Wild Gorse Flower Cakes Kids Love

Posted on June 15th, 2018 - Fiona

Clio told me back in February, as we wandered around the lake, that the bright yellow flowers on our gorse bush were edible.  I’ve been thinking about how to use them ever since. Then I saw a lovely post from Annette at Four Acorns who used them to make ice cream and I knew I had to try something. Ice cream sounded delicious but would take too long to set on an afternoon with the children here so I decided to bake wild gorse flower cakes with them instead. I tested a batch out on my own children first, and then happy that they were going to be popular with the holiday guests, I formed our afternoon activities around this idea.

We began with a walk over to the lakes where I knew there were a few bushes for us to raid. It was May and the flowers were nearly over. It was tricky to pick the flowers without getting prickled so the older children and grownups were in charge while the younger ones played on the lakeside play equipment.

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Back at the craft table with hands and gorse flowers washed the children helped me add all the ingredients into a big mixing bowl.

We divided the mixture into little cake tins and placed them in the oven.

While the cakes were cooking, the children created a little recipe cards. These had the cooking instructions and a few pressed gorse flowers.

Then they sat on our new picnic rug from Prezzybox and began to colour in the fun designs.

I think they could have been colouring away for hours if they hadn’t spotted me bringing out the trays of perfectly risen wild gorse flower cakes. I placed a plate of cooled cakes on the picnic rug and colouring pens went down as everyone tasted their baking.

I think its fair today they went down a treat. Foraging for edible flowers is a great way to encourage children on a country walk. Remember to take a container to bring your flowers home. Here is the recipe if you fancy giving it a go.

Recipe for Wild Gorse Flower Cakes 

All the fun of our foraging and baking afternoon on video

Nature appreciation discovering wild garlic and animals.

Posted on May 25th, 2018 - Fiona

In early May the farm is teaming with wild garlic. Big green leaves, white bulb roots and pretty white flowers. I was keen to run an activity hour that would take us out on a nature appreciation tour searching for garlic and making something with it. Last year we made some delicious cheese and wild garlic scones, this year I thought we’d try my super easy pasta sauce. Since I knew it was very quick and easy to make I had a couple of extra jobs on the farm for us to do with the animals, and then nature obliged with a few more so that we totally overran our time, but no one was clock watching and tummies had been filled.  

Herb Identification

We began with a little sensory game. The children each sniffed a little wild garlic, rosemary and mint and tried to say what they reminded them of. Some of the things were so funny with the likes of strawberries and honey, but I was really impressed with the little girl who said roast potatoes on smelling the rosemary. I checked with her Mum and like me she adds rosemary to roasties!

Nature Appreciation through making Wild Garlic Pasta Sauce

Having seen and smelt wild garlic we watched my little video on how to make wild garlic pasta sauce. 

Then we set off onto the farm to look for some wild garlic while Clio cooked a pan of pasta for us.

On our return we saved a little garlic to add to our recipe cards which were laminated for the children to take home then washed hands and garlic before setting to work on our sauce. The children helped me carefully chop the wild garlic including the leaves, flowers and bulbs and place them in the food mixer. Then we added olive oil and seasoning, replaced the lid and whizzed it all up.

Clio brought us out the steaming pasta and we put some into bowls with the sauce and grated cheese for the children to try. Despite the parents reservations on whether they would taste it, every child gave it a go and most really enjoyed it. Curiosity had the better of the parents and they all tried some too!  

Nature appreciation with animals.

When everyone had finished their pasta we had a few farm jobs to do.

Our first job was to release an emperor moth. I had found her sunbathing on our doorstep just before activity hour and she was sure to be trodden on merging into the paving stones so I brought her along for the children to see. Carefully we freed her onto the grass next to a bush.

Our remaining jobs needed a walk back to the farm.  Lambo needed her bottle, I had carrots ready as edible toys for the rabbits and Farmer Nick had made a sign we needed to put up to protect the nesting wild duck sitting on her eggs.  We headed off over the fields with everything we needed and stopped first to add the sign and show the children the duck. She was pretty well camouflaged and we only found her in the first place when farmer Nick nearly mowed her down cutting the lawns!

Over the bridge and a hungry lamb was waiting for us.

Jessica, Sophie and Peanut the chicks had come off the heat lamp and we moved them into a much larger home where they could roam and see the world whilst being fox proof and dry.

Finally we took our sliced carrots into the bunnies and hung them from their toy. Grabbing their treat keeps the bunnies entertained and full up!

No wonder the time ran away, there is so much to do on the farm at this time of year and it’s lovely to have the children wanting to help. You might have thought they would be worn out after all their nature appreciation and chores, but there was still time for a play in the ford on the way back. It just goes to show that nature’s playground is pretty cool too!

 

Blackberry Juice Tie Dye and Muffins   

Posted on September 1st, 2017 - Fiona

I love working with nature and when blackberry season comes around I can’t resist popping on my creative cap for activity hour.  Every year we end up baking with blackberries, whether to make crumble, ice cream or cakes. This year a friend had given me a bag of windfall apples from the garden, so I decided on blackberry and apple muffins, with tie dye experimentation to follow.

Foraging for blackberries

We began by handing out blackberry collecting trays for blackberry picking. We didn’t have to go too far and had more than enough from the hedgerows around the cottage gardens.

Preparing Blackberry and Apple Muffins

Back at the craft table we washed hands and blackberries and began peeling our cooking apple.

