OrchardWorld have joined forces with Monkwick Infant and Nursery School (part of the Sigma Trust) in an exciting opportunity to educate the next generation on the curriculum topic of fruit farming, but more importantly encouraging them to eat more fruit by making fruit fun! Family values are at the heart of our brand, so this was the perfect collaboration.
Our first event saw the Monkwick Infants school’s ‘Echo Council’ join us at the farm where some of our fruit is grown. These children set this club up as they care about the environment and are interested in what nature has to offer, so seeing the orchards on this scale was a huge eye opener for them. They absorbed the information we fed to them and took it back to the school to share with the rest of the class. We were blown away with their knowledge and I think that the tour opened their minds to opportunities, there was a noted realisation on the science that goes into running an operation like this.
They saw the irrigation system that drip feeds food and water to each tree, and how it is program led and smart enough to detect when a specific plant is wasting anything; it can re-program to supply less next time round to avoid waste. They also learnt how we breed beneficial bugs to eat the bad bugs in a plan to try and eradicate pesticides as much as possible and how bees are very important to the production of our fruit. They also found out that the orchards are planted from North to South, so that the east side gets the sun in the morning and the west side gets the sun in the evening to give the fruit the best opportunity to fully develop. And finally, how to pick the fruit in a specific way so that the buds underneath are protected for next year and the fruit is not bruised during the operation. None of this learning was complete without a tractor ride through the Apple and Cherry orchards, seeing the trees span for miles. We think it was safe to say they enjoyed themselves.
Our second visit took place last week, where we visited year 2s at the school: the focus for these visits was to try and encourage the pupils to try fruit that they had perhaps not tried before and engage them in a bit of fun to tempt them. They all did an excellent job of creating their very own fruit peacock. This allowed them to explore their creativity, and let their minds run wild with the possibilities, producing a colorful, tasty treat. Some of them could not help themselves and were eating the fruit to keep their energy up and creative flair alive. It was great to see them all enjoying themselves, we had reports that some children had not tried a plum before and loved them. After this we moved onto creating Halloween pumpkin faces using the apples as stencils. As you can imagine this was quite a hit with the children, the messier the better. Fortunately, we provided aprons for them! This even bought out the excitement in some of the quieter pupils.
We are pleased to say that the excess fruit did not go to waste, as we donated it to the kitchen. Happy Baking.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Monkwick Infant Infant and Nursery School ( part of the Sigma Trust)l for their support and an even bigger thank you to the year 2 pupils who made this a delightful day. We hope you enjoyed snacking on your Fruit peacocks 😊.