Broccomole - a yummy recipe for broccoli stems!

I was busy this morning blanching and bagging loads of broccoli for winter. It feels to good to have a full deep freezer, with lots of yummy healthy foods that I've prepared (and in some cases grown) myself!


Fresh broccoli bagged for freezing, and ready for the year. It is so much cheaper to prepare and freeze your own.

But what to do with those broccoli stems? When you're dealing with a LOT of broccoli (I bagged up about a dozen bagfuls), if you're like me, you don't like wasting anything.


I'm not giving these to the chooks!

Here's the solution: a great, healthy dip recipe that is quick to make, loaded with taste, and freezable. It's BROCCOMOLE! And even friends of mine who claim to HATE green veggies love this one.


Yum! Broccomole is one of my favourite dips. It's so healthy and tasty, and it has zippo calories.

Broccomole

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of cooked broccoli stems, with the tough outer layers and leaves removed.
  
• 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  
• 1 tomato, chopped in half.
  

Method:

• Run all ingredients except the broccoli stems through the food processor until well blended.
  
• Gradually add the broccoli stems, until well blended.
  
• Chill before serving.
  
• If the broccomole is a bit too runny, and has excess liquid, that's because your broccoli was very fresh. Simply drain off the excess liquid before serving.
  

This recipe is also great with added extra diced tomatoes, if they're in season - they add an extra yummy texture and flavour.

Variation: Curry Broccomole

Add a dessertspoon of mild curry paste to the broccomoli mix and stir well.

Have a lovely day!

Happiness is home grown plums :)

Our orchard fruit are ripe.


I think these are "Black Doris" but we're not 100% sure. They're dark inside, very juicy and so lovely to eat fresh or stewed.

I've been busy picking the fruit, and stewing, freezing, and chopping.

I've had to be quick to grab the low-hanging fruit. Because we're permaculturists, we let our sheep graze the established orchard. And two of the lambs in particular - Gabrielle and Sputnik - have learned that ripe organic plums are mighty tasty.


We're not sure what variety these are, as the tree was here when we bought the farm. But they're yellow in colour and very sweet. Delicious! Anyone know what variety they are?

They reach up on their rear legs (I'll try to grab a photo of them doing it, but I'll have to be quick!) and grab the plums straight off the tree! And of course they prefer the best, ripest, sweetest fruit!


Yum!


I'm lucky to be able to leave the fruit that isn't so good on the ground. Then I just let our chooks through, and then clean up the fruit sitting there. I remember how, when I was little and we had apricot trees, we had to spend hours picking up the ground fruit. With chickens, we don't have to - they do the work for us!


Greengage plums. We think.

I don't have a preserving kit yet, but freezing the fruit in bags works just fine. Then in the middle of winter - when fruit is most expensive - I'd just grab a bag or two, and we'll be set.

It will be homemade crumbles, stews, pies - you name it!


I usually stop collecting when the bucket is full and my arm begins to ache.

Yes - happiness is home grown plums :-)


Have a lovely day!

Meet RAMSES - our new ram!

Meet Ramses - our new ram!



He was born in September 2011, so he's still a young'un, and raring to go already! We bought him from a friend down the road, as we were looking for a good-tempered young ram lamb to add to our farm for the 2013-2014 season.

Ramses is a black faced sheep (can't you tell?) but he's not a purebred - if we wanted a purebred, we'd have paid a LOT of money, and we're just a small family farm, without a huge amount of cash to spend.



We were simply looking for a healthy young ram to add new blood to our stock, and Ramses fit the bill. Because our sheep are mainly for meat, and their wool is low-grade (for carpets, rather than delicate little merino luxury fashion items for spoilt wealthy women), keeping purebred sheep doesn't matter to us. Hybrid vigour and health does, as does good temperament, because we have young children.

Ramses is too young to become a father just yet. For this mating season, Rambo (our current, older ram, who is the father of our young ewes) will be the lucky man again with our four mature ewes. We'll be keeping his four daughters separate from him of course - you don't breed father to daughter!



Breeding season, which is called "tupping" is in autumn, and already Rambo is hanging out near the fence, and baaaa-ing lovingly to his ladies, in the hopes they'll come close enough for some wine and chocolates ;-)

After this breeding season, Rambo will go back to his owner, John, at the farm across the road. Then next autumn, Ramses will be big and mature enough to breed with both the older ewes and our younger ewes. He'll be in clover.

I don't think he realises yet that he's hit the gravy train!

