Food For Thought

Robert Burns Lunch – 25.1.22

P1-6 have been busy working away, since they came back after the holidays, organising a Burns Lunch for the whole school to enjoy.  We have all agreed that they did an amazing job and have managed what ended up being, “The best Burns lunch ever!”

The children worked hard to learn poems, songs, piano music and recorder tunes, all the while also planning for the food which we would cook and eat, as well as how we would organise the classroom and day.  The children came up with the following Scottish themed menu which they found recipes for, ordered the ingredients, prepared and cooked the food and of course helped to eat it!

Starter – Smoked salmon and homemade oatcakes with salad

Main – Haggis, neeps and tatties

DesertSalted caramel shortbread with custard

IT’S CHRISTMAS!!! – 15/12/21

It certainly is Christmas and what better way to celebrate than to do some baking!

The pupils at Stenton made some lovely sponge cakes this week and then used their amazing creative skills to decorate them.  I can’t tell you how proud I am of how positive they were approaching this task and what a fantastic job they all did! They even followed this up by using their 3D maths skills to make a box to carry their cakes home in.  What an amazing bunch!

I hope the boys girls will enjoy eating their cakes as much as they enjoyed decorating them!

Puddings! – 7/12/21

After we had cooked all the delicious dishes using pumpkins the pupils of Stenton reflected on what they would like to do next – and this is what they chose….

The class asked if they could learn to make Christmas puddings.  Having researched some recipes we found a recipe on the BBC good food website.  We liked this one because it is quite simple and we didn’t have to make it weeks and weeks in advance.  The children did a great job working collaboratively in groups following the recipes and then on Thursday 9.12.21 we were able to have a try with some amazing butterscotch sauce which P1-3 made for us.

It’s Getting Cold Outside – 9.11.21

The Stenton pupils have been researching what winter vegetables we can grow.  The internet told us that we can try carrots, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower and kale.  However the packets on these plants disagree, but we are going to give it a go anyway.  On Tuesday we all got our green fingers out and planted the seeds in trays to get them started.  We only planted half the seeds so that we can do the other half when the packets tell us we are supposed to.

We can’t wait to see what the results are!

Pumpkin’s Galore – 2.11.21

Here at Stenton Primary we have been thinking about how we can reduce our food waste.  This Halloween we therefore thought carefully about how we could use pumpkins to cook with as well as to make scary lanterns.

The pupils used the internet to source some fantastic and delicious things they could make with pumpkins (including the Kilduff Farm website).  There only challenge was that they had to make a 3 course meal and oh my did they rise to the challenge.

As well as researching the recipes and ordering the food using an online shopping website the pupils managed to make the following menu:

Starter:  Pumpkin, Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup. 

Mains:  Pumpkin and Chorizo Risotto

or

Pumpkin Frittata

Desert:  Healthy Chocolate Chip and Pumpkin Flapjacks

All the staff couldn’t be prouder – well done Stenton Primary!!!!!

Kilduff Farm – 27.11.21

P1-6 had a fabulous time at Kilduff Farm yesterday.  They were able to have a go weighing pumpkins, find out more information about pumpkins and grill Lucy with loads of questions.  They also got to use their problem solving skills to find the correct route through the maze as well as practise their throwing skills playing a bean bag game.

A huge thank you to Kilduff who offered us this opportunity completely free and have given us loads of support – and not to mention loads of pumpkins.  We can’t wait to get cooking!!!!

Pumpkins, Squash, Gourd and so much more!!! – 13.10.21

Lucy from Kilduff farm visited Stenton in our playground today to help us learn all about pumpkins.  She showed us a huge variety of pumpkins and told us all the wonderful things we can do with them.  I for one can’t wait until after the holidays to visit Kilduff Farm and get cooking with some pumpkins!  I don’t think any of us realised how diverse pumpkins can be as a vegetable.

Lovely Lasagne – 12.10.21

You may remember than at the beginning of term we made pizza using our lovely home grown tomatoes (and some bought ones) to make the sauce.  Afterwards we had lots of sauce left over and as we didn’t want to waste it we decided to pop it into the freezer for a later date.  Well this week that later date arrived.  We used the remainder of the pizza sauce to make lasagne.  This also gave us the opportunity to learn how to make a basic white sauce.  To link with our harvest theme this week we also chose to make some garlic and rosemary bread using rosemary from our garden.

