Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Grow It Yourself

Potting Out – Sow and Grow UK – Final Update

I’m working with innocent as a Sow & Grow UK Ambassador from February to April 2017. Follow the tag #sowandgrowUK for updates #sp

Over the past few months, we’ve been taking part in the innocent and Grow-It-Yourself (GIY) Sow and Grow project at home, in tandem with lots of children doing the same in ¼ of UK primary schools up and down the country. Even the smallest (or simplest) food growing experiences can change the way children think about healthy food. By learning how to grow food themselves (as we have been doing from seed) children are “much more likely to eat fruit and veg, and to continue eating healthily for the rest of their lives.”

Even though as a family, we eat plenty of fruit and veg and the children enjoy coming shopping for food whether at the supermarket or local market, we were hugely keen to gain a better understanding of how to grow from seed, because we hoped that it would encourage us to perhaps find a space in the garden to continue growing our own at home. Often, knowing where to start is the hard part and this project has definitely helped us all to ‘grow’ in confidence.

As part of this project, we planted cress, baby carrots and green beans in small ‘sow and grow’ cups and day by day we watered them and watched them grow.

You can read all about how we started and about the progress we made here:

Growing from seed has allowed the children to track growth and progress right from beginning of the food cycle and this has definitely encouraged them to make the connection between growing food and eating it. There have definitely been high levels of anticipation and lots of questions asked –  such as “how do beans grow?”  to “when they will start appearing?” to “how many carrots will we have?” and much more.

Innocent - Sow and Grow

Cress

Growing cress from seed really captured the children’s attention early on in this project. The cress was very simple to grow and the results were almost instantaneous as the seeds germinated within a day or two. At home, the children now love going up to their cress pots to pick cress to sprinkle over their salads and sandwiches.

As cress grows so quickly, it’s easy to keep on top of having a nice freshly supply by planning a few seeds in a pot each week rather than growing too much all at the same time. 

Green Beans

We’re now four months on from when we planted the beans and as we tipped into April, our bean plants (which we supported with a training cone and bamboo sticks along the way) tipped the 6ft mark. We learnt that this variety of bean is called a pole bean or a climbing vine bean and that you can also plant bush beans, which grow closer to the ground.

The most frequently asked question has definitely been from our toddler, who is nearly three who keeps on asking, “Any giants yet?” as he’s convinced the bean plants will soon grow as high as the sky! This week, we’ve noticed a very small, red bud, and some white buds, which we think will be our first flowers, from which the bean pods will grow. We’ve learnt that we have passed the growing stages, and that we’re now at the reproduction and pollination stage.

Since there could still be a little bit of frost, we’ve allowed our green beans to go outside for some fresh air (this is a process called hardening off) which gets them used to being outside. However, in the main, we’ve kept them indoors and bean plants can be very sensitive to frost.

We noticed that some of the leaves at the bottom of the plant started to turn a bit yellow, which may have indicated that the beans needed some more nutrients. So, we added some fresh compost to the big pot that they are now in and we’ve also started to spray the leaves directly with some water. They seem much brighter again now! We’re looking forward to harvesting our beans in a few weeks’ time. Look how tall they have grown!!!

Sow and Grow
Project ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’

Baby Carrots

The advice in our bright and colourful innocent Sow and Grow resource pack was to ‘thin out’ the baby carrots to make sure that they had enough room to grow in the cups. We did this, but still seemed to have plenty of seedlings left. Along with the beans, the baby carrots have had some time outside on warmer days, to allow them to get used to the conditions outside. Last week, we noticed that the carrots were getting thirstier (as the soil was quite dry again quite quickly) so we decided it would be the right time to start planting the baby carrots out.

So, this week, we popped to the garden centre and came back with a raised planter and an extra bag of compost. The children spotted some tomatoes and baby leeks and asked whether we could plant those next to the baby carrots. I also took the opportunity to buy some baby beetroot seedlings and I’ve added to my herb collection with some marjoram and dill.

Planting out the baby carrots was quite easy. We picked a sunny spot, filled the raised bed with fresh soil and made some holes around ¼ inch deep. Then we simply tipped the Sow and Grow cups upside down, into our hands, and then carefully put the carrot roots into the soil, patting it down around the edges.

We’ve read that: “When plants are transplanted growth will usually be set back by 1 – 2 weeks as the roots establish themselves after which they will quickly catch up.” At the garden centre, we were also advised to grow some marigolds alongside the carrots as ‘companion planters’ because marigolds help to keep ants away – so we’ve tried this and hope some pretty flowers will grow too!