At the moment, Ramses is in quarantine in the Hazelnut orchard. He'll be there for two weeks, and seems quite happy settling in to his new life here at Hazeltree Farm.


Have a lovely day!

Why free ranging our chickens isn't working

We've decided to stop free ranging our chickens. We'll be building them an extended run and a "chicken tractor" and their free ranging days are about to end.



It just hasn't worked. I know it sounds (and looks) lovely and idyllic to think of chickens clucking about a farmyard happily, doing the chicken thang, all happy and healthy etc. etc.

But it didn't work for us. We've given it two years, and we've struggled to get vegetables growing. The fencing got higher and higher, and in the end I just gave up, because the chooks got into everything. Ate everything. Destroyed everything.

Our flowers got eaten within minutes of going in the ground. Our veggies went the same way. Our lettuces were barricaded with chook wire and mesh, and it was the only way we managed to grow anything.



The strawberries were stripped, and then the leaves eaten - all that was left of them were the roots. Then the chooks dug up the roots and ate them too.

We tried leaving the chooks in the coop, and just going in to feed them. But our chicken coop has a human-sized door, and every time I went in, the chooks go out. They're sneaky little buggers! So that didn't work.

After two years, I have come to the conclusion that if we're going to be serious about growing our own food (which we are), and have anything besides fruit trees, sheep and chickens, we need to contain the chooks in their coop and run. The simply can't free range any more.


What looks good in theory doesn't necessarily work in practice

What looks and sounds good in theory doesn't necessarily work in practice, we've found. I'd say we're starting to be pretty seasoned farmers now. I'm a girlie who can haul an 80 kilogram (180 pound) sheep around and not think anything of it.

I've castrated ram lambs and watched the kill guy load his gun and shoot, then gut and skin, lambs that I saw raised from birth. Yeah, I'm a farmer all right. And I love it. This is what I was born to do.

So when I say it's a tough decision to have to say no to free-ranging, I mean it. But it just isn't working. As much as I adore the animal side of farming (and now we're thinking of getting pigs in!), I want a veggie garden too. And I just can't do that with chickens destroying everything I want to do.

So, sorry chickens. It's cage time for you. I'll make sure the run is good and large, and give them plenty of space. But their days of free ranging in the sun are just about over.

I've got farming to do.

Have a lovely day!

Of chickens: hatching, merging flocks, sexing, breeding...and roosters that don't crow

We've had fifteen baby chicks hatch so far, and that plastic crate / homemade brooder is getting pretty crowded.


It's getting to standing room only in there! And they haven't all hatched yet!

So I've been busy converting our cucumber house into a larger secondary chicken brooder / coop.

We've currently still got our original chooks, who are laying...a little bit. And they're in our big chicken coop out the back. But you can't put baby chicks in with older chooks - the older chooks would attack the littlies, and kill them.

Chickens are very territorial. Even when introducing a full grown hen, you have to be very careful putting her into an established flock.

You do it at night, when they're sleeping - slot her into amongst the others on the roost, and then they'll accept her - they wake in the morning, and figure that the newbie has "always been there"! But if you put a newbie in while they're awake, they'd attack.

With our chickens, we intend to keep a few of our older chickens from our original flock. Our "easter eggers", who are still laying nicely, and our Barnevelder rooster and hen, who are only a year old.

So we'll be merging flocks.


Get ready...one, two three - MERGE!


Setting up a secondary brooder

So what I've been busy doing, as the plastic brooder crate is getting too crowded, is fixing up electricity in our old cucumber house. It only has a few cucumber plants in it at the moment, and they're not as important as the chicks.

So I've sorted out electricity there, put up a heat bulb, and it's ready to do. There's already a watering system - I just needed to try it off, so no water went anywhere near the electricity, and instead just into a waterer for the chooks.

We have fifteen birds hatched so far. We've had four purebred barnevelders, one rhode island red, and the rest are our own "mutts". Most of the eggs still waiting to hatch are rhode island reds (they were due after the others, so I'm not worried yet), plus a couple of light sussex.

After this round, we may consider hatching out another brood, for friends and to sell around Dunedin. But we've been really happy.

If you're ever going to "turn a flock over" you really have two choices. One is to cull the old flock before the new flock are laying, as they'll soon get too big for most brooders.

The second choice is to have a really big brooder, and only hatch out a few chicks.

We're lucky, and have the space and facilities to be able to hatch out lots of chicks at once.

