Dalmain Eco Week 2026

It’s taken me a wee while to get these thoughts down. We’ve been spinning a lot of plates lately — if you’ll forgive the oddly appropriate metaphor — but the kitchen is now closed, the famalam are off to the park, and I’ve finally got a few quiet minutes to tell you about the absolute joy that was Dalmain’s recent Eco Week!

Every year at around this time Dalmain dedicates five days to all things ecological. Of course, their eco-focus runs right through the year, but Eco Week is a chance to explore those ideas in more depth — to slow down, dig in, and make connections in a more meaningful way. This year, very luckily for us, the theme was all about food.

That meant we were invited into every classroom across the week to run workshops with the children, exploring topics that felt genuinely important to them. And honestly — what a week it was! A total career highlight! Was about as much fun as it’s possible to have at work - the children were all amazing and together we made some really beautiful dishes.

With the Reception classes we made gluten-free banana bread and talked about food waste — what it is, why it matters, and how we can all play a part in reducing it. We took some beautifully overripe bananas, food that was very much nearing the end of its practical life, and turned them into squidgy, delicious baked treats. Every child had a go at chopping, mashing and mixing, and they were wonderfully patient while everything baked!

I have to say, there were some really lovely moments of teamwork in those adorable classes. Even at that tender age, you could already see the kindness and cooperation that Dalmain works so hard to nurture. Such a lovely wee bunch — attentive, cheeky, funny, and completely full of character. And they all looked awesome in their tiny chef hats!

With Year 1, we made a scrumptious seasonal fruit salad. We talked about what the seasons are, how seasonality affects produce, and how seasons arrive at different times in different parts of the world. Using simple wooden knives, the children sliced up all sorts of seasonal goodies, including strawberries from the BCK HQ garden — we’ve had a real bumper crop this year, with huge, delicious fruits.

The children also loved learning that bananas are not technically a tree fruit, but come from a giant herbaceous plant — thanks QI! They absolutely loved slapping the mint leaves, also from our garden, to release the aromas. Tasty, healthy giggles all round.

With Year 2, we explored festive foods from around the world and did some taste testing of different ingredients. Later in the month we’ll be making chana masala together, so the children tried samples of mint, coriander, mango chutney and natural yoghurt. We then worked through some of the vocabulary we could use to describe each ingredient, and their food knowledge — and willingness to try new things — was amazing.

Everybody tried something new. Not everyone liked everything they tasted, but they were all game enough to give it a go. Bravo, Year 2.

Year 3 set us the challenge of making their favourite snack food — crisps — healthier and more sustainable. So we brought in a bunch of rotary cutters, gathered some wonderful root veg, and got to work. Sweet potatoes, beetroot, turnips, parsnips, as well as the humble Maris Piper, were peeled, sliced and spun into thin, crisp-sized bites, then tossed in a little olive oil and a tiny pinch of sea salt.

After baking to perfection, the healthy snacks were portioned into recyclable paper bags before being swiftly demolished! They really were super tasty — much to the surprise of many — and there were no preservatives, artificial flavours or single-use plastics in sight.

I was very lucky to be deftly assisted by my own sweet son while working with the Year 4s, and I couldn’t have been prouder. In the run-up to Eco Week they had been learning about food miles and where produce comes from, so together we wondered whether we could create a dish made entirely from ingredients grown right here in our own fair borough of Lewisham.

We landed on the idea of making a hyper-local salad, so off we went to local allotments to see what we could source. My gosh — so many generous people were happy to share their bounty with us. We were gifted rocket, baby spinach, chard, peas, a greenhouse-grown cucumber, baby kale, chives, radishes — the list goes on. We were also able to harvest some pea shoots and mint from the BCK garden.

One lovely lady also gifted us some striking edible flowers — blue borage, which tasted wonderfully of cucumber, plus some beautifully colourful violas. The children could hardly believe what they were eating! The salads they assembled were superb, genuinely restaurant-quality, and were polished off pretty darn quickly.

Next up were the Year 5s, with more taste tests in preparation for their cookery sessions later in the month. They were a very adventurous mob, fair play to them, with everyone trying at least one new thing in their session. On the tasting list were ginger, lemongrass, coriander and cinnamon — some very punchy ingredients.

Their ability to describe each flavour was seriously impressive. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the extremes of flavour presented to them. What fab palates these young folks have!

Last, but by no means least, were Year 6, who had been learning all about Fairtrade and its impact on the global food system. Through our suppliers at New Covent Garden Market, we were able to source some beautiful Ghanaian Fairtrade bananas, and in small groups the classes made some truly lovely Fairtrade banana muffins.

With almost no guidance from us, each group weighed, measured, mixed and mashed their ingredients into beautiful bananary batters, which we then baked into fluffy, golden, glistening muffins. Yum!

I was especially touched that, at the end of the lessons, the extra muffins were distributed to staff by the children — such a lovely act of kindness from these wonderful mini grown-ups. My only regret is that we won’t have the opportunity to provide this year group with the quality school lunches we feel they deserve, as next year they move on to their next chapter. We wish them all the very best of luck — it was clear to see that they are more than ready for whatever comes next.

So that was Eco Week: one of the busiest, most rewarding weeks since we started this new venture of ours. It was honestly an absolute privilege to cook and break bread with everyone at Dalmain. Almost every day since Eco Week I’ve had a message from a parent, or a chat with a new face, about what their children learned and the positive impact the week had.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and encouragement — it really does mean a lot. We’re so glad that your children are enjoying our new approach, and we honestly can’t wait for our Food Ed lessons next year. We’ve got loads more wonderful, hands-on, messy, tasty, curriculum-linked sessions planned, and we can’t wait to see what everyone creates.

Ciao for now!

Chef Phil
🍎 B.C.K 🍎