It took quite a time to get all the ingredients measured and mixed with my team of 14 eager helpers. We managed and with spoons and mixture in all directions enough landed in the muffin cases to go into the oven.

It would appear my own kids are not the only ones to love baking for the fight over the mixing bowl after. Spoons and sticky fingers delved in to ensure none of the mix was wasted.

Tie dye with blackberry juice

While our muffins cooked we cleared the table, washed sticky fingers and set up for a little creative tie dye fun. I had been blackberry picking in the morning and blended my foraged finds into a rich mixture and had a little test go to ensure it worked.

Happy that this was a runner with the children I brought my mixture to the table along with enough pieces of cloth for everyone to have a go. We used some of my supply of loom bands to make the ties and everyone crested their own designs wrapping the bands around the fabric.

Dipping the cloth in the blackberry dye was messy fun. I had a sheet of kitchen roll on hand to dry each one, before peeling off the loom bands to reveal the tie die cloth.

I do like foraging in autumn, maybe we will go hunting for elderflower or mushrooms next.  

Baking savoury scones from foraged herbs.

Posted on June 16th, 2017 - Fiona

I was determined to fit in a week working with herbs, and in particular wild garlic, before it was over on the farm for another year. Wild garlic has such a strong smell rather like spring onions and so useful in cooking. I had a feeling many of our children staying would not have noticed it during the week with us and so I decided on a spot of foraging for herbs and baking savoury scones as the basis for our activities this week.

Preparing to study herbs

We began by cutting up a cereal box to make a backing board for our theory work together with a clever little pouch to store the herbs we would find. Printed information sheets on each herb were stapled next to the pouch with sensory information to fill in on the herbs.

Foraging for herbs

With our work all prepared we set off in search of our herbs. The wild garlic was just at the end of flowering and having showed the children what to look for they soon came across some along the farm paths. Armed with a good bunch for everyone we headed into my garden for snippets of all the other herbs I had growing. We had 6 to collect in total and the children needed help to carry back their haul.

Making wild garlic and cheese savoury scones

Back at the craft tables we washed hands ready for cooking. I had all the ingredients for cheese and wild garlic scones. We measured, mixed and kneaded the ingredients together before cutting them into hearts and stars to go in the oven. The children were wonderful at taking turns to help at every stage.

Completing herb worksheets

While the scones cooked the children began to complete their worksheets using the collected herbs. They rubbed each herb on the page to release the smell and then wrote down how it smelt, felt and looked along with what foods it was used in. They were great at suggesting foods the herbs reminded them of.   

An educational afternoon working with herbs before making scones with wild garlic from the farm #education #farmstay #coombemill #learningbydoing #learningthroughplay #learningisfun #homeeducator #holidayfun #herbs #rosemary #wildgarlic #chives #mint #corriander #sage #countrykidsfun #adventureseekingkids #childhoodmemories #childhoodunplugged #EYFS #sensorylearning

A post shared by Coombe Mill (@coombemill) on May 19, 2017 at 11:56am PDT

Writing up the savoury scone recipe

They worked really hard and made a lovely job of completing their worksheets before moving on to recapping the recipe we used for the scones. I handing out printed sheets where the children just had to fill in the amounts of each ingredient and mount them onto coloured card of their choice decorating them with felt tip pens.

I just had time for a photo of everyone with their competed recipes and herb cards while our delicious smelling freshly baked savoury scones cooled enough to eat.  

I was thrilled that every scone was eaten with the children all tasting their hard work and the parents polishing off any going spare. I can safely say cheese and wild garlic savoury scones make a very tasty snack. This turned into a really fun and educational afternoon with even the parents learning a thing or two about cooking with wild garlic.

How to make wild garlic pasta sauce in 3 minutes

Posted on April 30th, 2017 - Fiona

Back in March I shared a clever way to keep potted herbs looking stylish on the window ledge, this month I’m sharing the easiest recipe I can think of from the clumps of wild garlic now flowering all over our farm. This wild garlic pasta sauce requires no cooking, is as versatile as any expensive garlic sauce in a tube or jar that you can buy from the supermarket and yet can be made from scratch for next to nothing in just 3 minutes; that’s a lot quicker than a trip to the supermarket when you live in rural Cornwall! What’s more it is packed with nature’s goodness and couldn’t be fresher, just the sort of instant meal you need when added to fresh pasta after a day at the beach or working here on the farm.

Ingredients for Wild Garlic Pasta Sauce

The Basics Wild garlic Olive oil Salt and pepper Fresh pasta Knife Blender
Optional Extra  Cheese Chives

Method

Put your fresh pasta on the hob to boil for 3 minutes. Meanwhile ………
	Chop a good bunch of wild garlic including roots, flower and leaves.
Place in blender.
	Add enough olive oil to make a paste consistency with your garlic, about 1/4 cup for a large bunch of garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Blend to a coarse paste consistency. You may need to stir part way through for an even texture.
	Drain pasta. Stir in sauce.
If liked grate over cheddar or Parmesan cheese and garnish with chopped chives.
	Enjoy!

After care

The sauce can be kept in a container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

A few alternatives to try

• Replace garlic butter with wild garlic pasta sauce for a tasty garlic bread.
  
  
• Fry sliced mushrooms in the sauce and serve on toast.
  
  
• Use to seal meat when making casseroles or stews.

A quick 45 second vlog on how to make wild garlic pasta sauce