Edward age 10, says:

“It’s been really fun watching our pots of seeds grow. I think the carrots tops are starting to smell carroty! At the garden centre, I also found some leeks which we planted at home because we love leek and potato soup and it would be fun to pop out to the garden for our very own leeks!” 

Elena age 7, says:

“The cress was the quickest to grow and we enjoying seeing the little seedlings grow. The baby carrots have been quite slow, but I can see that the carrots tops are growing stronger each day and it has been my job to keep them watered. The green beans, which are ginormous, have been the most exciting to watch and they are now even taller than me!”

Sow and Grow
Stay away from my patch!

Matthew planted a sunflower seed at nursery before the Easter holidays and was able to bring this home. As well as helping to water the beans and carrots, he’s enjoyed watching his sunflower get a bit bigger each day. It is now in a pot next to the baby carrots. We told Matthew that he was very good at growing and that he must have green-fingers. Now he keeps looking at his hands to see whether his fingers have turned green!

Sow and Grow

We’ve had such an adventure with this project (it has been lovely to get out into the spring sunshine) and we are now super inspired to carry on with our sowing and growing. We hope you’ve enjoyed following our updates on the #SowandGrowUK hashtag and that you’ll keep up with our adventures to see what happens at harvest time!    

Is your school signed up? If so then upload your photos at https://innocentsowandgrow.com/ to be in with the chance to win monthly prizes from innocent and see your classroom crowned as Sow & Grow champions! Following the repackage of innocent kids drinks, consumers can also win seed packs by following the instructions on pack. Available nationwide now in most major supermarkets. Good luck!

#ad I have been compensated for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

Seed Sowing – a growing update with innocent and GIY for Sow & Grow UK

I’m working with innocent as a Sow & Grow UK Ambassador from February to April 2017. Follow the tag #sowandgrowUK for updates #sp

Almost a month ago, we began a fun little project at home, to grow, from seed, a selection of runner beans, baby carrots and cress. Innocent, together with the not-for-profit organisation Grow It Yourself (GIY) have launched a project to encourage kids to grow their own food and in turn make healthier choices. As big fans of innocent smoothies, we knew that the Sow & Grow project would be great fun and we weren’t wrong!

Sowing seeds indoors allows you to start the process a little earlier than you normally would outside plus young children can watch the process and document changes almost every day.

It’s a brilliant way for children to begin to learn how food is grown – if we can grow our own cress (which we’ve already been able to taste and eat), runner beans and baby carrots, imagine what else we can achieve!

This very simple project has really caught the children’s attention. My youngest, who is only two and a half, was so proud of his growing bean that he asked to take his bean into nursery to show his teacher and friends.

He’s convinced that soon we’ll see a giant!

Cress

The cress was definitely the quickest and the easiest to grow. All our pots were a success and we have been able to cut, wash and eat the cress already. We think the best thing to do is to grow one or two pots of cress at a time, as it begins to germinate and grow so quickly. You can then harvest the cress by simply cutting it. Then all you have to do is wash it delicately and then it’s time to eat!

Find my quick recipe for Salmon, Egg and Cress Sourdough Toasts here, which has become one of our favourite cress-inspired breakfasts!

Edward, 10, says:

“I loved to see how quickly the cress grew. It was definitely a fun experiment for us all. I learnt that I had to be very careful when I watered the cress, because the soil could quickly become too soggy. One of my pots didn’t grow too well because it had too much water in. We found a little watering can so that it was easier to water the seeds without pouring too much water in too quickly.”

Runner Beans

So far, apart from planting the beans (as I explained here), the only thing we’ve had to do is water them daily (only a little bit each day as you don’t want to waterlog the cups).

During the third week of growing, our beans had a growth spurt, so we added some bamboo sticks to the pots and began tying the beans to the sticks with some Velcro tie (which we found at our local garden centre). You could also use some tweed.

A week later (week 4) we moved onto the next step of transferring the beans out into a bigger pot. At this stage, we bought a little bit more compost and a cone plant trainer. One of the beans seemed to have wrapped itself quite happily around the bamboo stick, so we left the bamboo stick and tied that onto the cone, secured with a little Velcro tie to support the fragile stem.

Two of the beans were easy to transfer into the big pot out of the smaller Sow and Grow cups. One of the beans seemed a little more settled, so we chopped the bottom off the cup and simply popped the whole pot (which is compostable) into the pot to grow. We’ll see whether leaving it in the pot and disturbing it less makes any difference to how well it grows.

