Riverford farm is the local supplier of organic fruit and vegetables for our school lunches. During Organic Week, in the autumn term, we were invited to see where the vegetables were grown. I took my class of foundation and Year 1 children, with the help of some interested mums, for the day to see if we could excite them with vegetables!

Our topic that term was Ourselves, and we were finding out how to be fit and healthy. We arrived at the farm and were promptly put on to a trailer attached to a tractor and taken to the pumpkin field. The farmer explained how long pumpkins take to grow and how the badgers like to eat them too, showing us the claw marks on the skins. The children were all allowed to pick a pumpkin to take home. We went into the herb tunnels, where they were able to smell and collect basil, rosemary, mint and parsley, then into the cherry tomato tunnels, which proved to be very popular. Next stop was the sweetcorn field, where we picked cobs for lunch. Riverford staff had prepared pumpkin soup for us and we sat in the autumn sunshine drinking soup and eating corn on the cob. The last bit of excitement was to raid the strawberry field, so we went home full and slightly sticky. Back at school we did lots of art work depicting the day. We used the pumpkins to make soup in food technology and then went on to find out more about the food we eat every day and if it is all good for us. There were many opportunities for work in all curriculum areas, but it was best summed up by one girl who said: “I will always remember that day, it was good fun.”

Carolyn Moncad, teacher, Blackawton School, Devon