With the announcement of school closures this afternoon, we're going to be posting regular suggestions of activities, links and ideas in general that we've found helpful while working with children and adults for many years.
First up, entertaining for everyone and possible as long as you have some vegetables available (failing that, you can always use sections of dandelion roots from the garden), it's Growing Stuff On A Saucer.
Above are the carrot tops and leek ends from making a batch of carrot and leek soup with the kids today.
Put the vegetable pieces on a saucer and pour a little water around them.
Leaves will start to grow on the carrots and the leeks will sprout in a few days.
Carrot leaves are lovely and frilly but are NOT EDIBLE. You can re-cut and eat anything that grows from leeks; lettuce, celery or chard bases, onion and beet tops will also grow and give edible leaves which can be used in stir fries and salads.
Edit: carrot tops are edible but bitter- thanks Karen for the heads up: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/food/2019/jan/12/carrot-tops-chimichurri-waste-not-leftovers-tom-hunt
It's worth trying pretty much any vegetable you have to hand- anything that looks like it will try and grow if it gets left in the back of the fridge too long: Ginger is another great one which will grow and give you stem ginger.
If you want to grow the plants bigger, they will at some point need potting on into soil, but otherwise, just change the water every couple of days (more often if the weather gets warm) or the whole thing will go really manky and smelly.
Next installments... recipes, crafts, gardening and home education suggestions. All ideas welcome and we'd love to link to posts others have- or post your articles too if you email us at crowwoodcic@gmail.com
Thank you!
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