Salway Ash shows impeccable taste

Our exciting new project at Salway Ash Primary School is underway. Food Glorious Food! is a celebration of what we love to eat, and an exploration of the stories behind those favourite foods and experiences.

Children from Years 3-6 are spending the month writing their own food stories and sharing recipes for a published anthology that promises to be full of heart, as well as delicious recipes and food tips. They will also perform readings of their work at a special school church service - Thanksgiving and Harvest Festival are very much a part of the autumn calendar.

We started off by inviting food writer Lucy Brazier, author of Christmas at River Cottage, to take us through the five basic tastes that cover all foods: sweet, sour, bitter, salt, and umami (savoury). Lucy devised a series of taste tests that best encapsulated each of these, and challenged the children to write descriptions to create a glossary for the anthology. Quite a tough ask, to think about the essence of the taste rather than describe the ingredient that represents it. The pupils came up with some incredible descriptions that really captured this, with a sprinkle of creative magic that will make the glossary truly unique.

Lucy also shared one of her own food memories about foraging for blackberries and brought some for the children to press through sieves, to demonstrate how she makes her own Berrybena for her family. The pupils sampled this yummy cordial and gave it a big thumbs up.

After also writing heartfelt Odes to their favourite foods, the young food writers were well and truly in the foodie groove, and the next couple of weeks will see them develop their prose to inspire a sense of nostalgia - and rumbly tummies - in their future readers.

Massive thanks to Lucy for her time and generosity of spirit in sharing her food knowledge. It was a fantastic and lively start to this project, and we can’t wait to see how it progresses.