Grow Around The World - Spring 2015
Grow Around The World
Sow it. Grow it. Share it! - Spring 2015Imagine a place full of exotic flavours, taste and smells. Join us for a London schools’ celebration of food from around the world. Learn how to Grow Your Own food - from Africa to the Caribbean, and India to East Asia. Then cook and share your delicious home-grown cuisine with your friends, school and community.
Why Grow Around the World?
From history and geography, to science and maths, let food open up a world of learning. Grow Around the World is a celebration of London’s food culture. Students can discover, grow and taste exotic and unusual food, uncover the real origin of many traditionally ‘British’ crops, sow new varieties of seed, learn from their diverse local community, and eat, cook and share food grown together.
Free activity pack!
Register for our free E-newsletter to be the first to hear, by emailing - and we will send you lots of advice, competition and training opportunities for your school.
Download and print Grow Around the World A5 flyer (low res)
How to: Grow Your Own unusual fruit and vegetables
Learn to grow and cook exciting and unusual new crops in your school:
- Oca - a very popular South American potato-like crop also used in New Zealand. Order FREE tubers to help your school get started. (Real Seed Catalogue)
- Callaloo - an amaranth which has leaves like spinach, and edible seeds often used in West Indian recipes. (Chiltern Seeds)
- Chickpeas - grown on a bush in pods. Can be added to curries, soups and stews, 'sprouted' for salads and sandwiches, and used to make dips such as houmous.(Sky Sprouts)
- Coriander - a herb used in many recipes both as seeds and leaves all around the world, from curries to salads, and stir-fry to soups. (widely available)
- Fenugreek (methi) - the leaves can be used fresh or dried, and the seeds whole or ground as a spice. Also an effective 'green manure' to improve the soil. (Chiltern Seeds)
- Lemongrass - a tropical grass often used in Thai cooking, and to make homemade teas. (Grow from stems. Widely available in international food shops)
- Yard long beans - a great alternative to the runner bean. Its Latin name means ‘a foot and a half’, the length a pod normally grows! (Kings Seeds)
How to: Cook Around the World
Credit: Charlton Manor Primary School (Greenwich).
Recipe ideas for using your favourite school-grown fruit and veg:
- Causa a la Oca (a recipe using oca kindly donated by Ceviche Peruvian Kitchen, London)
- Methi pancakes (from Fenugreek).
- Home-made houmous (from chickpeas).
- Themed meal gardens - healthy Italian pizza garden & samosa garden (including coriander).
- Bake your lawn - grow your ow wheat to make bread and healthy pizza dough.
- ‘The Charlton Manor Healthy Cookbook’ available for download here.
Sowing New Seeds recipes from Garden Organic:
- Copeh Stew (Gumbo) and video
- Yardlong bean and aubergine saag and video
- Dudhi and potato saag
- Cooking Stir Fried Calaloo video
How to: Involve your local community
Cutting fenugreek (methi). Photo: Garden Organic/Sowing New Seeds
Celebrate the rich diversity, skills, knowledge and experience of people and cultures in your London borough, and build a supportive growing community around you.
- Welcome your community - to help your school grow, cook and celebrate eating food from around the world.
- Work with local businesses - invite a local restaurant, chef or local shop to work with your school.
- Attract corporate volunteers - to help you get those big garden jobs done on volunteering days.
Grow Around the World Competition
A special prize as part of the 'Grow Your Own Lunch' competition - Huge Congratulations to Trafalgar Infants School in Richmond, the winners of our competition.
Free Oca school growing experiment
See if you think oca could rival the potato on your school dinner table!
Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) originated in the Andean Highlands. It was taken to other parts of the world in the 19th century as an alternative to the potato, and even grown in Europe since the 1600’s. Oca tends to have a slightly tangy lemon taste.
Oca growing further advice
- www.realseeds.co.uk/unusualtubers.html
- http://oca-testbed.blogspot.co.uk
Share your school story
Join in the schools conversation and appear on our website!
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