First Catch your Hare, Grow it, then cook it, online

COVID 19 has made people innovate their lifestyles, hobbies and businessess.  In County Wicklow one engineer who enjoys gardening volunteered online to grow seeds and now has a tribe of 60 poeple following her online, another children’s cookery teacher resorted to daily cookery classes on Facebook – often in fancy dress – to keep her sane and grow her audience even as all her work dried up. Jennifer and Deridre keeping it real – online.

First Catch your Hare, Grow it, then cook it, online

Jennifer is an engineer based in Bray and working for Oriflame. At seven months pregnant she has been working from home since before the lockdown and is finding it can be a little claustrophobic at times. Since moving to her home in Bray she now has a garden and is enjoying her new-found horticultural skills. Her dad and aunt are big into gardening but this is a new hobby for her.

As part of her new interest in all things green she signed up for the community gardens in Kilcool and Greystones which is located behind the Shoreline Gym in Greystones.  This has been a really positive experience for her and she finds the community very helpful and welcoming.

“Gardening people are very friendly,” she says.

In the midst of the COVID19 restrictions Jennifer spotted a note on a Facebook page posted a cousin.

“It was called Grow it Forwards and I was intrigued.”

This is an initiative of the popular Grow it Yourself where they wanted to encourage people to grow their own food. It is championed by people already growing food and plans to adopt newbies into the joy of growing vegetables.

“I signed up and then set up my own Grow it Forwards Greystones group. In a matter of days I have almost 60 people signed up as well – most of them strangers. My post just got shared all over.”

The beauty of this initiative is twofold. Firstly headed up by the GIY group it is providing free packages of seeds for thousands of people – but the packages are given out in packs of ten. This allows for the seeds to be distributed via a group with a leader which means there is a much better chance the seeds will actually be planted. Each leader will then encourage the group and give advice on where and when to plant the seeds and what to do as they sprout.

The second element is that the GIY leadership will continue to offer ongoing advice during the lifecycle of the programme. It is both helping communities come together and grow food but also to foster friendships and fellowships at a local level.

Jennifer protests that she is not an expert of any kind but that she just loves gardening. She is also very excited to work with her team leaders and their groups over the coming weeks and months.

“It’s more than just proving people with a new hobby – it’s all the supports. If you have never planted a seed in your life it doesn’t matter as there will be loads of help and support in the groups.

‘And laughter,” she adds.

Already parents have expressed excitement at having a new project to do with their children, other volunteers have said they always wanted to give gardening a go but never had the time or proper incentive.

Jennifer also points out that people don’t have to have big gardens, in fact they don’t even need to have a garden, a balcony or even a windowsill will work.

“This is about coming together with a general purpose. If we grow vegetables to eat then that will be an amazing result.”

To signup, check out … https://www.changex.org/ie/grow-it-forward/

In a theme familiar to readers of these pages from Wicklow Good News Deirdre Doyle’s business stopped with COVID19. The day the schools were closed was the same day her business effectively stopped. The Cool Food School had been set up in 2018 by Deirdre to teach children how to enjoy a healthy diet by cooking fresh food. The workshops run by Deirdre are characterised by fun, stories, and sensory exploration. In some cases if the children don’t want to eat the food at the end of the class it’s not a problem.

“Forcing a child to eat a food is the best way to turn them off that food forever. Even bribing children to eat foods with a treat afterwards is also counterproductive,” says Deirdre. “Studies have shown that the reward or bribe method only makes the rewarding food more attractive and the forced food even less liked.”

In her workshops the children are encouraged to smell, feel and cut and cook the food on offer. Taste is the very last component and even then Deirdre does not force this section. “I ask them to taste it, even taste it and then spit it out, but it’s not compulsory. The whole emphasis is to get the children to enjoy the food, even if it is just in the making.

Deirdre’s world was further reduced when the lockdown was instituted a few days later. She normally exhibits at food festivals around the country and these too were cancelled.

The day after her business closed Deirdre was really low. She did not get dressed until 4pm. She knew this was not good. Then she had her eureka moment.

“I decided to run my workshops live on Facebook and Instagram so I could still share the fun of healthy eating. It’s a great focal point for my day.”

Deirdre has been doing it every day at twelve noon since March 16 and will continue throughout the lockdown. Parents and children have provided great feedback as well as suggestions of what she might cook next. In addition, she often dresses up as a character to deliver her cookery class – which is fun for the children but which has also been very helpful for Deirdre.

“Today is chicken fajitas,” she says and since I have been planning on doing that one night I’ll be tuning in too.

To follow her workshops check out Cool Food School on Facebook and Instagram at 12 noon every day.

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