Look at this man
His apple is tiny! It's so small that you could probably fit 7 of them inside one regular supermarket bought apple! Anyway...
He is the Man with Unusual Fruit and Veg.
Menka met him the other day. He spends his life in search of vegetable oddities, like the teensy apple you can see him holding above.
A lot of people think vegetables should look normal but because there are so many kinds of fruit and vegetable that there isn’t really such thing as normal.
Look at all these craaaaaazy veg varieties we’ve found!…
Purple Potatoes!
Extra long leeks!
Even carrots that look like Buzz-Lightyear!
And people can be weird too…
Here’s another example: the Man with Unusual Fruit and Vegetables gave Menka a yellow cauliflower. It’s actually very beautiful. Look at it:
Menka was so amazed and inspired by the yellow cauliflower, have a look what happened to her!
She went cauli-crazy!
Menka turned yellow with cauli-power!
The Man with Unusual Fruit and Vegetables has a name, you know. He’s called Mark and he works at Ash Green Organics.
Thank you Mark with Unusual Fruit and Vegetables for showing Menka your unusual vegetables!
Today is Pancake Day! Also called Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday if you take part in Lent. It’s traditionally a day to eat up all sorts of yummy things in your house that you are promising not to eat during Lent, like chocolate. It’s a long month if you’re giving up your junkiest habit so first of all you need to eat a shed-load of pancakes.
It’s strange people MAKE and EAT pancakes only one day a year.
HOW ODD?! Why only eat such a great food one day out of 365? We must change this silliness once and for all.
But how? …Time for a Seed Agent Mission.
WHAT IF?! We rename pancakes Flippers! Every time we make a pancake we call it a Flipper. Everytime we eat a pancake we call it Flipper. Everytime we see a pancake we call it a Flipper. Soon the world will call pancakes – Flippers!! And then we can eat Flippers ALL year round, and not just on Fat Tuesday.
There’s nothing that can’t be used to fill a flipper, sweet or savoury, hot or cold, the choice is yours Seed Agents! Try some veg-flippers! “Move along old-school lemon and sugar”, “Bye-bye gooey joys of chocolate”, “Hello pongy cheese, spinach and mushrooms!”
Have a go at making your own flippers here and experiment eating them with different fillings. Discover which one you like best!
Are garden beasties eating your freshly grown veg before you can?
Here are our top tips to help you identify pests and protect plants with environmentally friendly and economical ammunition.
If you spend your time sowing, watering and looking after plants we think it’s only fair that you get to eat some of the garden too.
Creepy crawlies are important to keeping your garden healthy so before you point a finger of blame at every creepy crawly in your garden check out our guide.
Some creatures are very popular with gardeners, like worms and bees, while slugs and caterpillars are the least popular. But, without caterpillars there would be no beautiful butterflies and without slugs hedgehogs would be hungry. Here’s some tips on how to play your part in creating a balanced ecosystem and preventing the bugs from eating ALL your food. Here’s how?
Each crop has its own enemy. So Seed Agents here is your mission:
Click on the images below for tips of how best to protect your veg patch!
Protect your Plants
Confuse your Pests
Pick Off Pests
Other Ammunition
Let us know how you got on by sending in a photo of your Secret Seed Agent work in action!
Send it either by e-mail to: fun[at]secretseedsociety.com or by post to: Green House, 26a Boat Horse Lane, Crick, Northampton NN6 7TH.
Are your veg leaves looking like lace?
It’s not only humans who love fresh tasty veg, they are enjoyed by lots of other creatures.
It is very important that we create a healthy and varied eco-system in our gardens but also I think it’s only right that if we sow, water and generally look after what we are growing we should be able to enjoy eating it.
So, what should we be looking out for?
Some creatures are very helpful for example worms and bees, but some are not so like slugs, caterpillars and fleabeetles. We all love hedgey and he depends on having some juicy slugs to gulp down. Similarly we love the butterflies that come from caterpillars so we need to be careful. We don’t want to kill them all we just need to prevent them eating our food but how?
Each crop has its own enemy. So Seed Agents here is your mission:
Click on the images below for tips of how best to protect your veg patch!
Protect your Plants
Confuse your Pests
Pick Off Pests
Other Ammunition
Let us know how you got on by sending in a photo of your Secret Seed Agent work in action!