It takes around three months in total to get the first crop and we’re already thinking of planting a few more beans so we have plenty over the summer.

The leaves are really growing well and there are lots of new shoots but so far, no runner beans.

We’re excited to see how these come on in the next week or two.

Elena, 7, says:

“The runner beans are also growing very quickly. We have been watering them and each day I can see how much they have grown. From a small bean, they have grown into very, very tall plants with big green leaves. We can see some smaller green leaves nearer to the top. We have tied the long, thin stems to a bean pole and now they have gone all curly around the pole. It looks like they are holding on tightly and giving the pole a hug! I think the beans are going to start growing out of the leaves, but I’m not sure.”

Baby Carrots

The carrot seeds were really tiny and we planted about 15 in each pot. You can see them starting to grow but they are still a bit too young to be transferred out so we’ve left them by the window to keep growing. In a week or two, I expect we’ll be able to start the thinning out process – this is where you remove about half of them so that the remaining carrots have space to grow.

Our baby carrots will be ready in about another four weeks – so check back here for my next update!

Once it gets a little warmer, we plan on cutting the bottom away from the cups and planting them outside in our little veg patch.

Elena, 7, says:

“We can see that the tops of the baby carrots are starting to grow, but they are growing quite slowly compared to the cress. I think I can see some baby carrot tops now! I am looking forward to seeing how the baby carrots will grow inside the cups. Will they grow up or down?

We have all learnt that for seeds to grow and survive they need:

  • Water to synthesise
  • Oxygen for photosynthesis and carbon dioxide for respiration
  • Minerals (for protein and producing DNA)
  • Sunlight – also needed for photosynthesis
  • Space – seeds need enough space to grow
  • Warmth – indoors is best for early spring

Salmon, Egg and cress on sourdough

Recipes

Here are some fun recipes to try with your home grown veggies:

Come back and see how are seeds are doing in a few weeks’ time or follow our updates on Instagram:

Look out for the hashtag #sowandgrowUK

#ad I have been compensated for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

Salmon, Egg and Cress Sourdough Toasts

Read this post to learn about growing your own cress at home

Salmon Egg and Cress Toast

1 vote

Print

Salmon, Egg and Cress Sourdough Toasts

Yield 2 slices

A high-protein breakfast, brunch or spring starter made with sourdough, roasted salmon, egg and home grown cress

Ingredients

2 slices fresh sourdough

2 tsp butter

1 egg, hard boiled, sliced

1 poached or roasted salmon portion (90g)

2 tbsp cress (try growing your own)

Black pepper

Instructions

Lightly toast the sourdough bread. Spread with butter. Cut each slice into three fingers.

Arrange the sliced hard boiled egg over the top. Scatter over the cooked salmon and cress.

Season with a little freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately.

 

Grow Your Own Food – Sow and Grow with innocent – Getting Started

I’m working with innocent as a Sow & Grow UK Ambassador from February to April 2017. Follow the tag #sowandgrowUK for updates #sp

This week, the children have been on half term and since we’re always keen to take on a new challenge, we were delighted to be asked to take part in the Sow and Grow project with innocent. Together with the not-for-profit organisation Grow It Yourself (GIY), innocent and GIY have joined forces to encourage kids to grow their own food and in turn make healthier choices. As big fans of innocent smoothies, we knew that the Sow and Grow project would be great fun and just as half term began, we were delighted to receive a colourful package full of cups, seeds and soil to help us get going.  

 

After 14 months of building work at home with diggers pretty much flattening our garden, and with hints of spring on the way, we are super keen to start thinking about our outdoor space again. Peering outside into the feeling-very-sorry-for-itself-garden, the children had already recently asked whether we could create a small space to start growing our own fruit and veg.  Great idea – I thought to myself, but where do we begin?

I’ll be the first to admit that although I’m a dab hand in the kitchen, green-fingered I am not. In fact, other than collecting the odd windfall apple and growing a couple of pots of herbs on the kitchen windowsill, I’ve never had much success growing anything food related at home.

We’re super lucky to have a twice-weekly fresh food market in St Albans and we have a bi-monthly farmers’ market, so although the children are very familiar with trips to the market to pick up fresh fruit and veg, they haven’t really had much experience of growing their own produce at home. However, with three children aged 10, 7 and 2.5 we technically have three pairs of willing hands, so perhaps it’s time to start potting.

