What's in season in November?

Vegetables: Parsnips, carrots, cauliflowers, turnips, beetroots, savoy cabbages, celery, celeriac and leeks

Fruit and nuts: Apples, pears, quinces, medlars, hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds

Fish: herrings, sprats, halibut and sea bream

The farm in November is still a busy place. Dairy cows are usually calving in late autumn and herds are being housed indoors. Similarly young pigs are being moved into outdoor units. As the quality and growth of fresh forage declines farmers need to supplement feed for beef and dairy cattle, sheep and pigs with conserved fodder including grass silage, maize and other crops such as stubble turnips.

Fertiliser for next year’s crops is being delivered and some crop fields will be ‘rollered’ to prevent damage to cereals caused by slugs, especially those fields where the new crop follows oilseed rape.

For more information on the importance of farming today click on the link to “Resource Bank – Farming Matters” on www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk.

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Planting and growing:

If you have a school or class garden, this is what you could be planting at the moment. If you haven’t got a garden, why not just try using a few big flowerpots or troughs?

  • Plant out cabbages, leeks and savoys as they are able to stand out over the winter months.
  • You can sow beans and peas and you can keep carrots, onions and radishes under glass in frames. Make sure that the air can circulate round them so that they harden off.
  • November is the month to plant fruit tress. Have you space for one somewhere in the school grounds?

For more information on growing your own produce click on the link to “Growing” on the home page

There’s still time for schools to register for free potato growing packs through the British Potato Council’s Grow Your Own Potatoes project. Give your pupils a valuable, hands-on learning experience as they find out where potatoes come from, how they grow and what you can do with them. It can be as simple as a pot of potatoes in the playground or on a classroom windowsill.

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Cooking:

Historically, preparation for Christmas dinner begins on the last Sunday before Advent, called ‘Stir up Sunday’.  This is the day that Christmas puddings are traditionally made, with everyone in the household mixing the pudding and making a wish.   However, new research from the Year shows that almost half of today’s children never get involved with making the Christmas dinner, and six in ten have no experience of stirring up a Christmas pudding.

As part of our efforts to rebuild the nation’s food culture, the Year of Food and Farming has enlisted the support of high profile chefs like Raymond Blanc and Phil Vickery, who have donated their favourite pudding recipes.  It’s hoped their support will prompt schools and families to take up their spoons, giving pupils a flavour of a time-honoured Christmas tradition.

If you want to reward your pupils for their culinary efforts, take a look at Sainsbury’s Active Kids Get Cooking. The scheme offers collectable certificates in recognition of the food knowledge and cooking capability demonstrated in schools. Find out how to register for a teachers’ guide with up-to-date information to support food activities in schools.

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Visits:

A great spin-off activity from getting locally grown organic root vegetables and fruit would be to enable pupils to see the myriad of different shapes that they come in. This is such a direct contrast to the fairly uniform size and shape of supermarket produce. There is also the fun of washing off the dirt to see what really is beneath it! And don’t forget you can use it all to identify, classify, draw, paint, cook and eat. Older pupils can also be introduced to the concept of food miles.

If you are lucky enough to be situated within walking distance of farmland take another trip out. This time take sketch pads, pencils and coloured pencils so your pupils can work with line, form and colour. Take tape recorders as well so that you can record sounds and also the spoken images of what the pupils see, hear, smell and feel.

You’ll find a wide range of projects including Co-op schools to farms, a national scheme designed to connect children to food production. Take a look at our Visits page for inspiration.

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“In the Country” – A picture world book by Benedict Blathwayt

( Oxford University Press (ISBN: 978-0-19-911031-5)

For a fantastic introduction to the world of the countryside and farming for young pupils you will find this book a real little “cross-curricular treasure”. If you don’t already know Benedict Blathwayt’s books you (and your pupils) will be completely enchanted by the beautiful and intricate little pictures of life on a farm and in the countryside. This book will make a perfect introductory resource and provide you with many cross-curricular ideas from English to geography to science and more.

Perfect for 4 to 7s and beyond as well.

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Primary schools across the country will be buzzing with excitement thanks to an interactive classroom game to celebrate the forthcoming DreamWorks computer animated comedy Bee Movie.

The Royal Entomological Society (RES) has teamed up with DreamWorks to produce a free schools resource called ‘Into the Hive’ for Key Stages 1 and 2. It aims to teach pupils about bees and their role in the eco-system. Teachers can order their free pack by visiting www.royensoc.co.uk or by calling 01423 567111.

To celebrate Bee Movie’s release on December 14, schools are also invited to experience the Queen Bee’s live tour in December. Children canfly like a real bee in the incredible bee simulator, meet a real life bee keeper and learn all about how bees obtain honey. To find out where and when your pupils can m eet Queen Bee, please contact: [email protected].

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