Guess The Vegetable Competition

This week, we are running a "Guess the Mystery Vegetable" competition in school.

The children have eight mystery vegetables to identify for a chance to win an Easter treat. Some of the vegetables are widely known. Others, such as our friend the kohlrabi may take a little more working out!
Kohlrabi is a fantastic turnip like vegetable which works well in soups stews and salads.
This kohlrabi recipe is courtesy of Able and Cole:

Kohlrabi, Apple and Creamy Mustard Salad

Serve on the side, or mix in some cooked meat and serve over lettuce for lunch. Serves 4
Whisk together 80ml crème fraiche or cream, 1tablespoon lemon juice, 2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon sugar – season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss the dressing together in a large bowl with 1 peeled kohlrabi, cut into matchsticks, and 2 diced apples. Add 1/2 a red onion, sliced, if you have it. Otherwise, you’re done!

Another veg which may be unfamiliar is beetroot. Many people are put off the wonderful ruby sweetness of beetroot as their first encounter of it is pickled in jars.
Beetroot is delicious simply roasted with a few woody herbs such as rosemary and served with a nice dollop of soured cream.
Beetroot is busting full of vitamin C, potassium, fibre and antioxidants, but
you might get a shock when you pee after eating – your wee will be bright red! Don’t be alarmed – this is completely normal, and this may keep happening for a couple of days afterwards. This is caused by the purple pigment betacyanin that gives the beetroot its fabulous colour!*
The beetroot seeds we sowed a few weeks ago have yet to show any signs of germination. Fingers crossed that something will emerge from beneath the soil soon!


Broccoli (or calabrese to be more accurate) is probably one of the most popular vegetables. It is from the same vegetable family as cauliflower, Brussels spouts,kale and kohlrabi. As with all dark green vegetables, broccoli is packed full of iron and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3 and B6. This makes it a particularly good addition to your diet if you are vegetarian.

Did you know?

Did you know that the little bobbles that cover the florets are actually little
unopened flower buds!*


Next up we have parsnips. I have to admit that as a child, this was probably one of my least favourite veggies, but now I love them. Parsnips make a delicious spicy soup. They can also be used in a whole range of sweet puddings. In medieval times ( when sugar was rare and very expensive in this country) parsnips were often used in sweet breads and cakes in the same way as we have carrot in carrot cakes today. However, my favourite way to cook parsnips is sliced into twig-like chips and roasted with a sticky coating of maple syrup. Yummy.


Cauliflower (a close relative of broccoli) is a lovely crunchy addition when added raw to salads. It is also great lightly steamed or added to vegetarian curried dishes.
We recently sowed some cauliflower seeds at Gardening Club. It's amazing that such tiny seeds grow into the huge cauliflower plants (so long as the slugs don't get to them that is!).


Also making an appearance in our "Guess the Vegetable" competition is the wonderfully versatile Aubergine (or Eggplant as it is also known). Aubergines are a Mediterranean favourite and the plants require warmth to bear fruit. Aubergines can make nice houseplants with it's pretty purple flowers, but watch out for the spiky stems!

Did you know?

Italians call Aubergines 'melanzine' which means 'crazy apple!'

Not forgetting the pride of Wales, next we have Leeks.
Leeks can be planted from May through to July and are harvested from October onwards. Leeks with their subtle onion flavour are fantastic braised or added to soups, stews and pies.

Finally in our mysterious vegetable line up, is the pumpkin. Pumpkins come in a whole host of different sizes and work equally well in sweet and savoury dishes. Pumpkins seeds make a delicious protein packed snack. Last October, the gardening club decorated pumpkins with ghoulish paintings. We are hoping to grow some pumpkins of our own this year.

*Abel and Cole

Little green shoots

Today, the children began by checking on the beetroot and cauliflower seeds that we planted a few weeks ago.
The beetroot hasn't germinated as yet, but the cauliflower seeds have begun to sprout.
Next, we ventured outside to check on the onions and garlic in bed number 8. The children were very excited to see that little green shoots were poking out of the soil. The soil had started to dry out and so the children gave it a light watering.

We also planted some mixed lettuce leaves and salad onions in bed number 5.

Finally, the children documented the new sowings on their garden plans.

Next week, we plan to sow some wildflower seeds.

Spring is just around the corner

We had splendid weather for gardening club this week.

This week we concentrated on drawing up plans of the raised beds. The children measured each of the raised beds and made a sketch of them. These were copied up on squared paper. The children have stuck their plans into their garden scrapbooks.
As we begin to sow more crops over the coming weeks and months, we will record the details of them on our plans.

The children also watered the onions and garlic (which are starting to show shoots) and the beetroot and cauliflower seeds.

Next week we will sow some more seeds under cover and hopefully our goodies from the Morrisons 'Let's Grow' campaign will have arrived.

The Easter Bunny Comes Early!

After a wet, windy and wild weekend we were blessed with a sunny afternoon today.
We seized the opportunity to head outside.

We began by planting some beetroot and cauliflower in pots and trays. These have been put in our mini greenhouse (which will hopefully stay upright now it is weighed down with two bags of compost!).
The beetroot and cauliflower plants will be transferred to the raised beds once the risk of frost has passed.

We then turned our attention to preparing the raised beds. The children used the hoes and riddles to break up the surface of the soil and dug in some soil improver.

Whilst digging one of the children hit something hard which we thought was a rock. On further investigation, we discovered it was a cute little gold bunny garden ornament! (piccie to follow once he has had a bath)

The children have decided that he is going to be our Garden Club Mascot. Hopefully he won't turn out to be like Peter Rabbit and munch all our veggies!!!

The New Beds Are Here!

We returned from the half term break last week to find the newly built flowerbeds in place.
The beds have been filled with topsoil but will need a little bit of preparing before they are ready for planting.

The gardening club began by tackling three of the ten new beds. Using riddles and hand forks we have removed some of the stones and large chunks of soil from the beds.
Unfortunately we discovered that the local cat population have taken a shine to the new beds, so we will need to look at measures to discourage them!

To one of the beds, we have added some compost and planted our first crops, garlic and onions.
This week our new storage container has arrived, so we now have somewhere to store our tools.
Over the next few weeks, we will continue to prepare the soil so that as soon as the frosts pass, we can get sowing.