Domestic Foraging

Sophia’s pet project of her herb garden is proving to be a success. She has managed to keep them alive for a couple of weeks now, and takes her responsibility seriously. She spends time with her little charges daily and worries about them when they’re left out in the rain.

A parsley plant joined the ranks this last week, donated by Grannie, and it has happily settled in amongst the rosemary, chives, oregano and thyme. It got the tour of the garden by Xander who carried it round proudly, before Sophia gave it some tender loving care, removing its dead heads, giving it a trim and a water. She was clucking over it like a right little mother hen.

We had a chat the other morning while she was tending her charges over which herbs compliments which meats and dishes which she found very interesting. She has been providing herbs for varying bbq meals which we have been enjoying during the past fortnight, and takes a taste test daily to see the quality of her stock.

Sophia has shown a great interest in the concept of foraging and she cannot wait until she can be trained and she can collect nature’s wonderful freebies, beyond blackberries, which is her current level of knowledge. She is often to be found lecturing Xander about edible and inedible plants, holding his hand and showing him the safe herbs and the unsafe weeds. She was excitedly telling me about the magic of stinging nettles the other day, whereby the sting can be removed once they are boiled up, and a healthy tea produced.

I unintentionally demonstrated how nature can hurt and cure us by brushing up against an offending nettle and my little finger swelling up as a result. Sophia thought I was crazy as I grabbed a dock leaf and wrapped my finger up in it for a few minutes rubbing at it, thus an explanation was forthcoming which she thought was fascinating. She kept checking my finger periodically throughout the day trying to figure out why it looked normal and no longer red and swollen. 

The herbs were in need of a harvest as they were in danger of outgrowing their pots, so she harvested some chives, oregano and thyme and was giggling at the thought of giving them hair cuts. We placed the herbs in the dehydrator and half a day later we have some home grown dried herbs thanks to Sophia’s hard work.

Sophia added strawberry and tomato plants in hanging basket and a treasured lemon plant to her garden and she had a great yield over the summer. She loved harvesting snacks every day for everyone and serving the tomatoes with olive oil and salt. She harvested her only lemon at Christmas time for their fruit mocktails. 

Gardening and foraging are great life skills to incorporate into your learning journey with the children from a young age. It is a lovely way to lay seeds towards a bond between them and nature, paving the way to respecting the earth. Herbs are the easiest way to introduce the relationship between the garden and the plate, a segway into having a vegetable patch before too long.