In autumn, apples abound in back gardens and community orchards and berries are popping out profusely. This is a wonderful, simple recipe to get young children to start on the wholly satisfying journey of cooking and eating the food they grow or forage. 

NOTE: If you live in a country where you can’t access apples and berries, you can use local soft fruits. Bananas and dried raisins (soak the raisins in orange juice overnight) is a good combination, or pineapple with brown sugar.

How to make Apple & Berry Oat Crumble

Heat the oven to 190C/170 fan/gas 5

Core and slice about 1/2 kg of Bramley apples (you could remove the skin if you wish). Add in a handful of berries and 3 tbsp golden caster sugar. Put in a 23cm round baking dish at least 5cm deep, or a 20cm square dish. Flatten down with your hand to create a firm base.

For the crumble, this is what you need:

• 100g plain flour 
• 50g rolled oats
• 100g butter, cut into cubes
• 50g golden caster sugar

This is the fun bit: put all ingredients into a large bowl and crumble with your fingers until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. It is a fab sensory experience for kids to be squelching butter!

Spread the crumble mix evenly over the fruits.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden and the fruits (especially the apples) feel soft when you insert a small knife. Leave to cool a bit before serving.

This afternoon, I was planting garlic into compostable cups for the Permaculture Festival on September 23rd and 24th in Lambourne End. The garlic seed I was planting were organic garlic from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight that are specially for planting (Gardeners’ World recommends not using supermarket garlic for planting). I put four cloves into each pot. Each clove will grow into a plump, juicy garlic bulb that contains 8-9 cloves each.

As I was planting the garlic, I thought to myself, what a wonderful business model for a young child to learn about the agricultural economy: I am selling each pot for £2.50 which has 4 cloves (probability that at least three will grow), which means that come harvest time, the £2.50 investment will turn into 3 garlic bulbs, each containing an average of 8 cloves. Thus, for an investment of £2.50, you will get 24 cloves which will, when planted, yield 24 garlic bulbs.

The lessons from that growing that £2.50 pot garlic for the budding little gardener is manifold: doing the maths, looking after plants, planning ahead and of course, empowering them to play a real, active role in the economy.

How to Plant Garlic

1. When choosing the garlic to plant, choose firm, tight, heavy, dry bulbs. And remember, do not plant supermarket garlic, as advised by the experts.
2. Separate the bulbs out into cloves. Be careful not to damage the cloves. 
3. You can either sow directly into the soil, or in my case, into compostable cups. When planting into the ground, make sure that they are at least 6 inches apart.
4. If planting in containers (such as compostable cups) fill the container with good quality compost. Press the garlic clove in, skinny side up. Cover with 1 inch of soil.
5. In the UK, the best time to grow garlic is late autumn/ winter.

Lots of sun + good soil + space = good garlic!

Advice from the Garlic Farm: