Orchard Training Homeschool Garden Club - April

We are seasonally sowing, here at the Orchard Training Homeschool Garden Club, so far we have small batches of courgettes, marrows, squash, pumpkins, sweetcorn, and the French beans we received from the National Vegetable Society.

There is a lovely recipe from Helen Hutchin Cox for Chilli Jam which has influnced the chillies we are growing. Although some of the group who also come to the Orchard Training Cookery Club did want to make the jam this week without growing the chillis. I am tempted to do a lesson with a taster session shop bought chilli, Homeschool Garden Club grown and a shop bought chilli jam just for comparison.

The magazine is quite useful in other ways too, though not exactly for the intended purpose. Many of our learners have been completely turned off from reading, especially stories while they were in school. Therefore, we need material of measurable quality, and the magazine fits into Functional Skills Level 2 reading levels, it turns out our learners do not minding reading about vegetables. "Seasonal Jobs" by Derek Brooks has been very popular. However, the most read article among the very reluctant boy readers was "Growing Globe Beetroot"—a picture of beetroot the size of a tennis ball has now inspired a competition. Who knew!

As the teacher - I will take any win I can get! But we might also need to find the longest French Bean too!