We believe that eating and cooking together as a family is essential for children to develop a lifelong happy, healthy relationship with food, ingredients and where they come from.
Spring, with its new life and promise of summer ahead, is the perfect time to spark children’s imagination as lambs appear in the fields, bulbs and spring flowers poke their way through the soil and seeds are sown for summer vegetable crops.
Our Head Market Gardener, Jez, suggests planting big seeds such as peas, mangetout or sugar snaps in recycled food containers with your children – placed on a windowsill they germinate quickly and each day brings visible new growth.
For inspiring a love of food, The Cookery School is our favourite place to start. Many of their classes include a tour of our 25-acre organic Market Garden, explaining how over 300 varieties of vegetables, fruit and herbs are grown. Children have the chance to get their hands dirty, harvesting produce which they take back to the kitchen to turn into delicious dishes.
So often we find children love their parents to join in the fun and share their wonder, which is why we run Cooking Together classes for the whole family on Mothering Sunday and over Easter. Everyone gets hands-on in the kitchen, enjoying a wonderful meal together, without having to worry about washing up!
For ideas to inspire your children in the kitchen and start them on their cookery journey take a peek at our First Steps in the Kitchen guide below.