Category: Everything!!!

Apple and berry oat crumble

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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.

Growing Garlic – Introducing Children to Agricultural Economy

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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:

Screw laziness – working hard is the only way

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When I was growing up, it was a rite of passage for children have Saturday jobs to earn their extra pocket money. But in modern times, this backbone of childhood life seemed to have been a thing of the past. I think we lose much if we do not inculcate a strong work ethic in children. Especially in this Instagram age, where many youngsters cite their ambition as “Influencer”.

But to succeed as an influencer, you have to work hard too. The hours sitting in front of the computer researching or writing thousands of emails asking for freebies, to distinguish yourself from the millions of wannabes. The glamorous photos are the tip of a very deep iceberg, and only very few get there. Most sink away in obscurity. The long and short of real life is, you have to work to get anywhere in life.

I get very frustrated when people talk big, about platforms and scaling up and making millions without the traditional hard work. Sure, in this technological age and gig economy, we no longer have to plough and till the fields to get rich, but you still have to put in the hard work and most importantly, appreciate that success does not come with the first door you knock.

I hope I have passed this work ethic on to my children – that they have to work hard for what they want in life, no shortcuts.

This morning, I sent my little cheese plant called Ellen Bella Cheese to work in a play cafe in Chobham, Surrey, to promote a book reading session that I will be doing at the cafe.

Venue: Mucky Cow Play Cafe
Address: Chobham High Street, Chobham, Surrey
Date: 10 August 2023, at 10am
Book title: Roald and the Mindful Cheese Plant

“Do bread grow on trees?”

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In developed countries, we are often far removed from the source of our food. For example, though bread is a staple in the modern diet, a large proportion of children do not know how their bread is made or exactly where the loaf comes from. 

As adults, without that basic knowledge of food, they are more likely to make bad choices. For example, a mass-produced loaf of bread is crammed with chemicals to keep them fresh longer: calcium propionate, amylase, chlorine dioxide and L-cysteine hydrochloride, to name but a few; or more familiar, fat, bleach, emulsifiers. You know these additives are not going to be good for you from their names.

Yet, the traditional bread needs only four ingredients: Flour, yeast, water and salt. It is also part of traditional country life; there is nothing more awe-inspiring than a working mill. The one at the Food Museum in Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK, has a restored mill that actually produces flour from wheat and barley grown locally.

The water mill turns the wheel which then grinds the grains down to flour. Interesting to note that the mill is spotlessly clean – as cobwebs, etc, are a fire hazard. I was also most interested to hear that the miller has to use all his senses to ensure that the millstones don’t rub against each other, which will cause fire. It is indeed skilled work, when done traditionally.

Photo below: the dreamy water mill that turns the wheel:

And here’s making bread the traditional way: minimal unprocessed ingredients, kneaded and shaped into hedgehogs. It’s a fun and wonderful educational activity for children of all ages!

FUNDING GOAL REACHED (and more!)

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Dear backers and supporters,

Firstly, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for believing in what I do. Many of you do not even know me personally, yet you contributed to this campaign simply because you believed. It is not so much about raising the £2000 campaign target, but all about building a global e-community from scratch, with the people who genuinely want to grow plants, grow children and grow kindness. 

This campaign is a story about real people who make the world a better place. I would like to introduce you to Lisa Skraba, who reached out to a total stranger (me), with her cheque book and an offer to help my campaign, simply because she believed. 

Lisa herself is a talented writer and a very kind person. Her girls sold Christmas cactus cuttings that they nurtured to buy books to donate.

And this is me:

I am happiest when I am in my wellies and old clothes, gardening. Please stay in touch. Pop over to my book page and follow my blog. Sign up for my humble little catalogue (if you have missed out on ordering the books on Kickstarter), book me for a children’s gardening workshop, and more!

My latest blog posts – Of Children and Unloved Things and Sowing in July

To sign up for my blog, click here. 

The books and posters will now be printed by a local printer and posted to you. For those of you who purchased the e-book version, your copy will be winging its way to you in the next three weeks – please feel free to gift the e-book to as many people as you wish. Please share this message as widely as possible – be the enabler breeze that carries seeds x

In gratitude, Jacqueline

(card available for sale from cheeseplantbooks)

Ugly ostrich?!

On By bumblebee3londonIn Everything!!!, WhimsyLeave a comment

Here’s a cultural thing: I am Asian, and (I am generalising here) we Asians often say our kids are ugly, stupid, naughty, etc, in a self-deprecating way. I am not sure of the origin of this practice but I am quite sure it is something to do with humility and ensuring children don’t get big-headed. Westerners are rather disapproving about this – after all, we must fill a child’s head with positive self-affirmations.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to read the title of this book, Pudge Amazon and the UGLY OSTRICH. Eh, ugly? You could say ostriches are ugly – gawky long legs, awkward neck, bug eyed, bad skin – but you have to admit, they could be endearing. But this ostrich statue in a school got vandalised (maybe someone didn’t like the ugly ostrich and try to prettify it) and Pudge got the blame!

This is a charming whodunit about Pudge who tries to solve the mystery and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. You can buy this book here.

Of children and unloved things

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This poem, by Nicolette Sowder, is among my favourites:

The sentiment in this poem is achingly beautiful, for the world needs more kind people who will speak for those without a voice, champion those who need strength, sit with the lonely, and love the unloved things. The future of our planet depends on that to combat the rising tide of greed and the empty culture of more, more, more.

