A village pub has taken its relationship with a local school ‘to the next level’ by running a new project teaching children about food’s journey ‘from the farm to the fork.’
Y Ffarmers pub in Llanfihangel Y Creuddyn has had a long relationship with Llanfihangel primary school. They’ve taught them how to make pizzas, and have come together to host a variety of events in the past.
This latest project will bring the two even closer as they work together to grow a variety of vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers. Having planted them last week, the two groups will come together to grow and turn these homegrown vegetables into a variety of different foods.
The idea for the project came to Caitlin Morse, Y Ffarmers owner, who has funded the project herself. As a child, Ms Morse grew up around homegrown vegetables, with both her father and grandfather growing their own.
Ms Morse wanted to share these ‘important’ skills that she has carried throughout her life, and make sure they pass on to ‘the next generation.’
She said: “It’s really unusual for pubs to be involved in something like this, I think it’s different and interesting for a partnership to exist between a pub and a school.
“It’s important for kids and the next generation to know where their food comes from. In this day and age, people don’t understand or appreciate the journey food goes through to get to our plates. I think if people did, they might want to grow more and do more cooking at home.
“If you grow your own tomato plant, you’ve nurtured it – you love it, appreciate it and understand the work that’s gone into it. The taste is better, the vitamins in it are higher and it’s not had to travel across the world to get to you. We live in a world where things are shipped from so far away, I think it’s good to have made a little something of your own.
“We have a very good relationship with Llanfihangel primary school. Because they’re a small school that’s just across the road from us, we can just go ‘oh look, the tomatoes have ripened’ and set aside an afternoon to make something with it.
As part of learning about food’s journey from the ground to the plate, the pub and school went on a foraging course where they learned about the medicinal benefits of various plants, how to cook over a fire, as well as make tea and crisps out of nettles.
The school’s headteacher, Mair Gwynne Carruthers, sees the project developing the relationship between the school and Y Ffarmers, she said the children had ‘responded really well’ to it.
She said: “The children get to see how their food is grown, they see it from the farm to the fork. They’ve planted them, watered them and helped them grow, then they will be preparing and making food with them. The children have responded really well to the project, all of them enjoyed it and taken part.”
Once the vegetables have ripened, the two will come together to start creating a variety of homemade dishes, the first will be their very own ketchup, made from tomatoes growing at the school right now.