Culling your old flock before the newbies arrive would mean, of course, that you're without eggs for half a year while the littlies get up to laying age. Hatching out only a few chicks means you wouldn't have to have a secondary chook facility, but if you get a majority of males, you might be in difficulty, depending on how many hens you need to replace.

For us, we want a rolling flock stock of about 6-8 hens plus a rooster or two (ideally we'd like a barnevelder rooster as well as a rhode island red rooster). To get those numbers, we needed to hatch out 16-20 chicks (because half of them will likely be roosters), which means incubating about 30-50 eggs (depending on how lucky you feel).


Hatch rates

So far our hatch rates have been:

• Our own eggs: 11 chicks from 15 eggs.
  
• Barnevelder eggs from Appletons: 4 chicks out of 6 eggs (one egg was infertile, one is still unhatched but shows signs of life)
  
• Mix of eggs from Kennerleys: 1 hatched so far (one rhode island red). 2 infertile when candled, and thrown out. *9 still due to hatch and show signs of life.
  

Sexing chickens

The breeds we've chosen (Barnevelder, Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex) are easy to confirm gender with from quite an early age, whereas some breeds (like white leghorns) are really hard to tell.

I think there's an advantage in choosing breeds that are easy to sex. With white leghorns, for example, even experts have been known to be fooled by accidentally keeping a rooster, thinking it was a chicken!


Breeding for a purpose

The breeds I'm interested in particularly are Barnevelders and Rhode Island Reds. Both are dual purpose birds (good layers and good meat birds), and they're heavy birds, so they don't fly around a while lot.

This means several advantages. It means the males we breed are useful - as meat birds. As heavy birds that don't fly, we don't have to build coops, tractors and fences so high either.

But I'm especially interested in crossing the two breeds. Rhodies are noted for excellent egg laying, but it does drop off quite a bit through winter. Barnies, on the other hand, are excellent winter layers - it's what they were bred for.

I'm hoping to breed dual purpose birds that lay really well right through the winter.

Well, that's the theory ;-) You'll see how it goes, over time!


Is that a rooster or a chicken?

Some white leghorn roosters (and certain other breeds of roosters) don't crow. Saying that, this could be an advantage if you live in the city, and want to slip past the authorities!

Many cities and councils don't allow roosters because of the noise, but I figure if there isn't any noise, what they don't know can't hurt them!

Our young birds will be old enough and big enough to go in with the oldies at about ten weeks. We'll do the neat trick of putting them in with the old flock one by one, at night.


Turning the flock over

We should be able to tell for certain how many females we have in about six to eight weeks from now. Then the hens should begin laying from about 16 weeks.

Once they're laying, we'll get rid of the last of our old chooks that we're not keeping.

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Have a lovely day!

CHICKENMANIA! Hatching eggs like crazy!

Our eggs are hatching like crazy right now, and it's all I can do to keep up with them.

Remember how I said we had one chickie hatch?

Well, now we have SIX.


The oldest four in the incubator. These were born before Friday. Then I found two more hatched eggs yesterday and today.

My life is now ruled by little balls of fluff that CHIRP CHIRP at me all day long and think I'm their mama, but I have to admit, they're absolutely gorgeous.

My main problem is trying to explain to my four year old daughter that chickies are not really ideal pets to play with in her dolls house!


The ones that have hatched so far are all Barnevelder crosses, and vary a lot in colouring. But these all have the distinctive Barnevelder chick stripes down their bodies - there is no doubt their Daddy is Sirius Black.

Last time I turned the eggs, which was this evening, another one had started to wobble and chirp at me, and I suspect that we may have another fluffy customer arrive for food and lodgings in time for breakfast tomorrow.

They never pay either, these freeloaders!


What? You want a room with a view? Sorry, but its group lodgings around here, friend!

I've been keeping records of our chicks as they've arrived, and attempted to sex them by looking at the feathers on their wingtips. If I'm right, so far we have M, F, F, F, F and M. It will be interesting to find out!

If you're interested in sexing chickens using the wingtip method, here's quite a good Youtube:




Sitting near the waterer. Baby chicks need a special waterer that they cannot drown in, and special small food pellets called "crumbles".

There are a lot more eggs still to hatch, so I'm hoping we get a great number of chooks.

Half are likely to be male, but in the end, we just need about 6-8 females to replace our current flock, and the rest of the hens can be given to friends or sold.

Yep - "chickenmania" is about right!

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Have a lovely day!

