Young foodies inspired tocook on visit to farm shop

jpns-28-02-17-015 fare lead comm Year 8 pupils from Boundary Oak

Year 8 pupils from Boundary Oak School visited the Farm Shop at Garsons of Titchfield in January to learn about local produce from Hampshire

Year eight pupils from Boundary Oak School in Fareham visit Garsons Farm Shop in Titchfield. Here, the students visited Owton's to find out about the different types of meat and how shopping locally can lead to cooking much tastier dishes.

CAPTION: Students from Boundary Oak School learned about the importance of shopping locally — jpns-28-02-17-015 fare lead comm Year 8 pupils from Boundary Oak Year 8 pupils from Boundary Oak School visited the Farm Shop at Garsons of Titchfield in January to learn about local produce from Hampshire Year eight pupils from Boundary Oak School in Fareham visit Garsons Farm Shop in Titchfield. Here, the students visited Owton's to find out about the different types of meat and how shopping locally can lead to cooking much tastier dishes. CAPTION: Students from Boundary Oak School learned about the importance of shopping locally

A group of year eight students from Boundary Oak School in Fareham made the trip to Garsons Farm Shop at Titchfield.

The special visit was arranged to give pupils the chance to learn about the best of Hampshire produce from Farm Shop manager Kerrie White and butcher Paul Ball, and discover why they should shop locally rather than going to a supermarket for their food.

The students sought inspiration for their own culinary creations as part of their Create & Cook competition, visiting the farm shop to see if buying local goods could lead to making tastier dishes.

Paul the butcher was on hand to answer all the pupils’ questions about the kinds of meat that Hampshire is famous for, such as Owton’s award-winning sausages and bacon, all made with locally-reared pork.

As well as learning about the types of food available in the farm shop, the budding cooks learned about trends in food and cookery and how they could be cost-effective when using meat.

The students also conducted a survey of products in the farm shop, evaluating ingredients and packaging, and took photos to use in their work back at school.

With their new-found knowledge, they also had the opportunity to purchase ingredients for the dishes they would go on to cook at school.

Emily Grice, food tech teacher at Boundary Oak School, said: ‘Our year eight students thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

‘I think they learned a lot from Paul about the different types of meat and how buying local food benefits small businesses.

‘They came away feeling very inspired, and some of them are now designing dishes based on meat from the counter.

‘We are introducing different skills each week until the competition deadline at the end of March.’

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