A Lauriston Loaf?

It may be wild and windy in the garden but things are still growing. Two weeks ago we planted winter wheat. Now it has germinated. It may not look like much but with a bit of luck and some weeding we will have wheat to harvest in July. Local bakery e5 in London Fields now has a mill so with their help we should be able to mill some wheat into flour and maybe end up with a loaf of bread grown in the school garden.

These are the processes needed to turn a grain of wheat into a loaf of bread:

This is Billy Rae's picture of his wheat.

We've also been growing onions (and measuring them each week), keeping a record of the fluctuating temperatures and yesterday we chopped apples and onions to make apple chutney. It was cooked and bottled later on and will be on sale at the Winter Fair. Get there early if you want a jar.

If you want to make your own here is the recipe we used (Jojo's):

Apple chutney recipe

Makes about 5 x medium jars (350ml)

1. 5 kg apples peeled, cored and sliced

450ml distilled vinegar 

400g onion, finely chopped (2 good sized onions)

250g sultanas (you can also use apricots)

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

500g soft light brown sugar

1 tablespoon of pickling spices (a few cloves, mustard, cardomam, coriander and fennel seeds plus a dried chillie)

1 teaspoon sea salt

Prepare the apples. Put the pickling spices into square of cloth and tie up tightly. In a large pan put the onions and half the vinegar, simmer for 10 minutes then add the fruits, sultanas and ginger. Simmer until the fruits have broken down. Add the sugar, the rest of the vinegar, the bag of spices and the salt. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and then simmer very gently until the mixture thickens and starts to look jammy. You should be stirring almost continuously at the end to make sure the mixture does not catch. You will know when it is ready as the liquid on top will disappear and when you draw your spoon across the bottom of the pan you will a satisfying sizzle.

When you’re happy with the consistency spoon the chutney down into hot, sterilised jam jars (run them through the dishwasher). Leave the chutney in the cupboard for at least a month before eating. 

Apple Picking

Last week we spent some time thinking about how to get the apples out of our big playground apple tree.

This week we tried out an apple picker with a 4 metre long telescopic handle (that means it shuts up inside itself like a telescope so you can carry it around more easily). It has a soft pouch at the end, with some grabbing claws on it. We had great fun picking the apples with it. The ones we didn't eat we're going to give  to the school kitchen to make apple pie or chutney. Yummy! 

Meanwhile in the orchard some of our new little heritage apple trees have fruited! 

 We tasted some different varieties of apple and decided which ones we liked best. We recorded our favourite in our gardening books and drew some pictures of different varieties. 

On the wall of our potting shed is a new special plaque. We are very proud to have won Best Food Growing Project or Enterprise in the Hackney in Bloom awards for the second year running! 

The Old Apple Tree

There's a very big old apple tree in our school playground, just by the early years' classrooms. 

At this time of year it's full of apples. We have been talking this week about different varieties of apples and what makes them different. The apples on this tree are small and light green in colour and they are tasty - quite sweet and a little bit tangy. We have sent some off to the national fruit collection at Brogdale and they have told us this tree is probably a variety of apple called 'Greensleeves'.  They told us this apple is a cross between two varieties, Golden Delicious and James Grieve and it is good for both cooking and eating. 

The tree is so big it's difficult to get to the apples to pick them. 

If you don't pick them they fall off the tree and rot quite quickly on the ground, like this one has. 

We have been talking about ways to pick the apples without damaging them. We picked the ones we could reach. Then we tried shaking the tree and we asked some tall adults to help us pick the ones they could reach! Now we are going to have a go at designing a machine or a tool for picking and catching the apples. 

How to make sprouts in a jar

Sprout Care

Your sprout jar is like a pet. You must care for it and it will reward you by growing beautiful crunchy sprouts.

You need

1 jam jar

2 tbsp of seeds (you can use mung beans, radish sprouts, chickpeas, alfalfa)

1 circle of mesh or cheese cloth

1 elastic band

Put your seeds in the jar and cover with water.

Fix the cloth on with an elastic band.

Leave to soak. Put your jar in a quiet corner of the kitchen (not in direct sunlight).

The next morning drain off the water through the mesh/fabric. That way you don’t lose seeds. Rinse with cold water and drain again. The better you look after your sprouts the nicer they will be. Try not to leave any water in the jar. Do this every morning and evening.

On the 4^th or 5^th day when your sprouts are looking well grown move them into the light (not too direct or you may scorch your sprouts). Pull apart what you need. If you want you can float them in water to get rid of any hulls (the outside of the seed) and then drain and use.

You can use the sprouts in sandwiches or in salads. Try them with avocado or cream cheese or with grated raw vegetables in a coleslaw. Or just snack on them!

Keep some fresh in a zip lock plastic bag in the fridge (or in a bowl coverd with cling film) and bring them back next week for us to try.

Mung bean sprouts three days after initial soaking.

Elderflower cordial

The best gardening clubs are the one's which involve eating and drinking.

Last week we collected some elderflower blossoms from an elder tree growing at the back of our school orchard. We used them to make elderflower cordial and then the next week we had a picnic in the orchard. We ate our own broad beans and tried the cordial. Some people liked it but not everyone. There is still time to make your own
as the tree is in flower til the end of June. The recipe follows.

Elderflower cordial

Makes 2 litres

Ingredients

10 large or 20 small elderflower blossom crowns (early June is the time)

900g unbleached granulated sugar

2 lemons washed and sliced

25g cream of tartar

2.3 litres of boiling water

Snip off the stems and shake the flowers gently to remove any bugs. Put to one side.

Fill the kettle and bring to the boil.

Put the sugar and cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl and pour over the boiling water. Stir well then add the lemons and then the flowers.

Mix gently. Cover and leave for 48 hours. Stir now and then (about 6 times should be ok). Strain into another bowl, use a fine sieve you may need to strain it twice. Decant into clean plastic water bottles. Keep one in the fridge and freeze the rest, defrost as needed. 

Dilute to taste. Serve very cold with lots of ice.

Herb Butters

Today we had a very special guest in Gardening Club. Our wonderful school cook Sheila came to look at our herb garden and talk about ways we can use herbs in the kitchen.

 

We picked some herbs from the school garden and drew them in our garden journals. 

We used the herbs to make herb butters - when you spread herb butter on bread it gives a bit of the herb's flavour. It's delicious! 

When you've picked the herbs and washed them, you can either chop them with a knife or cut them up with scissors.

Then, using a fork you  mash the herbs into some butter. 

We made four different kinds of herb butter, chive, tarragon, rosemary and dill. 

They were all delicious! 

(Beet)roots and shoots

We're getting ready for next weekend's Chelsea Fringe event - the school garden will be open to visitors, we're selling cakes and strawberry plants that we have grown….and we're going to do some garden arts and crafts. 

Jojo's sister Katherine brought in some printing stamps of flowers, leaves and stalks that she had made. 

We used coloured inks to print with them and colour in the pictures. 

Meanwhile our beetroot seeds had sprouted and we needed to 'prick them out' - separate the little seedlings and plant them in the vegetable beds. 

The seedlings were growing quite close together, we had to really carefully separate them and plant them out in the beds, giving them enough room for their roots to grow. 

Then we gently watered them in their new homes.