When you garden with your child, you teach them the very values in Sowder’s poem. When you relocate snails away from your lettuce patch (instead of killing them with slug pallets), when you build bug hotels, when you pay attention to leaves that are whispering to you that they are dehydrated/hot/over-watered, you are imbuing something precious in their young, absorbent hearts. And indeed, living in full awareness is a marvellous gift.

This is Girlie, a variegated cheese plant, who is feeling overwhelmed, because we had visitors staying over and lots of young people coming over:

Living in full awareness leads to fuller, more fulfilling inner lives. For example, have you ever walked past a patch of wildflowers and wondered who planted them? Was it council workers, birds or were the seeds carried by the wind? So many people walk straight past some of the most beautiful flowers you’ll ever see on this planet, oblivious to their delicate, natural beauty.

Last weekend, I walked past a stall selling plants. “£1,” the lady said, “It’s a Brahma Kamala.”

As a student of Sanskrit and author of Live Patanjali – Yoga Wisdom for Everyday Living, I am familiar with Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. So for £1, I brought this little plant with an impressive name home and learned something new about this plant, which lit a little light within me as I learned a little bit more about the magical world we live in.

If you are interested in learning how to get children started on gardening, please visit this page: The Handbook for Budding Little Gardeners contain all the know how you need to get started.

If you would like something to read, do consider this book. It is about why unloved things need to be loved.

You can purchase this book from Chelsea Green Publishing. Here’s an article from The Guardian is worth a read. Next time I’m doing a school talk, I’ll definitely bring a slug!

And here’s me relocating snails from my herb box into the compost heap, or sometimes, into the sheep farm where they will have a nice life munching grass with the sheep!

(Main photo used with permission from Creative Commons)

Growing Kids Who Garden

On By bumblebee3londonIn Everything!!!, NEW PROJECTSLeave a comment

In the spirit of the old adage, “A picture speaks a thousand words”, I would like to share this picture with you:

I was at the London Permaculture Festival last weekend, and it was truly wonderful to see children being ‘free range’, learning about chickens, composting, bee-keeping, and lots of cool stuff to build a greener, kinder and more sustainable planet.

The folks from the Seed Saving Network was handing out free seeds and I came home with hollyhock as well as callalloo (never heard of them before) seeds:

This is the whole ethos behind this Kickstarter campaign: it is not to raise £2000, but to engage children in gardening during this year’s summer holidays. There is a whole tribe of us doing this already – please join us and be part of the movement!

The best thing is, you don’t need a garden to start gardening. Here’s the baby carrots I am growing on my dining table!

In this book, you will learn how to grow vegetables from the bits that you would normally throw away.

Please support this Kickstarter campaign. £5 gets you the e-book that you can gift as many people as you wish. By sharing this email, you are helping the campaign massively to achieve its goal. Please click on this link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cheeseplantbooks/handbook-for-budding-little-gardeners?ref=user_menu

Please join this movement!

This is the book website: Handbook for Budding Little Gardeners

Lessons in the garden

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There are so many things children can learn from observing plants and getting actively involved in their care. Because after all, as someone said, human beings are plants with my complex emotions.

It’s also an emotionally safe learning place for children to tackle difficult, traumatic topics such as death. I recently made this short video clip.

But here’s something relevant for everyday life: you can see the cheese plant named Stanislaw curiously reaching down to check out a new friend that is very different from him. Isn’t that what we should be teaching children? To be curious, to learn outside the classroom, and most of all, not to be afraid of differences?

Check out cheese plant books.

Kickstarter: End of the week update

On By bumblebee3londonIn Everything!!!, NEW PROJECTSLeave a comment

Hello backers and supporters,

Hope this newsletter finds you well. First week into Kickstarter and here are the exciting news!

Good news is that this project earned the Kickstarter ‘Project We Love’ badge, which means that the campaign is clear, well-crafted and transparent! Hopefully, being featured by Kickstarter means that this project will reach its modest funding goal of £2,000.

Why Kickstarter?

I spent most of last week explaining to people what Kickstarter is. No, it is not me asking folks for donations to realise my dream of getting this book out there. Kickstarter is mainly a pre-order system; that is to say, checking if a book has traction before printing it.

It is about building a community

Supporting this project (£5 for the e-version of the Handbook) is something that brings people together to start a community of Budding Little Gardeners. With that in mind, I put up a stall outside my house last week to give away rescued plants and plant cuttings, homemade organic compost and recycled plant pots. So please consider investing in the e-book, which you can gift as many times as you want.

This Kickstarter campaign is about giving others the chance to shine too

I have been working with a talented Argentinian watercolour artist, Vivs Moyano, who lives in Peru (like Paddington Bear) who designed this absolutely gorgeous large poster which will be part of the Kickstarter rewards package.

Vivs started being an artist at the age of 30, having worked in business management. But she had a huge anxiety problem and could not even leave her house. She started painting to help her get through her anxiety and is now a full-time illustrator. Her crusade is to help spread awareness on mental health, self-love and being passionate about your hobbies. That’s why she put so much love into this poster, which will be yours with the Kickstarter rewards.
Vivs’ website is: https://saironwen.wordpress.com/

Please share this green message please

See the £5 e-book as a lifelong induction to a meaningful movement. I am sure you know friends with children and families who will benefit from this ‘membership’. 

Buy one e-book and gift it to as many people as you wish.

Ready?

Let’s GROW something together now

ACTION!