways to explain how to cut safely. The picture is a great example of "the claw" with the fingers holding the tomato well away from the blade. 

"The bridge" involves holding something between thumb and forefinger to make a bridge and the knife cutting down between them. 

But we haven't got a garden

Many schools lack green space to use for gardening and may be reluctant to give over what there is for growing.  However, you can still do a lot in by using a variety of planters and pots.

The ground here at Armitage was largely rubble and hardcore with a little poor quality soil.  The school laid weed suppressing fabric over it and then added a layer of chipbark several years ago.  We used a mixture of old wooden planters, conventional garden pots, an old water butt that had leaks cut in half and some pallets stacked up to make an insect hotel. It needs more watering and compost adding than planting into the ground would, but it works well.

Shock news: school cooking that is not Corn Flakes cakes

At Armitage I run a cooking club after school where we make healthy, affordable food (and the children do the washing up). This term we made, for example, hummous, tzatziki, French bread pizza and omelettes. The children invite their parents in at the end to sample what they made which is a nice oppportunity for the cooks to show off and for everyone to sit down and share some food.  Too much school cooking is focused on sugary cakes, a shame when we have a growing health crisis and cheap, healthy food is easy to make.

Saving pea seeds

You always miss a few peas and end up with some that dry out on the plant. It's a nice job to collect these, shell them and keep them for planting. It also demonstrates the life cycle of plants. We planted these straight away in July and had peas when we came back to school in September.

Pea maths

Just when the gardening group think they've got our of doing maths, it's pea maths time! Planting seeds is a nice opportunity for children to practice counting, do some multiplication and division.

Planting a forest

We've just finished planting 400 trees at Armitage on the school grounds. Children from Nursery to Y6 were involved. We're hoping that the trees will help to reduce air and noise pollution from the nearby main road as well as improving the view, providing a wildlife habitat and an area for children to explore.

Schools can get free trees from The Woodland Trust and it's a really simple matter to plant them: dig hole, put tree in hole. A great job for a sunny winter day.

Armitage insect houses

We made these fine looking insect houses at Armitage. Two Y6 boys did all the work, cutting the frames to size, filling them with different materials and then adding some wire mesh to hold everything in. It took a while but the results were worth it.

Collecting sunflower seeds

A great autumn activity is to collect seeds from plants that have finished growing. Here is part of a sunflower head we grew at Armitage. You can also do this with peas, beans, rocket, radish and many flowers. The trick is to leave the seeds to dry on the plant and only take them when the frosts are about to start.

Picking the seeds out is a really nice, quiet, therapeutic activity. A colleague at Armitage thinks it should be reserved for the adults in the school!

Beautiful peas

This was just the perfect pea pod we picked today at Armitage. Peas are a lovely thing to grow in schools, easy and reliable and virtually all children will eat them. Mange tout are also easy to do and you can get all kinds of interesting varieties, we've got some purple podded peas on the go at Armitage. At the end of the growing year let a few pods stay on the plant to dry out and you've got next year's seeds plus a real life illustration of the plant life cycle.

Autumn is time for .... planting trees and shrubs

Another good autumn activity is to plant trees and shrubs. I've been planting fruit trees with several schools.

At Armitage we were given some bamboo and holly by a parent who works at a garden centre. We weren't quite sure what to do with them. Then the School Business Manager said that people were jumping over the short fence in the car park to make a short cut to the entrance. So, Reception children have created an obstacle which is working so far.

Planting these was relatively easy. Dig hole, put tree in, fill hole and tread on the soil to firm the plant in.  A good activity for a cold day.

Autumn is time for .... bulbs

The autumn term is not a great time for planting but you can plant bulbs that will flower in the spring. They are easy to plant but a bulb planter really helps. These pull out a plug of soil leaving a hole into which you place the bulb. You can then simply drop the soil back into the hole. Much easier than using a trowel and if the soil is soft enough, Nursery children can do a perfectly good job with these.

Bulbs will grow in planters,in the soil and many will do perfectly well planted in small pots. Children love to plant one in a pot and take it home for the window sill.

Things to do with old pallets, part 73

Old pallets are great. At Armitage we experimented with creating a planter to put along the Nursery fence. It provided an opportunity to use a range of tools, develop some new skills and produce something that looks really good.

We lined the pallet with thick plastic sheeting and filled it with compost. We're going to plant climbers such as clematis or runner beans in it.

Potatoes in a bag

If you haven't got space to grow potatoes in the ground or in a raised bed, then you can always grow potatoes in a bag or sack. You can use an old compost bag, put some compost in the bottom, add the potatoes and fill the bag half full. Top the bag up with compost when the leaves appear.

Children in the Nursery at Armitage put 3 seed potatoes in a large plastic bag and we got a good crop. They loved digging up the potatoes.

First strawberries of the year

Strawberries are great for school gardens, after the first year! Put in half a dozen plants, everyone gets really excited but you don't get much of a crop in the first summer. However, the plants make babies, about 5-6 each, and really start producing from the second year on. And who doesn't want to eat fresh strawberries?

Tools and children

Some people start to get worried when children and sharp things come into close contact but I'm all for helping children learn how to use things safely. Some cultures just let kids loose with machetes and knives from an early age but I do like a bit more control than that.

I've had overwhelmingly positive experiences of showing people how to use tools and then supervising them closely while they do it themselves. A colleague at Armitage primary likes to say how children whose behaviour is often pretty poor in the classroom suddenly become little angels when they have control of a dangerous tool, probably out of fear of having it taken away from them. One of the best users of a pruning saw I've seen is a 11 year old girl from Slovakia who maintained her grandmother's apple tree back home.

For me the golden rules are: make sure they understand where the dangerous bit is, show them how to use it safely, ensure they can actually use the tool properly and then stay with them to spot any danger signs. 

Harvest time

It's been a l

It's been along cold spring so things are a bit late and I was getting worried that we might go into summer holidays before we were able to harvest things. Fortunately the Armitage garden has perked up with the recent sunshine for a nice crop of strawberries, herbs, broad beans, peas and radishes. Interestingly the club members are crazy for fennel and broad beans (not together).

We've been cooking the broad beans in the staff room microwave, toss in a bit of butter and herbs and they've really enjoyed them. One of the group told me she is now asking her mom to buy broad beans and they're eating them at home for the first time.

Willow stars

When it's too wet to go outside, there's lots you can do in Gardening Club. We tried using some stems cut from the willow walk at Armitage to make willow stars. It's not the easiest thing to do but it felt good when we eventually succeeded!

Bean hair and bean moustaches

It was time to pull down the runner beans at Armitage as we want to save some of the beans for planting next year and we don't want them to get frost damage. The Gardening Club found there are more uses for beans than I realised.

We picked most of the beans quite young but left a few pods to dry out so the beans inside get nice and hard. We'll store these over the winter. You can also cook them like you would any dried bean.

Harvest time ... garlic

We lifted the garlic at Armitage that we've grown in a large planter among the flowers. The children then plaited the bulbs together to dry. We thought we've have to show them how but we found that one of the group could do it in a blur!

Full of beans

I like beans and broad beans are great for growing at school: reliable, look good and taste good. With Miss Dawson's microwave cooking skills we were able to go from plant to plate in about 5 minutes. A few herbs from the garden and a bit of butter ... mmmm.