Delicious fish dishes using seasonal produce were created by Food Technology students in Year 11 at St Bartholomew's School in Berkshire, whilst the Nursery and Year 1 pupils at Marlborough House School in Kent enjoyed visiting local farms as part of British Food Fortnight 2009

Delicious fish dishes using seasonal produce were created by Food Technology students in Year 11 at St Bartholomew's School in Berkshire as part of British Food Fortnight 2009. Chef, Barry Fairchild, gave the students a cookery demonstration before challenging the teenagers to an inter-class cookery competition.  The objective was to prepare and cook Pan Fried Brill with Tomato and Beetroot Salsa, Greens and Light Chilli Dressing.  Using ingredients supplied by the Wash Common branch of Budgens, the students set out to impress the judges Annie Cleary, Food Technologist from Budgens' Head Office and Tracy Graham, Wash Common branch Operations Manager. 

Miss Sara Kinsey, Food Technology teacher, commented afterwards: “This is the second year Barry Fairchild has kindly worked with us during British Food Fortnight and our students have once again really benefited from this experience. They have learnt about the importance of using seasonal produce and fresh ingredients and how cooking from scratch can save money. As a bonus to the cookery session,
there was also a demonstration using locally hunted game, with Barry preparing Pan Fried Venison with Wilted Savoy Cabbage and a Mustard Mash.”

The best was yet to come when students were finally allowed to sit down and enjoy their carefully crafted plates of food.

Pupils from Marlborough House School in Kent celebrated British Food Fortnight with a series of visits to local farms.  The outings started on the Tuesday, when the Nursery children enjoyed a wonderful morning with farmer Victor Breach at Chittenden Farm near Staplehurst. Stepping off the minibuses, they were taken by Mr Breach to the potato field where the children had great fun collecting potatoes in buckets to be taken to the farm shop. This was followed by a walk through the orchards and choosing and picking their favourite apple for their morning snack. Returning to the Nursery – the children enjoyed apple juice, which had been bottled at Chittenden Farm and then settled down to watch a video of Auntie Mabel visiting the farm accompanied by her dog Pippin.

The Year 1 staff and children feared their outing on the Wednesday might have to be cancelled due to a last minute organic inspection at Silcocks Farm. Luckily, much to the relief and delight of the pupils, Wissenden Farm stepped in to prevent disappointment.

On arrival, the children they were greeted by Farmer Boyd, who was their guide for the morning. Their first highlight was to see the ‘boy goats’ - much to the delight of Oscar Roberts, who discovered that one of the goats shared his name! The children then rose to the challenge of trying to move an enormous hay bale - without success. Nevertheless, the opportunity to play at being sheepdogs in the arable field soon raised their spirits. An ‘eye-spy’ game to spot the heifer calf hiding in the grass encouraged their observation skills and evoked many questions which Farmer Boyd answered for them. There were more goats and chickens to enjoy and the opportunity for a snack in the barn with the giant bull and billy goat was enjoyed by all. Finally, each child enjoyed the chance to clamber up into and ‘drive’ the huge tractor.

In addition, Year 4 went to Biddenden Vineyard and had a tour of the vineyard together with the apple orchards. They observed the apples being pressed to make the delicious local apple juice and cider and then observed it being bottled and packaged ready to go into the local shops.

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