Sampling the fruits of their green labours

Sep 11 2008 by Michelle Coyle, North Wales Weekly News

CRAIG-Y-DON pupils sampled the fruit of their labours with lunches harvested from their own allotment.

Headteacher Marc Hughes said his pupils were amazed to see how much their organic garden had flourished while they were away for the summer.

Marc said: “We had a wonderful lunch on Friday using our homegrown organic vegetables including potatoes, cucumber, lettuce, tomatos, peas and runner beans.

“We still have a lot left over and are looking forward to trying our marrow, butternut squash and courgettes in the coming days. The children are not usually so keen on eating vegetables, but because they had grown them themselves they were very keen to try everything and were even coming back for seconds.

“Our after-school cookery club will be making vegetable soup from what the youngsters have grown.

“We started work in our allotment in Easter and it has had a really good effect on the children. The allotment provides many curricular uses from cookery lessons to biology and practical gardening skills. We hope to develop the use of the allotment for other subjects too, such as maths to help with measuring and numerical skills.”

Even the teachers appeared to have learned something from the allotment at Ysgol Craig-y-Don: “We didn’t realise that you get male and female cucumbers. The male ones aren’t very nice at all, they’re quite sour! We will have to brush up on our biology there!

“I hope our success in our allotment, despite the best attempts of slugs, will inspire other schools to start similar projects.”

School cook Vivienne Williams was pleased to see pupils’ enthusiasm for their greens.

Vivienne said: “They were definitely a lot more keen knowing they had grown the vegetables themselves. We had a very jolly atmosphere at lunchtime.

“We have always had healthy meals at Ysgol Craig y Don, well before Jamie Oliver came along. Fresh fruit is always available and chips are only served once every three weeks. I often look down at what’s available and think I’m working in a fancy restaurant!”