By Kate Hodges
22nd February 2023
EVENT, RECIPE ALL RISE
Real Bread Week is rising nicely this week. It’s a chance to focus on buying real bread from local, independent bakeries and to bake your own! Each year, bakeries, baking schools, mills, schools, youth and community groups bake special loaves (find an event near you here), while countless people bake at home with their families. This year, the breadheads behind the event are encouraging you to shout about what makes your recipe special or even unique, and are working to celebrate bread from all cultures, particularly flatbreads.
We love baking with our family! Find out what making loaves can teach us here, recipes for festive breads here, and a delicious lemon, courgette and rosemary bread here. If you’re brand-new to breadmaking, why not try soda bread? It’s super-easy make with children as it doesn’t use yeast and needs no proving. Or try Rukmini Iyer’s delicious and thrifty mini thyme and tomato rolls or one-pan onion and rosemary skillet bread.
DO EGGS AND CO.
It’s the time of year to start thinking about spotting frogspawn; we’ve already seen mating frogs and spawn. Head for the nearest back garden, river or lake - find more about where and when to spot frog spawn and tips for pond owners here and how to rear frogs from spawn here. If you spot some spawn, why not add your sighting to the Woodland Trust’s excellent Nature’s Calendar, where you can record seasonal events to help experts build up a picture of the state of the nation’s wildlife.
The Wildlife Trusts run regular organised pond dips across the country, as well as inspiring regular groups for very small children and home-educating families check out their events here!
EVENT SPRAY AS YOU GO
The walls of the Saatchi gallery in London are looking a lot more colourful than usual, as Beyond The Streets, the most comprehensive graffiti and street art exhibition the UK has ever seen, takes over all three floors. Explore exceptional moments; the emergence of punk, the birth of hip-hop and street culture’s heavy influence on fashion and film. Great for teenagers and young adults. Watch out for special late-night events including graffiti and stencil workshops, live drawing sessions and DJ sets. Ticketed.
EVENT MAKE IT FAIR
Fairtrade Fortnight runs from February 27–March 12, and is a chance to pause and think about the way that products on our shelves are made and arrive in our shops and how climate change means the communities producing fair trade products need support more than ever before. It’s a great opportunity to sit down with your kids and discuss how your choice of what to buy can affect the lives of farmers and workers across the world. This year, you can visit Endangered Aisle, a pop-up experience in Shoreditch, London, that shines a light on the supermarket staples most at risk of becoming endangered from the climate crisis.
Alternatively, you might like to join an online Big Fair-trade Fortnight Get Together, spread the word of Fairtrade (find resources here) or find out more about what Fairtrade means.
EVENT AND MAKE POLE TO POLE
February 27 is International Polar Bear Day, timed to coincide with the period that polar bear mums and new cubs are snuggling up in their dens. The event focuses on the need to protect this awe-inspiring, species, who have now become ambassadors for the ecological movement. Join events including talks, live Q&A sessions and recycled art workshops, find out more fun facts and get involved in helping saving the bears. Or why not try making your own cute creature; find origami tutorials, desk tidies and newspaper collages here
WHAT WE’RE EATING KALE It’s great when you rustle up a delicious meal from cheap and easy ingredients. Kale is one of those ingredients that costs very little but can really enrich a soup, salad, stir fry or stew. Plus this green leafy vegetable from the Brassica family, is packed with vitamins and minerals that will boost your family’s health. It’s also a vegetable that is readily available during the darker months of winter – perfect for fending off cold weather infections. Find the recipes here
WHAT WE’RE READING The stress secret: 12 ways to meditate – without actually meditating: “Many people struggle with classic forms of meditation, but its benefits are still available. From writing and drawing to pottery or singing, here are everyday ways to find peace” Read more here