Send it either by e-mail to: fun[at]secretseedsociety.com or by post to: Green House, 26a Boat Horse Lane, Crick, Northampton NN6 7TH.
It’s that time of year again – a day full of everything cress-like and boy does that let you in for a peppery treat! It’s the annual Watercress Festival!
Not only are there food stalls and numerous cookery demonstrations there is the chance to have a tour round a real watercress farm and have your photo taken with one of the falcons that help protect the cress from any unwanted visitors.
Even better are the World Famous Watercress Soup Championships and the World Watercress Eating Championships that challenge the general public to the max! How many different ways can you eat watercress?
So, why is it that we choose to celebrate Watercress?
Watercress is a salad leaf that has been enjoyed for many years and with very good reason! . . . Watercress contains MORE vitamin C than oranges, MORE calcium than milk and MORE iron than spinach! And because of its consumption brings so many benefits to our health it is considered to be a first-class ‘superfood’.
What’s more, watercress tastes incredible! You could try it in a classic watercress soup, cheese and watercress sandwiches or even mix it up a little and explore other combinations. We at Secret Seed HQ have taken a fancy to the Chicken and Watercress Stir Fry and have made our own addition with our home-grown Mingo Mung bean sprouts! Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
A few fun facts about Watercress:
A word of warning though:
Watercress is NOT the same as cress. Although it still has a nice peppery taste and can also be eaten in sandwiches and salads it is grown on a much larger scale from fresh spring water in streams.
What did Amy recommend to plant in Timeout’s urban kitchen garden? It’s all edible, colourful, structural and aimed to give a tasty crop even for first time gardeners! Read more
Grandpa Swede Needs Your Help!
Down at the Seed City allotment Grandpa Swede has been so busy planting lots of lovely new vegetables that he can’t even tell his carrots from his potatoes!
Your Mission Seed Agents is to design your very own vegetable row markers so that you don’t repeat Grandpa Swede’s mistake.
There are many different things you can use to make your row markers – wooden lollipop sticks, milk cartons, tofu containers, yoghurt pots…the list is endless!
Secret Seed Society have given you a head start in your ‘What Will I Be’ Carla Carrot pack, and also your ‘Bong Bong Bongity Bong’ Rudi Radish pack as they have 2 lollipop sticks ready and waiting for you to decorate!
If you need more row markers or feel like being creative then follow the instructions below and you’ll have your very own personalised row markers in no time!
What Materials You Will Need :
– wooden lollipop sticks or the flat side of your chosen recycled plastic
– Marker pens, Crayons, Colouring Pencils or Paints
– Scissors
How to Make a Row Marker :
Step 1 : Find a Grown Up and search through your Recycle Bin for anything plastic.
You could use the flat side of milk cartons, tofu containers, yoghurt pots, or anything else that is strong.
Step 2 : Get a marker pen and draw out a template of your row marker on one side of the plastic – make sure one end of your marker is pointed so that it can dig into the ground. It should measure approximately 12cm.
Step 3 : Once you have your template you can decorate your row markers with lots of bright colours! Try drawing pictures of the vegetables, or writing the name of the Seed City Character you are growing!
Step 4 : Next you need a Grown Up to help you cut out your row marker with a pair of scissors.
Step 5 : Now you’re ready to stick your personal
Grow seeds when its cold by making a Cloche!
So, what exactly is a Cloche?
A Cloche is something used as a cover and placed over plants to protect them.
Cloche’s act like mini-greenhouses – they collect warmth from the sun during the day which warms the soil and keeps it warm at night!
That’s clever! So how do I make a Cloche?
The best way to make your own Cloche is to reuse any recycled glass or plastic jars and bottles that you may have. Using something that is see-through is important because the soil under the Cloche needs light to help the plant grow.
I used an empty jam jar, a plastic cup, an empty bottle of squash and an empty bottle of water. I thought I would try different ideas to see which worked the best. Keep a look out for see-through containers that could be recycled.
REMEMBER: the number of cloche’s you need to make depends on how much room you have to grow your seeds.
Making your Cloche:
Wash and remove any labels.
If you are using jars or cups that already have an open end then you can go to the next stage – ‘Prepare Your Garden’. If you are using a plastic bottle you have just one more thing to do before it is ready for the garden.
When you have washed and dried your bottle, you will need to get yourself a Grown-Up who can cut off the top with a pair of scissors.
Prepare Your Garden:
Now you’re ready to get planting! Make sure the soil is loose using a trowel or fork.
