Here’s our recommendation of the 10 best vegetables which you and your children can grow from seed. We’ve chosen them for their variety in colour, flavour, shape and seasonality. This selection of vegetable seeds will teach your children about how a seed germinates, the conditions that they need to grow into plants and  how to harvest the different parts of the plants for food.

1) CHRISSIE CRESS
You can’t beat cress for a first time growing and eating experience.
Sow: Any time of the year, on tissue, cotton wool or compost on a windowsill
Growing: Make sure the seeds are kept moist.
Harvest: 1 week after sowing
Eat: Be ready to share this new mind-blowing flavour experience with your children, homegrown cress is hot and peppery and can be a bit of a shock. Our favourite is to mix it in an egg or cheese sandwich.

2) MINGO MUNGBEAN
Sow: Any time of the year in a jam jar
Growing: Soak the beans for 12 hours then rinse morning and night, draining well.
Harvest: The bean sprouts will be ready to eat in 5 days.
Eat: Crunchy bean sprouts can be added to salads or tossed into stir fries. You can sprout other beans and seeds like chick peas and lentils learn more

3) BRUNO BROADBEAN
Sow: Late Autumn or Feb/March, you can start them in news-paper pots then plant them in the ground.
Grow: Blackflies love the tender top leaves, when there are some flowers on the stem nip out the top, before they infest.
Harvest: Large pods, 10 weeks later
Eat: Top leaves are eaten like greens, small pods can be eaten whole or pop the beans raw from the pods. Also delicious in fritters, or as a paste on toast.

4) PC PEA POD
Sow: In a seed tray in Spring or direct in ground in May and June
Growing: Peas need twigs to grow up, clinging to them with their tendrils.
Harvest: Mange-tout peas are great for kids as they eat the whole pod often straight from the plant. Round peas need to be left until the pods swell and then popped from the pods.
Eat: Salads, stir fries, boiled with a sprig of mint….so many ways.

5) BABS BEETROOT
Sow: From Spring through to Summer, sow every couple of weeks so you have a supply of tiny beetroots fresh from the garden.
Growing: Sow direct in the ground well spread out.
Harvest: About 60-90 days later you should find a golf ball sized root.
Eat: Wash the root and leaves, cook in boiling water. Tiny beets take 10mins, older woodier beets 30mins at least. They’ll stain everything pinky purple so be warned. Delicious in a salad with roasted nuts.

6) CARLA CARROT
Sow: April, May in sandy soil. They are going to around 10 weeks to be ready.
Growing: Plant near onions and chives or in raised pots to prevent carrot fly.
Harvest: After about 10 weeks you should be able to pull a small carrot from the ground.
Eat: Endlessly useful, carrot sticks for picnics, lunches and snacks, grated to add sweetness and colour to salads and soups.

7) RUDI RADISH
Sow: 1cm deep direct in ground in rows. From April-May then August-September.
Growing: Keep moist
Harvest: Pull when small and crisp
Eat: Normally not cooked but ideal for dips and snacks.

8) RIO ROCKET
Sow: Under a cloche or on a windowsill from February onwards, direct in the garden from mid-March-May then July-September
Growing: If you have a greenhouse you can get a great crop throughout the Winter, if not grow it on your windowsill for a few leaves that will add a fresh garnish to Winter dishes.
Harvest:The ultimate cut and come again crop, pinch off the leaves and more appear. When it goes to seed eat the flowers.
Eat: Salads, sprinkle over pizzas or chop into a paste for pasta.

9) SANGHITA SPRING ONION
Sow: Straight into ground. Best in a row as looks like grass to start with.
Grow: Keep well watered and keep sowing every month.
Harvest: Thin rows by pulling the tiny onions and leave the rest to grow bigger.
Eat: Raw or cooked onions add a tongue tingling taste to salads, stir fries or chop and stir into potatoes or other root vegetables for added zing.

10) DESIREE POTATO
Sow: Potatoes are not grown from seed but from an old potato (seed potato).
Grow: Plant 3-4 seed potatoes in 30cm of compost in an old compost bag that is rolled down and has drainage holes pierced in it. When green shoots appear at the top add more compost to the top unrolling the bag up to 60cm
Harvest: Wait  until the bag top is covered with leaves and perhaps a flower. Tip up the bag and search the compost for new potatoes. See who gets the biggest and the smallest.
Eat: Boiled, mashed, fried, roasted, always cooked. Try this ‘Potato Pizza’ recipe.

Diabetic Diva Susan with her latest recipe book.

Diabetic recipes are ‘Healthy’ because they have limited amounts of refined sugars and salts so if you want more healthy recipes take a look at her website.
Remember you don’t have to be diabetic to enjoy Susan’s tasty recipes, in fact eating these healthy feasts can help prevent you becoming diabetic so tuck in!

TWIRLY SPAGHETTI & MINCE SAUCE

A family favourite and so easy to make. The mince can be prepared in a batch and frozen for at least 3 months. Good with jacket potatoes, rice, pasta, mock pizza.

Main ingredient: Mince beef, spaghetti Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes Serves 4:

EQUIPMENT
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Can opener
Measuring spoon
Large saucepan with lid
Wooden spoon

For spaghetti
Measuring jug
Measuring spoon
Medium size saucepan with lid
Spoon for stirring

INGREDIENTS
500g lean ground mince beef
½ sweet pepper, roughly chopped
½ onion roughly chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 jar pasta sauce
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 tsp dried Italian herbs

METHOD
COOK the mince in a pot stirring with a wooden spoon until it’s brown in colour and no pink bits remain. ADD the onion and peppers and cook for another 3 minutes
NEXT add all the other ingredients and let meat mixture cook until the sauce starts to bubble. TURN the heat down to low and let this cook for at least 20 minutes
SERVE with spaghetti and a salad (even a teeny weeny one would be great) Remember your 5 A Day.

