So, a couple of weeks ago I spent a couple of days volunteering at the Out of the Box festival. I would have spent a couple more, but I split my lip and spent the weekend unable to move my mouth much. The days I did work I was luck enough to work on a workshop called Flourpot. This was a cooking/ gardening workshop and a lot of fun. Apologies for the poor quality photos, they were taken with the camera phone and I thought I would be back for better.
The recipe.
Since it isn’t that legible:
Flourpot Muffins
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
fresh herbs to taste (we were using rosemary, basil, thyme parsley and something else)
Cheese (if you want)
Garnish: cherry tomatoes, olives, poppy seed, pieces of rosemary
24 small terracotta pots, and baking paper to line
1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Line pots, fill with batter (about 2 spoonfuls from a normal cutlery spoon will do it)
3. Garnish
5. Bake in a HOT oven for 12 to 15 minutes
6. Eat
The way that this workshop worked was that there were 5 tables of about 8 to 10 kids each, and a small table in the middle where the chef (with one lucky volunteer kid) mixed the batter. The rest of the kids were cutting up herbs (with safety scissors, which is a pretty good idea) into their own little bowls. The volunteers then came round and dropped two spoonfuls of batter in each bowl, the kids mixed it up a bit and then each filled a flower pot and garnished. We had written each kids name on the pot at the beginning of the session, so they would get the same muffin back.
The tables were the right height for standing kids, not so great for the helpful adult volunteers. My back did get a bit sore.
While the muffins were baking, the kids all went down to the other end of the area, where there were some portable garden beds, a worm farm and a couple of chooks. The chickens had eggs in with them, but they were way too small to have produced them themselves. The kids did a worksheet about the plants, learned about chickens and worm farms, and even attempted corn husk dolls.
Then, when the muffins were done we put them in paper bags and out they went. It was quite a fun exercise, and provided you have a large oven and patience, a good thing for a group of kids. Apparently it works best for 5 & 6 year olds, after that they are too jaded.