Nature Inspires - even on your dinner plate

Its only a few weeks ago that some friends and Co-Producers at our Country Market asked me if I would be interested in joining them giving a culinary workshop for children ( 8 - 12 ). Soon after this proposal we met up and discussed date/time/numbers/pricing/venue and the outline of the 5 days.
It went ahead last week and now we are looking back and agreed that all went really well, all smooth and without any major hick-ups. But most of all, the young chefs seemed to be very happy and proud and the feedback of their parents asserted us, that they were all enthusiastic about their new skills.

Jeri, originally from Oregon/US had done a lot of the preparation and on the first day she surprised all the children with their own aprons. Talented as she is, she stitched them together from a few square yards of ' blue checked gingham' and the children ( 8 girls and 2 boys ) personalized them with some fabric markers.

Our aim was to cook up everyday some favorite dishes, which the children were choosing of our program, but also intended to do gentle lecturing on food overall. There was bacon and cabbage, chicken-veggie curry, pizza from scratch ( dough/sauce and all ), a barbecue with grilled shish kebab along some super healthy salads and homemade noodles and lasange.

The children would not go home half fed without a dessert, so we had all-time favorites like waffles with homemade apple sauce, american pancakes and crepes with strawberry jam - made from Jeri and Liams own grown strawberries, cupcakes with super-creative icing, fruit pizza made from cookie dough and loads of fruit toppings, homemade lemon-lemonade and the kids all time superstar hero: 'the chunky-funky-monkey bread'.

 the chunky - funky - monkey bread 

In between the chopping, shredding, cutting, cooking, baking and eating I tried to give them some insight in basic food:

very fresh duck- and hen-eggs 

Like the magic of an egg, We had a look at a goose- duck and chicken egg, we cracked them open to learn about how does a super fresh egg looks like. So what do I have to look out for when buying eggs? Make sure that the hens are at least free-range or even organic, which should guarantee the wellbeing of the chicken, but also guarantee that you are not eating a 'chemical cocktail yoke'.

As the weather was rather wet, I went foraging on my own and gathered more then 25 different wild and cultivated herbs, but also some eatable flowers around our home. After dinner that day I had all children sitting around and we identified the herbs. We rubbed leafs between our hands and sniffled the fragrance or 'stink' and talked briefly how people used to and still involve herbs within their diet and for healing. Eating Nasturtiums-, Borage-, chives- and small Pansy-flowers was fun to. Biodiversity at its best.

We also talked about 'Fairtrade' and the importance for small farmers all over the world to get fair prices for a good product. We figured out that there are tea, coffee, nuts, grains, bananas and most of all chocolate, which carry the fairtrade label.

On our Pizza and Breadmaking Day ( everybody made their own small loaf of yeast-bread to bring home with ) we were milling our own flour with my nearly 30 year old electric grain-mill. Flour isn't just flour - there are so many different types and most of all different grains. I did bring some ancient grains like Einkorn and Emmer and also some Spelt and Rye. If you buy flour of the shelf in the Supermarket it usually has a very plain, neutral smell. Some of the children loved the scent of the milled grains, others just remarked 'it stinks' - you have to love the honesty of children.

Another interesting aspect was the production of your own noodles and lasange-sheets. Therefor everybody kneaded their own dough until it had the right consistency and put it again and again through the manual 'noodle-machine', until it was extra thin and mega long. Some were used for a broad type of noodle and the others were used within the veggie-lasagne.

We discovered that our daily food is influenced by many countries. The Italian Food like Pizza, Pasta, Lasagne is very popular, but also Curries from India and Pakistan, Crepes from France and American Pancakes from well guess where.... . There were many other countries mentioned and their traditional food - it had to be the sausages and sauerkraut for Germany, the Austrian Schnitzel, lots of cheeses for France, Hungarian Goulash, Mexican Salsas ..... .

The workshop also taught us a lot of lessons and we will review them carefully. But it also encouraged us to continue different types of workshops in the near future. Some adults already showed huge interest in those topics. So watch out for a 'reloaded' version of the kids-workshop, but also a teenage one, a student one and for sure an adult one.

Jeri, Liam and myself believe in good food: simple, seasonal, homegrown  and/or organic if possible or otherwise sourced locally. Sometimes we get carried away with so called convenient food, when we can do better, healthier and also have fun.

the daily shopping trolly

Why not pop in to Drummartin Country Market, every Saturday from 10:30 - 12:30. A great range of local organic beef/lamb, organic vegetables, local pork, jams and other preserves and homebaking by Jeri and Liam, a wide range of traditional homebaking, local honey and eggs, beautiful gifts, Anja's window pictures and recycled flowers, seasonal plants and flowers and I usually do some cavemen's bread ( ancient grains freshly milled ), goatscheese and my Mama's special recipes Tarts.

 every day there were some goodies to bring home with

See you there for a cuppa and some treats.