Really easy NO KNEAD brown bread

This homemade bread recipe is cheap, easy, terrific and fast. It makes two large (9 inch) loaves.


Ready for spreading some butter, or lovely homemade jam. You just can't beat homemade bread, fresh from the oven.

You don't need a breadmaker, and you don't need to knead.

You mix it with a spoon. If you're really frail or small, you may need a hand mixer, but I use a spoon and it works just fine.

Having to knead is the main reason why I never made my own bread until recently. As for those breadmaker loaves - they're so small they won't feed a family like mine. Which is why I don't own a breadmaker.

By comparison, these loaves are lovely large loaves that will really feed your family.

This recipe can easily be made while you're watching television or relaxing or hobbying at night, with a few quick jobs to do from time to time.

It only takes about 15 minutes worth of actual effort, which can be adjusted to your TV viewing / knitting / childminding / gardening schedule ;-)

I also love this recipe because the bread it makes is filling and satisfying. It tastes and smells terrific, and is healthier than anything available on the supermarket shelf.

Plus, there's nothing better than cutting yourself a big hunk of warm bread, straight from the oven, and spreading some lovely butter on it, which melts into yummy goodness. Add a pinch of salt to the top, and I'm in heaven!

Oh, I'm getting hungry now!

I freeze one loaf when I'm done, and one loaf usually gets eaten pretty quickly.

Here's the recipe:

Really easy NO KNEAD Brown Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of bran
  
• 1 cup of boiling water
  
• 2 cups of wholemeal flour
  
• 2 teaspoons of salt
  
• 1 tablespoon of active yeast (or 2 tablespoons of Surebake)
  
• 1 cup cold water
  
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup (see note*)
  
• 1 cup boiling water, extra
  
• 1 egg
  
• 3 cups high grade flour
  

Method:
PART 1 - Takes about 2 minutes effort

1. Mix the bran and the first cup of boiling water in a bowl together and set aside for 20 minutes.
   
2. Put wholemeal flour, salt and yeast in a second bowl and stir together.
   
3. (Go do something for 20 minutes)
   
   
   The bran with boiling water added (small bowl). I also usually measure out the dry ingredients at the same time.
   
   PART 2 - Takes about 10 minutes effort
   
4. Add cold water and golden syrup, followed immediately by the boiling water to the mixed flour, salt and yeast.
   
5. Stir to a smooth paste and stand the mix for 2 to 3 minutes.
   
6. Gradually mix in the egg and a first cup of the white flour, then add the bran and water mix from the first bowl.
   
7. Keep adding the white flour bit by bit, mixing as you go for 3 to 4 minutes, until the mix becomes a very stiff dough, and is thoroughly combined.
   
   
   A stiff dough. All your ingredients should be in by now!
   
   
8. Cover and put in a warm place (I put my on top of the oven, and bake cookies at the same time) for 15 minutes.
   
9. (Go do something for 15 minutes)
   
   PART 3 - Takes about 3 minutes
   
10. Stir the mix well, and pour into two 22 cm / 9 inch greased loaf pans.
    
11. Put in a warm place until the dough doubles in volume.
    
12. (Go away and do something again)
    
    
    The dough divided...
    
    
    ...And doubled in volume.
    
    PART 4 - Takes 35 minutes
    
13. When the dough has doubled in volume, bake at 200 degrees celsius / 390 fahrenheit for 35 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base of the bread.
    

Out of the oven. And it smells so delicious. Yum!

NOTE: Golden syrup is really, really common through Commonwealth countries, but not so common in the US. Apparently a brand called "Lyle's Golden Syrup" is available there.

You can find it in specialty shops, or substitute the golden syrup with a) two parts light corn syrup plus one part molasses or b) equal parts honey and corn syrup or c) maple syrup or d) dark corn syrup.

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Have a lovely day!

Healthy kids lunchboxes on a tight budget

My kids lunchboxes are looking good this year, with a whole stack of budget treats to keep them happy and full.

Here's what they get in a typical day:

• Sandwich: My kids get a sandwich, made from home made brown bread. I make up loaves on the weekend, and freeze them in the deep freeze. I'll post the recipe in the next few days - my recipe doesn't even need kneading!
  
  A favourite filling for my daughter is home made strawberry jam. My son loves the eternal favourite cheese and vegemite.
  
  Home made bread is so much better than store-bought bread, because not only is it much cheaper, it is more filling and doesn't have all the additives that are commonly found in store-purchased foods. And it tastes so much better!
  

