From Plant to Pesto: A Very Delicious Food Education Lesson! 🌱

Last week, our Year 3 and 4 food education sessions were all about seasonality, flavour and the wonderful things that happen when children get stuck into making their own food.

We started by looking at basil plants from the Bloom Kitchen Garden, exploring what seasonality actually means, why different foods grow at different times of the year and how seasons around the world affect the food that eventually arrives on our plates.

Our basil plants provided the perfect starting point. As summer draws to a close, they are beginning to flower and go to seed, with their leaves becoming smaller and their flavour changing. We compared these with some beautiful, larger basil leaves from our wonderful veggie supplier, giving the children the opportunity to explore the differences in appearance, texture, smell and taste.

And what better way to celebrate these beautiful leaves than by making pesto?

A Little Bashing, a Lot of Flavour!

Armed with basil, garlic, pumpkin seeds, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of sea salt, the children got to work creating their own pesto.

Working in small groups, they tore the basil leaves, carefully chopped the garlic and added everything to food bags before taking to the mixture with rolling pins.

The result? An extraordinarily loud, wonderfully chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable pesto-making session!

With our beautiful green pesto ready, each group collected some dough from the kitchen's master batch and began stretching and shaping their own rustic breads. We had stars, hearts and all manner of gloriously imperfect splodges.

A generous spoonful of homemade pesto, a scattering of cheese (with dairy-free alternatives for those who needed them), and our creations were ready for the oven.

Before returning to their classrooms, the children enjoyed a little tour of the school kitchen and were introduced to the rest of the Bloom team, getting a glimpse of where their lunches are prepared each day.

The Proof Is in the Pesto!

And then came the best bit.

Golden, bubbling, beautifully fragrant pesto breads emerged from the oven, and the results were absolutely delicious!

The children were delighted with their creations, proudly sharing them with members of staff and showing off what they had made.

In fact, the breads were such a success that we've received a very special request: could they please go on next week's lunch menu?

Well, how could we possibly refuse?

At Bloom, we believe that food education is at its most powerful when children can experience the whole journey — from discovering how something grows, to exploring its flavours, preparing it with their own hands and, finally, enjoying the results.

And when something they have created makes its way onto the school lunch menu, that journey comes full circle.

Fresh food. Curious minds. Growing together. 🌱