This week our guest writer is Natasha Soares. Natasha is a Local Greens board member, has done her time in the packing shed and set up our ultra local salad project. She is now introducing children to the joys of vegetable growing through Forest Schools Association and running her own gardening business and pear orchard.
I grow food with children for lots of reasons, but one is because it might just plant the idea that food can come from a relationship between nature and themselves. That one of the basic necessities of life does not have to be mediated through the big businesses that supermarkets are. Of course it is also fun – I still get excited when seeds germinate (don't get out much) and it's great to see children share that excitement.
It never ceases to amaze me that many children are genuinely surprised that you can grow something to eat starting with just a seed and some soil. And that sunshine, rain and watering do the rest. Children love eating fresh peas, carrots and strawberries so I always plant those in a school. However, if they have participated in growing them, children also like to eat broad beans, spinach, radishes and onions. Herbs to smell and taste are always popular, so fennel, lemon balm and mint are firm favourites. Edible flowers please everyone – I always grow calendula – French marigold - and nasturtiums.
Introducing the school garden to the school cook is always helpful. Recently it was “Rocket Month” in one of the schools I work in; we had a flourishing bed of the stuff that the cook hadn't noticed. She didn't have to buy any more in for that month, and children got the benefit of a very freshly picked item on the school menu. That same cook has also saved money using the ongoing chard crop instead of spinach in her recipes.
It's often difficult to engage already overstretched staff in maintenance, so it's a good idea to have some really low effort food plants. My top tip here is to plant fruit trees. Children and adults love the blossom in spring and then observing the ripening of the fruit over the spring and summer. June drop (where baby apples fall from the tree as a kind of natural thinning) also provides lots of excellent ammunition for playground antics...