This is what my kids lunchboxes look like - green for my son, and pink for my daughter (don't blame me - they chose the colours!). The boxes divide into three compartments, one big area for a sandwich, and two smaller ones for extras. I'm a fan. Available from Sistema and made in New Zealand.

• Vegetables: I try to always put a vegetable in. Both kids love carrot and celery sticks, and these great compartment lunchboxes keep them fresh. My son likes peanut butter filled celery sticks, as a treat.
  
  Other options include cherry tomatoes (we grow them), raw broccoli florets, or a few baby spinach leaves. My kids munch it all.
  
  
• Fruit: When we don't have our own fruit available, I just buy whatever looks good, is locally produced, and is in season. I usually chop the apples up into slices, when it is apples - for some reason, the kids will always eat apple pieces, whereas whole apples often come home. Go figure!
  
  
• Nuts: Neither my son's school or my daughter's kindy have a nut-free policy, so nuts are in!
  
  We grow lots of hazelnuts, so often hazelnuts are what the kids get. I pre-crack the nuts for the kids the weekend before, and load them into their lunch boxes. Fresh, organic hazelnuts are terrific, and so healthy.
  
  Any other variety of nuts are a great option for kids, so long as they're raw and unsalted. It's while our kids are young that their tastes and habits - good, and bad - are developing.
  
  Why not give our kids good habits, and a taste for healthy foods, instead of a taste for high salt, unhealthy choices?
  
  
• Eggs: When our chooks are laying like crazy, I sometimes pop a hard boiled egg in the kids lunchboxes, pre-peeled of course!
  
  
• Cookies: The kids get home made cookies in their lunch box. I make up huge batches of hokey pokey cookies, and freeze them in ziplock bags. Then I just pull a couple out for each child's lunch box every morning.
  
  Having the cookies frozen also means that I'm not tempted to eat them - if I can't see them, I won't eat them! Trust me, if they were in a cookie jar, they wouldn't last two days. In the freezer they last two weeks.
  
  
• Seaweed crackers: Both kids love these, and they're cheap and fast. They're an old standby, and a handful keeps the kids happy. I buy the home brand crackers, which taste just as good. I usually buy them on special, and keep them fresh in a container in the pantry.
  

And my kids' morning tea boxes, also from Sistema.

How to prepare for healthy lunchboxes

• Do all your baking on the weekend, and bake in BULK. I bake four loaves of bread at a time, and make 50 cookies to a batch, then pre-slice and freeze both bread and cookies. All done, and ready, in less time than a trip to the supermarket.
  
  
• Slice veggies into sticks, and store in a sealed container in the fridge, all ready. Absorbent paper or a terry cloth inside the container will keep moisture at bay, and help keep everything fresh.
  
  
• Pre-chop apples and other fruit. Toss in a bit of lemon juice, to keep them from going brown, then pop in a sealed container. If you have room for a lemon tree, by the way, they're about the most useful tree you can grow!
  
  
• Pre-boil eggs to last a week. Peeled hard boiled eggs can be stored in the fridge in a bowl covered in water, which is changed daily (this is also how you store tofu). Or you can store them in a sealed container, covered in a damp cloth or damp absorbent paper towels.
  
  
• Shell your own nuts each week. Depending on where you buy them, nuts can be much cheaper to buy unshelled. Source local farmer's markets and farm gate sales, or friends with nut trees, then crack bagfuls each weekend in advance.
  
  
• Water bottles: Don't let your child share his / her water bottle, and don't put anything in the bottle except water. Any other drink will be more likely to contaminate the bottle, rendering it unusable. More importantly, your child could get sick.
  
  
• Doubling lunchboxes and water bottles. I have two lunchboxes per child, each colour-coded and named. That way, one can be going through the wash while the other is in use. This saves the rush of having to find a lunchbox if one is left at school accidentally, or we forget to wash it until morning.
  
  I also have a separate lunchbox and morning tea box for each child. This makes it easier for the kids when they're pulling stuff out of their bag and in a rush.
  
  Rotating lunchboxes and bottles also means that they can properly air dry on the drainer (rather than just towel or dishwashing-drying them), which means they will stay cleaner and more hygienic.
  

What to avoid - the nasties!

• Individual yoghurt pots: Schools here in New Zealand are banning these, because of the waste disposal issue. They're ending up in our waterways and on our beaches, and wildlife are eating the plastic spoons they come with, and the foil lids. And they're so expensive!
  