The boys and girls did such an amazing job that the staff have been able to have some for their lunch.  Well done Stenton!!!

Wonderful Wheat! 1.10.21

P1-3 used scissors to harvest our wheat this morning and then we hung up the wheat sheafs to dry out in the classroom. We are investigating how we are now going to make bread with our wheat.

Soil Soil Soil – 29.9.21

James Wyllie came today and delivered lots of free soil for us.  He has filled up our planters.  Thank you James!  What a fantastic community we have the pleasure of being a part of.

We can’t wait to research what we can grow over winter and then use out hopefully successfully grown crops in some delicious cooking.

Cool Compost! – 28.9.21

Phil Lucas from the local horticultural society popped into school this afternoon to tell us all about how to compost.  He then invited us to his garden so we could have a look at his.  The children were absolutely inspired and loved seeing his garden.  We can’t wait to get composting and Phil’s garden is so amazing that all the children want to write imaginative stories about it.

Thank you Phil!!!

Herb Garden – 22.9.21

The Stenton Primary pupils worked hard this afternoon planting some herb seeds which we hope we will be able to use in our cooking.  We planted oregano, basil, coriander, chillies and thyme.

We can[t wait to see how well they grow.  They are in our green house just now but we will bring them in when the temperature drops. Hopefully next year we will be able to add them to our herb garden outside!

Apple Chutney – 21.9.21

We have been learning about how we can cook fresh food so that it will last us longer.  Today the children made some delicious chutney.  They will bring some home in the jars you all kindly sent in. I hope you enjoy tasting it!

We also have a lot of spare apples so we have sent some home with each child for them to make something for their homework – see the task on google classroom.

Apples, Apples and more Apples – oh and oats too!! – 14.9.21

We have been cooking up a storm today using our apples from Rucklaw. We have had an amazing morning with the help of Mrs Dick making apples juice, porridge (to go with our stewed fruit from yesterday), apple crumble and custard!

As you may have guessed we were all feeling pretty full by the end of the day.

Stewed Plum and Apples – 13.9.21

We had a lovely walk along to the park this afternoon to pick some our community plums and pears.  We then practised our cutting skills and popped them into a slow cooker with a few other ingredients to cook for tomorrow.  We will try our stewed plum and apples with some porridge tomorrow which we will make using oats.

Apple Picking at Rucklaw – 8.9.21

We have had an amazing morning at Rucklaw today picking apples and learning all about farm machinery.    A massive thank you to Barbara and Jim who gave us their time and their apples!

We can’t wait to get cooking with what we picked! The children have been voting on what to cook.

 Oats O’Clock – 6.9.21

Papple steading have asked Stenton Primary to help them make a film all about how oats are produced and how things have changed over time.  The children are really excited to be involved.

This week the children have made a start doing some research about oats.  They have shown what they learned about how oats are produced using freeze frames in groups.

Cooking – with our homegrown potatoes and tomatoes – 31.8.21 

This week we have been busy making homemade pizza, chips and  salad all from scratch. We planned our menu together and many of our ingredients were grown in our school garden. We made the pizza base first so that it had time to rise and then we made everything else -our pizza topping included our tasty tomatoes from the garden. The chips were made from our own potatoes which we planted before the summer holidays.

It was a great experience where we all learned skills and worked together as a team to produce a healthy, tasty meal.

Watch this space for the next Stenton Cookery School experience!

Woo Hoo! 

Mrs Wilson has been super busy buying all our new equipment for our food education.  A HUGE thank you to the parent council for giving us some money towards cooking equipment so we can cook yup a storm with all our lovely vegetables, fruit and herbs that we will be growing this year.

EXCITING TIMES!!!!

We are delighted to announce that we have received funding from Food for Thought to help develop our food education at Stenton.

Please see below for a summary of our project which was part of our funding application:

We aim to embed food education into our HWB curriculum, using IDL to form an inspiring, sustainable and progressive programme. The children will be involved in farm visits throughout the year, in planning, growing and making healthy food with a seasonal focus.  We will build on previous training and current good practices in growing and outdoor education to deliver a food programme that supports the children’s attainment across all aspects of their learning.

Growing together in a vibrant and inclusive learning community