BSustained

Birgit started gardening with her Dad at the age of 5. Now she has shared that experience with an even younger age group at Moseley Montessori Nursery.

Harvesting potatoes at Moseley Montessori

Jo Ind recently wrote an article about BSustained in the Birmingham Post. One of the staff at Moseley Montessori , Aaliyah Foster, described the children’s response to Birgit’s sessions:-

“It was an amazing experience because the children were completely absorbed. They were totally engaged with handled the potatoes and vegetables and watching them being chopped and peeled and then cooked and the end result of sitting there and then eating. They didn’t take their eyes off the whole process.

“Surprisingly very few children get to see where a chip comes from, or get to see that a pea comes from a pod, so that was good. A lot of parents buy chopped up vegetables to it was great that the children had a chance to handle them.

“One of the highlights was when the children compared seeds and felt them and touched them and planted them and put their fingers into soil. Just a few weeks later they could see the results. The radishes came up a week later. They’ve been going out on a daily basis with their watering cans. They’re very proud of their little garden. It was a really rich experience.”

The children’s enthusiasm is hardly surprising. This is what Birgit told Jo about her own childhood encounter with vegetables:-

“I loved being outdoors, being active, growing things and looking after the garden and I always loved eating vegetables. I think that’s because we had grown them from the very beginning, proudly harvested them and eaten them straightaway from the garden. There was hardly any vegetable I didn’t like and I think that’s a bit part of it.”

Jack & the beanstalk?

There’s a thread running from that early family experience all the way through Birgit’s gardening, cooking and teaching. Typically, she celebrated the vivid colours of fresh vegetables by making a stir-fry with the children, engaging all their senses in the whole process of food, from the seed to the crunch.

All opinions are Birgit's own and not of any organisation she represents.