Learning
Schools in Sussex used their local fruit varieties to inspire cookery lessons as well as learn about sustainability, planting and growth...
In 2005, five small orchards were planted in Sussex schools and the success of these orchards inspired a further six schools in the area to do the same. The schools now use the fruit as a basis for cookery lessons and have involved professional Chef Robin Van Creveld to demonstrate ways to prepare and cook the home-grown apples. As well as learning cookery skills and local recipes, each pupil was able to take home apple crumble and their own apple juice to share with their families.
Mrs Anne Mudd, Head Teacher of Turners Hill School explains, “The children learn so many things from a project like this. A major one is that not everything is instant and that something that is going to be sustainable needs to be seen as having long term input.”
Children in Somerset have used orchards for poetic and artistic inspiration and also studied local history, and the process of cider harvesting...
The school children who took part in the Somerset Apple Project (2004-2005) used their local orchards as inspiration for poetry and art workshops led by an author and local artist. The enthusiasm and creativity that the orchard inspired encouraged the community to learn about the local area’s history and economy, as well as the disappearance of the apple orchard from Somerset’s landscape. Pupils also celebrated several other educational elements of the local orchard such as bee pollination, blossoming, apple harvest, pruning and grafting.
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