By Kate Hodges
18th August 2021
RECIPE AND MAKE BERRY GOOD
We are now in full-on blackberry-picking mode. If there are any left after eating them straight from the bramble, we’re going to try some recipes that go beyond crumble and standard jam; try blackberry and chocolate pizza or quinoa with berries. This chocolate blackberry sauce affair looks incredible, while fermented blackberry soda will see us through warm, late-summer afternoons in fizzy, gut-healthy style. Our love for lemon curd knows no boundaries, but we’re betting it’s even tarter spiked with berries, while blackberry sage sorbet has us drooling. Find many more ideas, including kid-friendly fruit leathers here.
Alternatively, why not use blackberries and other natural materials to dye clothes? Natural vegetable dyeing combines the fun of fire (although you can do it just as easily in your kitchen), crazy experimentation, and customising your clothes. Colours come from natural materials – onion skins, blackberries, beetroot, spinach, bark and oats – and fixed using a ‘mordant’ – a salt or vinegar solution. Find full instructions here. Why not try using the method to create some crazy, all-natural, tie-dye effects – find ideas for patterns here, or to dye wool for knitting or weaving?
DO TREASURE HUNT Saturday is International Geocaching Day. This cross between a treasure hunt, a ramble and orienteering was invented in the USA in 2000, but quickly exploded in popularity. Now millions of people use sites such as geocaching.com to track down stashes of goodies or visitor books strapped into Tupperware containers hidden in woods, countryside or parks near them. Add purpose to a family walk, pique teenagers’ into leaving the house, and maybe even leave your own little box of treasure somewhere. Find out more here and here or, as we’ve been doing, explore art works along the south coast in the world’s first-ever art GeoTour.
EVENT TUNE UP Team up online to write a song about saving our planet! Join professional singer-songwriter Dan Whitehouse for this free online songwriting project. Help write and record a song and produce the music video that will be previewed on the big screen at Midland Arts Centre’s EcoFest in September. There will be three one-hour sessions and a celebration session at the end to watch the finished music video, but it’s not necessary to attend all the events. Suitable for ages 8-25. More here
DO MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS This Monday is World Plant Milk Day; join thousands of people around the world in taking the seven-day, dairy-free challenge. Research consistently shows that a wholefood, plant-based diet – including plant milk – is good for you. It’s also good for the planet, and for cows too! Find dairy-free recipes here and check out Switch4Good’s guide to choosing your alternatives here
EVENT READING ROCKS Bradford Literary Festival’s free Family Fun Day takes place this Saturday in Victoria Park, Keighley. Enjoy storytelling, live theatre and music, creative workshops, craft sessions, a book hunt, a funfair and a host of walkabout characters. Award winning family theatre company Wrongsemble will be performing a magical musical pop up adventure, The Magician’s Monster, there will be book packs hidden around the park and clay model-making for an installation. More fun days take place at Peel Park and Lister Park on August 28 and September 4. Find out more here
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING The Paralympics start next Tuesday August 24. 537 events from 22 sports will be contested, with badminton and taekwondo the new additions to the programme. We can’t wait! Read the stories of some of the athletes to keep a close eye on here, and find ways you can show your support for the team here, activities and background information here, and home education resources here. More broadly, discover more about parasport and how you can get involved here
WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO The Consciously Parenting Project Podcast Episode #40 – Raising Emotionally Healthy Boys (part 1): “How can we best support our boys when they are young and as they grow into men? There are many cultural messages for boys around feelings, so how do we navigate that territory? How do we stay respectful of our boys’ biology and neurobiology? We want to make sure we are creating the space for their emotions and really respecting that they’re different than we are as women and moms.
In this episode, Rebecca talks with Nathan McTague of The Center for Emotional Education. They discuss how emotion is actually processed in the brain, the real needs of children who are experience intense feelings, and how testosterone causes all kinds of “wonkiness” for teenage boys. Listen here