Next, place your Cloche’s upside and push them down into the soil so that you have made a circle mark – this is the area that you will plant your seeds in!
Plant Your Seeds:
Pour a few of your chosen seeds into the palm of your hand so that you don’t have too many all in one go. Scatter them all over the circle and cover with a half centimetre layer of soil and firm down with your hand. If the soil is dry give them a sprinkle of water.
Finally, place your home-made Cloche’s back over the circle and push down hard so that they are firmly in the ground.
Secret Seed HQ need your help Seed Agents!
MISSION: Write a review
We need YOU to help us spread the word about how much fun it is gardening and cooking with the Secret Seed Society Storybooks.
We would like you to tell us exactly what it is that you like about the Seed City Stories and all the Seed City Characters.
You can do this by sending us a short version of the story you like, a message or even by drawing us a picture. It’s totally up to you!
Send your review either by e-mail to fun[at]secretseedsociety.com or by post to:
Seed H.Q. Studio 013, Netil House, 1a Westgate Street, London E8 3RL
Here are a few things you can tell us about:
What your favourite story is and why…
Here is Toby’s message telling us that Bong Bong Bongity Bong starring Rudi Radish is his favourite book because it is very funny. You can send in something like this as well!
What you think is the funniest part of the story…
Who your favourite characters are…
Here is a drawing by one of the children at Bermondsey School of her favourite Seed City Character. Which is yours?!
Click here and have a look in our Seedy Review Book to see what everybody else thinks about the Seed City Tales. Keep a look out to see if your review is up!
Today (12/08/11) I went to see Lily-rose’s plot where she grows her vegetables. Last week-end she got a cup and certificate as the judges thought her plot was amazing.
She attracts wild-life to help her grow good veg. She has a home for a toad but he wasn’t home when we visited. She has flowers to attract insects.
Whilst I was there, she dug up her potatoes. She loves Jacket potatoes with cheese best and she found the perfect potato for her supper. She also loves sweet corn and she has grown some of this as well but it is not quite ready to harvest.
She comes up to her plot with her mum Rachel……. they love to grow things together.
Do you have a plot like Lily Rose’s? Tell us what you are growing this year….fun[at]secretseedsociety.com
Have you seen the ‘Google logo’ on July 20th?
Making our peas bigger……
Once upon a time peas were very very small but Gregor Mendel (Father of modern genetics) studied the genetics so that we now have bigger juicier peas!
Can you see the peas growing in their pot? PC Pea Pod will help you find the answer!
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Secret Seed Society work with schools and do tailored workshops at festivals and other events.
Vegetables are the instruments and language we use to engage children, and our goal is to encourage play and curiosity in the natural world.
Below are examples of workshops we have run in the past. We tailor every workshop to suit our audience, or devise a completely new workshop if we think it’s necessary.
Seed City Museum Tours
The world’s only vegetable museum; starring the bravest, kindest and wisest vegetables of all time. From TutankhaMung to NapoliOnion, don’t miss out on an inspiring and curious tour of SEED CITY MUSEUM. A festival favourite!
Scarecrows
Together we build scarecrows of Peter Parsnip, Carla Carrot, and Pippi Pumpkin from scratch. Stuff newspaper or straw into sleeves and trouser legs to make the bodies and shapes, then stick the head on top!
Seed Sowing
In a group we measure out soil and push in seeds with our finger. We give them water and learn what a seed needs to grow. Take care of your seeds and maybe they’ll grow into tasty vegetables!
Seed Agent Kitchen
Basic recipes for young cooks. For example: Goo + Taste = Dip! Experiment with your DIY dip and see what you can create. Another popular recipe we use is Mad Muffins, where we get to play with dough and toppings.
Character Design
Pick a vegetable and go through the same character-design process that we do when we make a new Seed City story-book. Every vegetable has a sort of personality of its own, and can be given a name and brought to life with a bit of imagination.
Veg Songs
Our selection of veg songs and dances gets everyone involved, and once everyone’s tuned up and feeling musical we make up a new song together, and learn how to perform it.
If you’d like to book Secret Seed Society…
You can contact us on
fun[at]secretseedsociety.com. There’s also a schools newsletter with half-termly MISSIONS and ideas for activities; email us for more information.
Secret Seed Society went to Hay Literary Festival for the World Premiere of the new Seed City storybook, starring Rio Rocket!