SPAGHETTI
PUT 500ml of water and ¼ tsp salt into a pot
LET it boil
ADD 100g wholemeal spaghetti to the boiling water
COOK for 8 minutes (al dente) cooked still firm
DRAIN and put on a plate
SPOON some mince sauce over
If you like sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over and dried parsley.

Try these
Make mock pizzas using the mince sauce. Slice a wholemeal French roll in 2. Spoon some of the sauce over and about 2 tbsp grated cheese. Grill under hot grill until cheese melts.

Or add red kidney beans, ½ to 1 tsp chilli powder and dried Italian herbs to make chilli.
Here is Susan cooking with some children.

Children love to cook when there's a grown-up to help.

We are always pleased to get your photos. Today we were sent these of 2 Seed Agents foraging.

 Foraging means finding food in the wild and Autumn is the best time to forage.

Delicious! Evie can not resist the blackberry taste.

Have you foraged? if so please share your pics with us. send them to [email protected].

 Evie and Leila please take a picture of what you make with these luscious blackberries.

The bramble is scratchy but the fruit is luscious!

 Autumn is the time to find blackberries, elderberries, crab apples, damsons and plums in the hedgerow.

Foraging in the autumn hedgerow.

Leila thinks there is enough already

Eating what you grow with child friendly recipes and cooking tips.

Runner Beans

Have you spent the summer nurturing and tending  your runners?  Well now is the time to get harvesting! But remember to send us a picture of your longest runner bean for our giant bean competition.

Is there a bean long enough for the Giant Bean Competition?

 Runner Beans give your plate brilliant colour and taste great! Try them boiled with your roast dinners; stir-fried in oil with garlic, peppers, beansprouts and chicken; or in a warm new potato and mackerel salad.
 
 

Spinach

Popeye knew what he was doing when he indulged in these leafy greens. Spinach is bursting with nutritional value. You can chop it up and stir it round in a frying pan with a drop of olive oil. after a few minutes it will have become much more ‘solid’ and reduced in size…delicious in our tartlets recipe with a little bit of cheese.

Courgettes

Another vegetable that is versatile.  Looks a bit like a cucumber but has a whole taste of its own! 

Wow! this courgette was yellow! It added colour to our tartlets.

 We put it in our tartlets but it is also great in stir-fries or mixed with tomatoes, peppers and onions in a ratatouille. Another favourite is in muffins or cakes.  You could even try it raw with carrot, pepper and celery sticks with a tasty dip to dunk it in.

Berries

Blackberries are bountiful this year, take a walk and pick your own. If you manage not to eat them all before you get home try mixing them into some plain yoghurt for a delicious pud.

Carrots

These are a wonderful colour…normally bright orange but did you know carrots were purple originally? For lots of ideas for making carrot soup see Carla Carrot.

Carrots add lots of colour to other dishes or can be used to make a wonderful soup.

I was picking my runner beans a couple of weeks ago when I noticed a lovely long straight bean.
Gently I tied a little bit of string loosely round the stalk and told everyone not to pick it yet.

My longest runner bean so far

A few days later I thought it looked fully grown so I snapped it off and brought it up the house to measure it.
It was over 31cm!

If you want your beans to grow really long follow our Expert Grower’s tips.

Look what Yippydada say about Chrissie Cress

Lorna Awarded the Secret Seed Mingo Mung The Mighty Messenger book 5/5

I thought the book looked like fun for the kids and me too! I rat the book at great quality, Aimee really .liked the book and we read it several times. The illustrations were fun and captivating and she enjoyed me reading it to her. Aimee enjoyed the story very much and found it easy to understand, also very stimulating. The book was great, I never thought my children would eat mung beans but after reading the book and watching them grow they seemed excited about it! I would definitely buy more of these books and recommend them as this is a great way of introducing the kids to growing and eating new things. Lorna Gordine – Aimee 5 Years

Eating healthily is vital for everyone, but it’s even more essential for growing kids. With their legs and arms sprouting, children need a healthy and varied diet in order to shoot up. We at the Secret Seed Society believe healthy eating for kids is a top priority. After all, keeping little Seed Agents in tip-top condition is very important! Thankfully, it’s now easier than ever to make sure that children are eating healthily, whatever they’re doing.

More and more schools and food outlets are providing customers with healthy, low-fat alternatives to fast food and sweets. So why should the kitchen be any different? With a little imagination we believe parents can encourage their little ones to get rooted into good eating habits that will see them growing up fit and healthy.

We want children to make friends with their vegetables, so the Secret Seed Society has created a fantasy world full of vegetable characters such as Chrissie Cress, the Brussell Sprout twins and Mayor Okra. Through our range of activity books, kids can follow their new found friends into ‘Seed City’, the setting of so many fantastic adventures.

What’s more, the Seed Agents Club rewards good habits and celebrates kids’ successes in the garden and kitchen – helping them through inevitable setbacks. We encourage members to send in photos of their activities, share stories, and undertake exciting Seed Agent Missions. Healthy eating shouldn’t seem like a chore, and with our help it never will.

Childhood is a great adventure, one which every one of us is entitled to. Our range of books, seed packs and the Seed Agent Club provide another exciting episode in the journey which parents and children can enjoy together. By encouraging healthy eating for kids, we at the Secret Seed Society can help set them on their way into their teens and beyond; the next adventures.