Kingsclere Primary School pupils get dug in at village hostelry

Garden to plate food learning curve

KINGSCLERE Primary School pupils had the chance to discover how food gets from the garden to the plate as they got dug in at a village hostelry.

Pupils recently revisited the garden at Bel & the Dragon at the Swan, in Swan Street, after planting seeds earlier this year and continued their gardening education.

Green-fingered tasks saw the boys making bean tepees from long sticks, before digging holes to plant runner bean plants and training them up the sticks, secured with twine.

They then planted Brussels sprouts, with hopes of picking them in time for Christmas, and broccoli plants, the latter to accompany chillies growing in herb planters to create a dish for the pub’s menu.

The girls marked out rows and planted onion seedlings, before sowing carrot seeds and planting courgettes as pupils carefully labeled the plants.

Meanwhile the pub’s gardening staff plan a reciprocal visit to the school.

“When the children’s school garden is ready to harvest then we will visit with a chef and make a simple dish with the produce,” said Mark Palmer, the pub’s head gardener.

“We hope to carry on the relationship and project with the school.

“At the beginning of the autumn term they will come to visit again and talk about what needs to be done to get the pub garden ready for winter,” he said.

n For an in-depth article about Bel & the Dragon at the Swan in Kingsclere, pick up a copy of the Out and About magazine published on June 30 – free with the Newbury Weekly News.