STARTING THEM YOUNG - SCHOOL VISIT TO NURSERY

Hello, I had a lovely day the other Wednesday. 12 9-10 year-olds from the local Montessorii school came over to the nursery for the day to further their education on fruit. Yes, at first thought the prospect of 12 9-10 year-olds seemed a bit daunting - and indeed, it was rather noisy at times - but I was so impressed by their enthusiasm and their interest.

They are doing a project on fruit and all had the most wonderfully-illustrated journals of their project so far - they had visited a fruit grower the previous week - and picked a few apples - and now they were at a commercial nursery to learn a bit more.
I started their day with herbs - looking at all sorts of different items - all taken from the companion planting in the fruit sales area - so a nice link in with the fruit. They knew most of them - but again how nice to see real interest in the different types - with Chives and Lemon Thyme definitely the favourites!!

After lunch - we picked a load of Pear 'Doyenne du Comice'- 48 pears picked in record time - and only ONE without a stalk - how's that for efficient picking! A tour of the nursery followed - and then back to the classroom - for some apple tasting. I had picked out 5 very different apples for them to taste - and they had a little chart to rate each one for flavour, juiciness, sweetness e.t.c - great fun - and a very mixed set of results - the boys favouring sharper apples than the girls. The day was almost over - but there was just time for me to show them one or two other fruits - they were all impressed with Quince 'Vranja' - we had found a particularly huge one - but none of them had ever seen a Medlar before! One young lad describing it as a 'tree turnip'!!

After a few photos for their workbooks - it was back to their school. I would like to thank their teachers for bringing them over and looking after them - but mostly to the youngsters themselves for their incredible enthusiasm.

In an uncertain world - it made a refreshing change!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME,
RICHARD