On the way there we practised in front of an enormous bull who gave us a few joyful moos.
The Rio Rocket Premiere was in the Wiggly Wigglers’ garden. Afterwards people could order signed copies of the new book.
Between readings we sold books by the roadside and in the town. Here is a familiar Cauliflower resting with a rhubarb and ginger flavour ice-cream after a busy day’s work.
Email to pre-order your copy of Rio Rocket, £5.75 incl p&p – fun[at]secretseedsociety.com
By: shena,
on 5/26/2011
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The Secret Seed Society potted along to the Edible Garden Show last March and brought along a few vegetable characters to join in the fun. There were lots of people who came to see us all in our veg-hats.
Miss Carrot, Mrs Cauliflower and Miss Cabbage wowed the visitors with their veggie style!
HOWEVER . . . Whilst our backs were turned Chrissie Cress and Peter Parsnip decided to have a game of hide-and-seek! The place was so busy we hadn’t even noticed they had disappeared!
We searched high and low. . .
We looked in the piggy pen . . .
We checked the goat pen . . .
We even asked these dirty fingered children at the Potting Shed Party . . .
But NOBODY had seen our missing vegetable characters
By the time we got back to our Secret Stand Chrissie and Peter had appeared as if by MAGIC!
The Secret Seed Society found lots of nice new members for the Seed Agent Club, and even got to be in the NEWSPAPER for being the best Secret Underground Club around!
. . . Oh, and luckily Chrissie and Peter were on their best behaviour for the rest of the weekend.
The sun was shining and we had gathered the ingredients to build some scarecrows in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden. But where were our helpers?
25 local children from 3-12 years old came and got stuck in. Cutting, painting, sticking, sewing, tying and stuffing scarecrows until there were 5 gorgeous scarecrows standing in the garden keeping the vegetables of Daslton safe from cheeky crows.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
If you want to create your own scarecrow here’s our top tips
The Big Lunch is a one day event that welcomes individuals and groups from diffferent communities all over the UK and brings them together to support local seasonal food and drink.
Secret Seed Society and Eco-Kids are arranging a Big Lunch at St Peter’s Patch in Weston Favell Village on Sunday 5th June 2011.
Come along with your family and friends to enjoy sharing food and fun! Tables will be provided but please bring chairs and food. For more cooking inspiration check out the Big Lunch Recipe File.
The Big Lunch is also inspiring Schools to join the Big Bunting Challenge. Help break the world record for the longest line of bunting by supporting your local school. We are hoping to have some really long lengths to decorate St Peter’s Patch on the day!
It’s your mission Seed Agents to spread the word – let’s have the Biggest Big Lunch EVER!
Meet Seed Agents Felix and Rufus! Here they are planting sunflower seeds in their garden. They are Seed Agents of the Month because they made the advertising signs we used at the Mini Market we set up in April with Mimimyne.
They also made badges, and when people started coming for a sniff around the market Felix and Rufus told them about our Seed City books, our cakes, and about Mimimyne’s range of clothes and toys.
Seed Agent Name:
Felix
Age:
9
If you were a vegetable what vegetable would you be?:
I’d be a sweetcorn.
Why?
Because I’d be sweet!
Seed Agent Name:
Rufus
Age:
6
If you were a vegetable what vegetable would you be?:
I’d be an apple.
Why?
Because I like them!
What were you doing when you met Secret Seed Society?
We were helping our Mum with her stall for Mimimyne, and having fun
making badges with the Secret Seed Society.
Good work Seed Agent Felix and Seed Agent Rufus!
If you know someone who you think should be Seed Agent of the Month, email
fun[at]secretseedsociety.com.
Thank you Seed Agents! The garden has sprouted!
Secret Seed Society are building a garden at Butterfly World! Here is a picture of the Seed Agents who sowed the very first seeds. Their vegetables are growing right now in the earth.
The garden is far from finished so we would love your help. Anyone who helps with painting, seed-sowing or any other jobs will have their name included on a plaque.
We started with bare earth, but visited Butterfly World only 10 days after the first seeds were sown and –> look! –> they had already started to grow. Eventually we will build Seed City here, a vegetable garden for Seed Agents to look after.
On May 21st we will be painting signs and making other decorations, and planting a lot more seeds of course. Come and join the gardening team!
If you can’t find any eggs, or are allergic to them, here are Chrissie’s top tips for cooking without eggs.
