Know your Onions
Know your Onions is now in its sixth year, running in 19 schools across London. Students learn to plant fruit and vegetables in their school gardens, which they then sell at their local street market. Along the way, they visit a nearby market garden to see the professionals doing it and have a cooking masterclass with tasty veg dishes.
In 2023, the programme is running in schools in Camden, Hackney, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham, Islington and Croydon. Each school benefits from:
- A visit from an expert horticulturalist who sows seeds with students at the beginning of the growing season (April).
- A trip to a market garden in London so students can see and learn about commercially grown vegetables (in April or May) thanks to our fantastic partners such as OrganicLea, Sutton Community Farm, Growing Communities and Global Generation.
- A Cooking Masterclass in preparing delicious veg dishes (such as carrot koshumbir) delivered by our Food Teacher Sharon.
- This year some students will also learn how to cook with fish, thanks to the Fishmongers’ Company.
- An opportunity to sell their fruit and veg at their local street market in July.
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Horticulture session -
Cooking masterclass -
Market Day -
Market Day
“I’d say I’m actually quite good at selling stuff.”
- Year 8 student, Enfield Grammar School“The garden has benefitted all the children, not just those doing Know your Onions. All the students can engage with it in different ways, and enjoy the sensory aspect of it through taste, touch and smell. They also get to experience food in a new way by seeing where it comes from, picking it and tasting it.”
- Teacher, Durants School
Know your Onions in the press
Waltham Forest Echo, Guardian Series, Enfield Independent, This is Local London, Enfield Dispatch, Hackney Citizen, Inside Croydon
Thank you to our programme funders for making this possible - Barking and Dagenham Council, The Fishmongers’ Charity and The Gosling Foundation.
