Sow ideas and watch them grow
Get your children interested in growing and cooking their own food with the help of authors Ghillie James and Julia Parker
The Little Grower’s Cookbook is aimed at children aged between four and 12 years and it shows how to play and experiment with nature’s bounty. Repurposed and recycled materials are at the heart of projects and all the activities are environmentally friendly. For example, one of the garden projects reuses an old hessian bag for life as a herb planter. In another, egg shells are used to sow cress seeds. Fun projects include ideas like creating little pots of sunshine (planting flower seeds in homemade pots); magical flower potions (creating your own flowerscented water); hosting a butterfly banquet to planting your own packed lunch or building a bug hotel.
And you don’t need a big garden or big budget to teach and inspire children to look at what’s around them in the natural world.
Messy tart
This free-form tart works with all sorts of seasonal fruit combinations: peach, pear or plum slices, raspberries, stoned cherries or, as below, rhubarb, strawberries and blueberries.
Serves six
For the pastry
180g plain flour or a mix of half spelt and half plain flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
120g cold butter, cubed
110g full fat cream cheese 2 tablespoons iced water
For the filling
200g rhubarb, cut into inch-long pieces
275g strawberries, leafy tops removed, and halved
100g blueberries
1 tablespoon cornflour (or 2 level teaspoons for non-juicy fruits such as rhubarb, stone or orchard fruits) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or the scraped seeds from half a vanilla pod 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons ground almonds 1 heaped tablespoon flaked almonds 1 small egg, beaten
1 Put the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt into a food processor and whizz for 5 seconds. Add the butter and spoonfuls of cream cheese.
2 Pulse for 10 seconds or until it looks like crumbs. Add the water and pulse until it forms a dough. Pour onto a large piece of non PVC cling film and press into a ball. Wrap and freeze for 15 minutes to chill it quickly.
3 Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/ Gas Mark 6.
4 Mix together the fruit, cornflour and vanilla and set aside.
5 Put a large piece of baking paper onto the work surface, then sprinkle with the flour. Unwrap the pastry and put into the centre of paper. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry and roll out to a large thin circle 5-7mm thick. Move the pastry and its paper onto a flat baking tray. Spoon the ground almonds onto the pastry and spread out until about 5cm from the edge. Heap the fruit on top of the almonds. 6 With the aid of the baking paper, pull up the sides of the pastry to hug the fruit and stop it falling out. Don’t worry if the pastry has to fold over itself. Brush the pastry with beaten egg then stick the flaked almonds to it, patting them on with your fingers.
7 Bake for about 40 minutes or until the pastry is brown and cooked all the way through. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or custard.
Rainbow rolls
Rice paper wrappers start off crisp, but as soon as you dip them in water they soften. You can fill the soaked wrappers with all of your favourite veggies and herbs, and if you like, add some thin cooked rice noodles, chopped chicken, sausage or prawns. Be as adventurous as you dare! Makes six long rolls, which you can cut in half
25g rice vermicelli noodles (optional)
6 spring roll rice wrappers such as Blue Dragon, found in larger supermarkets a selection of your favourite veggies cut into fine strips or grated, such as cucumber, carrot, red pepper, apple, avocado, sweetcorn, tomato, lettuce or radish, plus, if you like, finely shredded chicken or sliced cooked prawns
1 tablespoon fresh mint and/or coriander, roughly chopped 1 tablespoon chopped roasted peanuts, optional
For the mild chilli dipping sauce
1 lime, juiced
3 teaspoons mild runny honey 1½ tablespoons rice wine vinegar 1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
½ red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
For the peanut dipping sauce 90g crunchy peanut butter 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar 1½ tablespoons soy sauce ½ garlic clove, crushed ½ teaspoon grated ginger 3 tablespoons coconut milk or water 1 tablespoon runny honey
½ lime, juice only
1 Form a line of little bowls containing the filling ingredients you have chosen. If you are using noodles, put them into a bowl and cover with boiling water, leave for 4 minutes, then drain, before cutting with scissors into easy to pick up clumps.
2 Follow the instructions on the packet for soaking the wrappers. Usually this is just dipping the wrapper in a shallow bowl of warm water. Once soft, place the wrapper on a board in front of you. Choose from the ingredients, placing small mounds onto the wrapper in a line. Once you have filled the rolls, just pull up each side to cover each end and roll the wrapper and its fillings very tightly. Cut each roll in half and store between lettuce leaves until ready to eat.
3 For the dipping sauces – choose both or just one. Simply stir the ingredients together in a small bowl. For the peanut sauce, add 1-2 tsp water so that the sauce isn’t too thick. The sauces will keep in the fridge for up to a week.
4 To serve, place the rolls on a big plate with the sauces on the side for dipping.
Gardener’s cake
A delicious and beautiful cake. Don’t be put off by the use of parsnip – this honestly tastes like carrot cake! Makes one 8 inch/20cm cake, 10-12 slices
120g finely grated parsnip (peeled and trimmed weight)
120g finely grated carrot (peeled and trimmed weight)
120g peeled, cored and grated eating
apple (about 1 large or 2 small apples)
50g pecans or walnuts, chopped 150ml mild oil such as rapeseed, sunflower or vegetable
100g coconut sugar or soft brown sugar
100ml maple syrup
4 eggs
1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice 250g wholegrain stoneground spelt flour
4 level teaspoons baking powder
For the icing
175g slightly softened butter 225g full fat cream cheese
3-5 tablespoons mildly flavoured runny honey or maple syrup
To decorate
Edible flowers and herbs such as lavender, roses, borage, nigella, mint, rosemary, nasturtiums, viola, cornflowers or fresh blueberries
1 Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/ Gas Mark 3.
2 Grate the vegetables and apple and mix together, with the nuts, in a bowl. 3 Put the oil, sugar, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla and orange juice into a mixing bowl and whisk well for a minute or so.
4 Add the grated vegetables, apple and nuts and using a large metal spoon, fold in.
5 Sieve over the flour (you will need to add the grainy bits back into the bowl once sieved), 2 pinches of fine salt and the baking powder. Using the same spoon, gently fold in until just combined.
6 Spoon into a greased and lined deep, loose bottomed 20cm cake tin (or a silicone cake tin).
7 Bake for 55 mins-1 hour or until cooked through (push a skewer into the centre of the cake – if it’s cooked it will come out clean). If it’s not quite done, simply return to the oven for an extra 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and after 5 minutes cooling, turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
8 Whisk the butter and cream cheese until smooth then whisk in 3 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup. Add extra if you like it sweeter.
9 Cut the cake in half horizontally (into two layers) then spread over a heaped tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Put the cake back together and transfer to a plate.
10 Spoon the remaining icing on top of the cake and carefully smooth over the top and sides. Note: for a more professional look, spread over half of the icing first then chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before spreading over the rest. (The first layer is the crumb coat which covers the cake and any crumbs).
11 Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, then decorate with herbs and edible flowers and their leaves or blueberries. This cake will keep in the fridge for two days, just bring up to room temperature before serving.