“Hi hi! I’ve looked all over the place but can’t find my eggs anywhere… I’ll have to find something else to use instead. Eggs are useful because they make other ingredients stick together. So an easy thing to remember is that any egg substitute needs to be sticky too.
The first thing to do is think what kind of a recipe you are making. Are you making sweet cakes or savoury flippers? You probably don’t want to use any cheesy-tasting or tomato-tasting ingredients if you’re trying to make a chocolate cake.
You can us 1/4 cup of the following ingredients instead of 1 egg:
SWEET:– silken tofu, banana, fruit puree (apple is good), soy yoghurt…
SAVOURY:– silken tofu, mashed potato, tomato puree, rolled oats, cornflour, bread crumbs…
And did you know you don’t have to use eggs to make pancakes and Flippers?
Your MISSION this month is to cook something using one of Chrissie’s Eggs In Disguise… Send us a picture, at fun[at]secretseedsociety.com
We can tell you all about Flippers here…
The new Seed City book will be ready soon! We have written the story and are now drawing the pictures. Soon it’ll be on the bookshelves and you’ll be able to read it, but because we can’t wait to talk about it here is a sneak look at the 3 main characters:
Do any of them look familiar? Let’s see if you can guess who they are. To give you a clue we’ll tell you their first names…
1 – Albon ________?
2 – Rio ___________?
3 – Babs ___________?
Email fun[at]secretseedsociety.com with your answers, and you could win a free copy of the new Secret Seed Society masterpiece!
Are you getting ready for the big Royal Wedding this Friday?
Will you be meeting up with friends and family for street party celebrations?
If so, we have the perfect accompliment for all those hungry Seed Agents out there…3-Step-Popcorn!
Just follow the instructions below and you can have your very own tasty popcorn with a fruity twist!
Ingredients :
½ cup popping corn
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
1 cup dried apple, chopped
1 cup sultanas
Method :
1) Grab yourself a grown-up and chop up the apricots and apple into small chunks.
2) Put the popping corn into a microwaveable dish. And depending on how you would like to cook your popcorn you can either microwave on HIGH (100%) for approx four minutes or cook it in a saucepan according to the instruction on the packet. Can you hear it POP?!
3) Finally, leave the popcorn to stand for one minute and then mix the remaining ingredients into the popcorn. Now you’re ready to get munching! Can you taste all the lovely flavours?!
Let us know if you can think of any other tasty fruit or vegetable treats to put with your popcorn. . . Oh, and don’t forget to share with all your friends and family!
Last week was Pancake Day! Also called Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday if you take part in Lent. It’s traditionally a day to eat up all sorts of yummy things in your house that you are promising not to eat during Lent, like chocolate. It’s a long month if you’re giving up your junkiest habit so first of all you need to eat a shed-load of pancakes.
BUT have you ever noticed that pancakes are quite a lot like those tortilla wraps we buy in the supermarkets? In fact they are almost exactly the same!
AND People MAKE and EAT pancakes only one day a year, and BUY and EAT those tortilla wraps all the time.
HOW ODD?! Why only eat such a great food one day out of 365? We must change this silliness once and for all.
But how? …Time for a Seed Agent Mission.
WHAT IF?! We rename pancakes Flippers! Every time we make a pancake we call it a Flipper. Everytime we eat a pancake we call it Flipper. Everytime we see a pancake we call it a Flipper. Soon the world will call pancakes – Flippers!! And then we can eat Flippers ALL year round, and not just on Fat Tuesday.
There’s nothing that can’t be used to fill a flipper, sweet or savoury, hot or cold, the choice is yours Seed Agents! Try some veg-flippers! “Move along old-school lemon and sugar”, “Bye-bye gooey joys of chocolate”, “Hello pongy cheese, spinach and mushrooms!”
Have a go at making your own flippers and experiment eating them with different fillings. Discover which one you like best!
Bruno Broadbean’s Flipper Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour – wheat, spelt or buckwheat if you want them gluten free.
1 cup of liquid – dairy milk, water, soya milk, nut milk.
1 egg – or leave out the egg and add some extra liquid, mashed banana or apple sauce.
Pinch of salt
Baking powder – not essential but for a fluffier Flipper
Spoon of grease – butter, oil or goose fat, if you dare.
How to cook
Dip a sheet of kitchen towel in the grease and rub the pan until shiny
Whisk the rest o
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