Getting outside, learning about nature and growing vegetables at home or in the classroom have been cited as the top ways for children to learn about eating healthily. Recent research has also identified that even the smallest food growing experiences can change the way kids think about healthy food.  This is more than enough to convince me that having a go at growing our own is most definitely a worthwhile activity.

In a recent survey, innocent found that 89% of those over 50 remember their parents and grandparents growing fruit or veg when they were younger. The top five vegetables that the over 50’s remember their parents or grandparents growing are potatoes, carrots, runner beans, tomatoes and lettuce.

When I think of my own grandmother, I can remember that she grew lots of vegetables in her garden, such as runner beans, peas, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, beetroot, chives and dill. She also kept chickens and so I remember the best dippy eggs, lots of soups and the freshest salads. Growing vegetables also fostered a strong sense of community because my grandmother used to swap produce and share seeds with her friends and neighbours. If she had too much of something, she’d simply swap it out or give it away and if she wanted to try growing something new, she’d have a chat with someone who was already growing it. She didn’t have an allotment, but she did make the most of the small space that she had and I remember it being ordered and neat and in the sunshine, the aromas of fresh garden herbs really shone through. In our own garden at home, we had an apple tree, a pear tree, a Victoria plum tree and a blackcurrant bush and so I often remember baking fruity bakes and crumbles with my mum incorporating as much of our garden produce as possible. Supermarket shops were always supplementary to what we could already grow ourselves and the summer gluts made for a winter full of preserves.

In the innocent survey, 92% of the over 50’s believed that people were healthier 50 years ago when more people grew their own – and this is a fact that I have to agree with. Our parents and grandparents simply weren’t exposed to so much processed or packaged food, there was less waste and I can’t help but wonder whether our modern issues of fussy eating have been caused, in part, by our lack of connection with the food they eat.

How to Start Growing Your Own

The key to growing your own at home, particularly when you’re a beginner, is to start with something simple.

  • Runner beans, cress and carrot seeds are the fastest-growing seeds so that children (and nervous adults!) can see results almost straight away, so that’s what we’re going to be starting with at home.
  • You don’t need a big garden or a plot or at this stage, even a raised bed. You can even start with sowing seeds in cups to watch and see how they grow.
  • For more tips check out the Innocent Sow and Grow tips page here

Innocent - Sow and Grow

innocent are keen to encourage as many primary school aged children as possible to start growing their own vegetables. As part of this campaign, schools can sign up to get their very own growing kit (just like ours) full of seeds, information packs, stickers, cups and lesson plans to help teachers incorporate healthy eating into their lessons with everything they need to get involved. Grow-it-Yourself will be sending out 6,666 packs to schools which will reach ¼ of the UK’s primary school children.

You can ask your school to take a look here to sign up for more information.

The children were very keen to get started and I’m very much hoping that once we’re feeling a bit more confident, that we’ll progress to creating a small space in our garden to begin growing some vegetables outdoors.  We love courgettes, and I am told they are easy to grow too so they’ll be next and perhaps then we’ll move onto growing some of the vegetables and herbs that that my grandmother grew.

Home Update from my 7 year-old:  

“When we got the box, we got the cups out, soil, water and the seeds that we were going to plant. I looked at the packets and I saw three things that we were going to grow. They were cress, baby carrots and runner beans. First, we wrote our names on the cups and wrote what kind of seeds were going to go into each cup – even my little brother joined in! Mummy read the instructions and we put some soil into each cup. Next, we sprinkled some cress seeds into some of the cups and watered them. Then we carefully put 15 really tiny baby carrot seeds into some soil in some of the other cups and watered the seeds. Lastly, we opened the runner bean packet and we were surprised to see that they looked much bigger and they were purple. We put one runner bean into each cup that was left then we had to push it down with our fingers into the soil and added some more soil and then watered the runner bean cups. Then we put all the cups into a big wooden box and put the box near a big window. We checked on them and watered them for a few days. After two days, we could see little bits of green in the cress cups. The next day the cress had grown even bigger! We watered them a little bit each day. It is now day four and we are still waiting for the carrots and runner beans to grow. At the weekend we are going to visit my grandma’s house so we are going to pack the cups into a box and take them with us!”    

Innocent - Sow and Grow
Our cups – on the move during half term!

I’d love for you to follow my progress at home with the children and as an ambassador of this campaign I’ll be posting about our progress regularly both here and across all my social media channels.

Look out for the hashtag #sowandgrowUK

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Twitter @renbehan

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#ad I have been compensated for writing this post. All opinions are my own.