  Young kids also have problem undoing the lids. My daughter (age four) still need assistance opening one.
  
  Yoghurt is available in tubes, but these are also presenting a waste problem, because small pieces of plastic from the torn (opened) end are ending up all over the playground, in the sandpits, and in waterways again. Also, most of the yoghurts available in this packaging are not true yoghurt, and contain huge amounts of sugar and additives.
  
  Yoghurt is a good food in moderation, but is better served at the breakfast table, on cereal. And make your own!
  
  
• Juice and juice drinks: I used to babysit a little girl when I was younger, whose sippy cup was always filled with juice. By the time she was 5, all her baby teeth had to be removed because they'd rotted out.
  
  Worse, her developing adult teeth in her gums were also deformed from the juice, and she went on to need major dental work. I don't want to think what it did to her self-image.
  
  I'm really not a fan of juice, and neither is my dentist! She's banned me from drinking it. It's acidic (ever heard of citric acid!) and will damage your child's teeth just as surely as Coke will.
  
  Juice these days has all sorts of additives (flavour packs, various chemicals, preservatives, and sometimes fish oils) put in, and is a far cry from something you just squeeze from a fruit.
  
  In short, kids shouldn't be drinking juice, and neither should adults. The only way I use juice these days is watered down, to make my own ice blocks (popsicles). I don't let my kids drink it.
  
  
• Milk: Milk doesn't belong in a school drink bottle, simply because of the refrigeration / health issue. Milk gunks up the sipper lids of drink bottles and grows bacteria easily.
  
  Give children milk at home before and after school if you want (in a glass), but not at school, and not in a drink bottle.
  
  Those UHT milk boxes that are available are expensive and can be difficult for children to open. Like juice boxes, they also have disposal / waste issues, and are not a great choice for lunchboxes.
  
  
• Deli slices: Foods like salami, pressed chicken and other, similar options are not healthy, are high in fat, and are common sources of food recalls.
  
  If you want to put meat in your children's sandwiches, save some chicken pieces or lamb from the weekend roast. Give them real meat, not the fake stuff. Leftovers are also much cheaper than buying pressed, processed meat slices.
  

Benefits of a healthy lunchbox

• No packaging! - Real food doesn't need packaging. It also doesn't need preservatives, additives, colours, flavours, stabilisers, or any of those weird "E numbers".
  
  We're people, not machines! Isn't it about time our children got to eat real food?
  
  
• Real food is cheaper: Real foods are a lot, LOT cheaper than packaged foods and pre-made treats that you can buy for your kids in the supermarket. You will save a lot of money.
  
  Likewise, you don't need luxury superfoods, specialist food "extracts", organic "health bars", low fat "probiotic baby yoghurt health drinks" or other rubbish. That's marketing. None of it has been proven to do anyone any good.
  
  Real healthy food comes from the produce section, and is affordable. Just choose what is cheap and seasonal, and make your own as much as possible.
  
  
• Real food is quicker and easier: I know the processed stuff has been sold on the "quick and easy" line, but that is NOT true. How many hours do you have to work to pay for it all?
  
  How much time will you spend nursing a child whose immune system is down because they're not eating properly?
  
  And young children especially often find the little packets and plastic spoons and cups hard to open and manage. With real food, you just need to get organised, do big bake-ups, and plan your shopping around what is in season.
  
  
• Real food will make your kid SMARTER: Childrens brains develop better with real, healthy food to support them. You are what you eat.
  
  Children who eat whole natural foods perform better at school, sleep better, and are less likely to have behavioural problems. Same with adults too - so why not pack yourself a healthy lunchbox when you do the kids'?
  
  
• Kids who eat well are more likely to grow up to be adults who eat well. Good habits are developed while we're young.
  
  The kids who learn to prefer healthy food will probably grow up to be adults who do the same, while the kids who love junk will probably grow up to be junk-loving adults.
  
  In a world riddled with obesity, diabetes and heart disease, I think we we have the responsibility of teaching our children how to eat well, choose food wisely, and look after their bodies.
  

My seven year old son has just spent a month with his grandparents, and the report back was that he ate everything that was put in front on him, and wasn't fussy at all.

I'm so pleased - he's the only seven year old I know who is eating broccoli and brussels sprouts, cabbage and spinach, feta cheese and olives.

Healthy habits start early. Our generation really got led astray by all the tempting foods around us, but I like to think that with our kids, we'll do better.

It's time to get back to basics, with real good food that brings health, wealth and happiness.

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Have a lovely day!