Hanover visit to Down House, 8 June

On 8 June it was Hanover’s turn to visit the home of Charles Darwin, Down House in Kent, in a carbon-neutral coach. The children (and adults) took compostable packed lunches and a great effort was made by all to include at least 3 of their 5 a day of locally sourced or grown ingredients and to use minimum or recycled / reused containers. Lula and William won the ‘most compostable lunch’ competition.

The Edible Islington team learned about Darwin’s work on bees, pollination, worms and soil. They looked at and discussed Darwin’s kitchen garden and orchard which fed 20 people. On Darwin’s famous ‘sandwalk’ the children were asked to walk through the woodland silently and to look and think only. They wrote down questions and thoughts they had whilst on the walk (see attached). It was a terrific day with plenty of learning. A highlight for Hanover and The Garden Classroom’s Edible Islington project.


Dr Sue Johnson discusses gooseberry sizes in Charles Darwin’s kitchen garden



Elesha looks close up at the leaves in Darwin’s hedgerow



Charlotte and Rojda study seeds from Darwin’s sandwalk



Dr Sue Johnson explains layers of soil and the role of worms in aerating the soil



Taking a look at bees and learning about pollination



Hanover children look at Darwin’s kitchen garden

Edible Islington Cookery Club at Hanover Primary School

The Edible Islington Cookery Club has been a huge success so far; Nathan and Saba had some very positive feedback from not only the children participating but also their parents. It would seem that our young cooks have spoken with great enthusiasm to their parents regarding all the new skills they have learnt and are keen to practise at home under the supervision of Mum or Dad. It is also very clear that the children have really taken on board the importance of safety and hygiene in the kitchen, the pleasure and importance of sourcing local ingredients and the importance of trying new flavours before deciding whether or not they like them.

Ellie - "I never knew you could eat nettles and they actually tasted quite nice!"

We made a Spring Vegetable Risotto in Week 2 using fresh broad beans and asparagus; to this Nathan added nettles that he had picked only moments ago, with the help of some of the children, from our very own Hanover Edible Islington Garden. The children also added other herbs from the garden such as marjoram, chives and thyme.

On Local Food:

Lailaa - "If you use food that is local or grown in England and is in season then it tastes better and you don't have to use food from other countries which means that we have less pollution from the aeroplanes."

Samira - "I enjoyed using the manual chopper to chop the onions. I enjoyed tasting new things like Parmesan and Gruyere cheeses and it was really interesting to taste things separately and then combine all the flavours."

Grace - "I enjoyed all the cutting and chopping and learning new knife skills."

Katijah - "I liked everything but I really enjoyed making the Potato Latkes with a Watercress Salad. I liked the grating of the potatoes and flipping them over in the pan when they were golden. I've never had watercress before until I tried it in cookery club - it was yummy!"

Tasnia - "I enjoyed making everything but the muffins were my favourite thing to make - even the savoury ones!"

Otto - " The muffins were fun to make and I really liked the Gruyere, Sage and Onion ones and so did my Mum."

Chimene - "I enjoyed all the stirring and cooking and seeing food change shape and colour after cooking. I really enjoyed eating what we made with the rest of the class and taking some home for my family."

Danny - "I liked making the dressing with the cider vinegar and olive oil - it tasted delicious with the watercress."

Rhys - "I liked chopping and mixing and smelling and tasting."

Visit by St Jude's and St Paul's School to Down House, home of Charles Darwin, 27th May

Edible Islington pupils look at fruit trees in Charles Darwin’s orchard


Deputy Headteacher Mrs Ashwin studies an apple tree







Edible Islington pupils examine a bee colony close up


I know where the queen is!


They look for the queen bee . . .


Looking at Darwin’s gooseberries (there are over 50 varieties) close up


Edible Islington pupils listen to Dr Sue Johnson from The Charles Darwin Trust and take notes


Look what I found!


On the sandwalk at Charles Darwin’s house

Edible Islington garden

The new Edible Islington garden is created at Newington Green!


The Garden Classroom renovates an old concrete planter and plants it with an orange tree

Hanover Primary School Gardening Club in May

Harvesting radishes - our crop!


Checking the seedlings


Harvesting lettuce




Ronnie fills the watering cans


Annie says, "I just tasted a radish - it was exquisite!"

Myra Heller at Newington Green Primary School, 10th May

The children's knowledge and enthusiasm has grown along with their seeds.

Every child has their individual plants to care for, mostly tomatoes and peppers in the green house but we have also planted pumpkins, runner beans, French beans, mange tout (we ate our first one last week, it was hard to share it out to 11 children), courgettes (round yellow ones), sweet corn, lettuce, chard and carrots.

All have been watered by the water butts.

We looked at the ants trying to "farm" the aphids on our broad beans which are now at least 10cms high.

We've also been looking at ladybirds and understanding that they are NOT poisonous but beneficial.


Garden club spent almost all lunchtime pulling up hundreds of sycamore seedlings.

We have yet to do the compost properly, but the bins have been built and started.

Myra Heller at Newington Green Primary School

We have started spring term at Newington Green School and it's very exciting partly because the horrible weather is finally lifting. We have been working hard trying to clear the wildly overgrown space hidden behind the school like a secret. It's now our orchard and the children planted some baby fruit trees which was just great. We put in some pear, apples and plums. The children were thrilled to see the blossom just coming out of the buds. We talked about dormancy and why it was important to plant trees when they are asleep.

Year 3 are doing teeth in science and I have been struggling a little making the workshops relevant, apart from talking about how the nice fresh crunchy veg they're going to grow will do their teeth good! However, they have been studying ancient Romans and there has been a fantastic wealth of stuff to discuss there. Fortunately in the 'Mediterranean area' (e.g. the tubs in the playground) we just happen to have some plants that the Romans brought to Britain. So we stomped about pretending to be Centurions marching across filthy, muddy, uncivilised Britain taking with us the wondrous 'Lavare' (lavender) to keep us clean and anaesthetize our wounds.There was an olive tree so we talked about olive oil and how important it was and is as a food stuff and medicine. We looked at the fig tree and I struggled with trying to explain how it represented fertility. 'Is it a girl plant?' they asked. Also that the flower is contained inside the fruit and that it may have been the first ever plant cultivated by humans. We looked at the orange tree and I talked about citrus and that there were hundreds of kinds and tried to get them to guess some others. They got lemon and so I said it's a thick skinned colourful fruit that's very juicy inside, so they yelled out 'watermelon!'

We have planted seeds in the greenhouse: 5 kinds of tomato, yellow ones, cherry, stripy, big ones and prolific ones. Multicoloured capsicums, courgettes and sweetcorn. The broad beans we planted outside in autumn have come up but the peas died in the frost. We've just built new compost bins from recycled pallets which we have lined with cardboard that was being thrown away. We have yet to talk to the kitchens about saving peelings for the compost. Worms and compost next week and more seeds going in.