While we are sadly not able to welcome classes to the Hirsel, it's great to see youngsters engaging with our weekly challenges at home. The 'Things to do with Sticks' theme prompted some fantastic creations with stick towers, names written in sticks, some mathsy things, tied picture frames and cheesy sticks to eat. Well done to all, its great to see your imaginative ideas. More photos can be seen in the gallery

As with everyone else our summer term plans have gone by the board - just when bookings were coming in well, Coronavirus put a spanner in the works! However all is not lost as we have plenty ideas for activities which can be done at home, outdoors, in the garden or out on daily walks to explore the world around us. Each week we are emailing out around 5 themed activities suitable for any age and almost anywhere - a recipe is often included. To receive these activities contact sally.fleming@daestates.co.uk. We hope they are useful and enjoyable, helping youngsters to connect to our amazing natural world and appreciate what is on their doorstep.

This winter Food from Scotland has been the popular topic for in-school visits linking with Burn's celebrations and wider Scottish contexts. Following a Powerpoint explaining what crops are grown on the Hirsel farms, many hundreds of oatcakes have been baked as a quick and easy traditional recipe. This was made all the easier thanks to the generous donation of a 25kg bag of oatmeal from John Hogarth Ltd in Kelso - the potential for a lot of oatcakes! (Impressively there is only around 5 kg left!) Throught these visits pupils learnt the story of oats, a grain well suited to the Scottish growing conditions, from field to fork, realising there are various stages in the process involving farm, mill and factory. Where baking facilities were not available in school, Kale Soup is a favourite!

Although winter may have its grip on the Hirsel, as elsewhere, with ice on the lake and short dark days, you will still be assured of a warm welcome at Field to Fork! However an in-school visit might be more appealing - please get in touch if you would like to find out more about workshops. It won't be long before we are seeing the first signs of spring.

Over the autumn we have welcomed our friends at Border Links for various visits. They enjoy a short walk out to appreciate the beautiful surroundings of the Hirsel and take in the changes of the season. This time of year is great for foraging so we made collections of colourful leaves, seed heads, nuts and feathers to arrange in a piece of artwork once back indoors. A cooking activity rounds off the day and is always popular.  

This autumn we hosted two Estate Days for High School year groups in conjunction with RHET. On the first we welcomed around 60 S2 pupils from Jedburgh Grammar School while the following day 90 S3 pupils from the Berwickshire High School took part. The youngsters explored various aspects of estate life through a forestry workshop provided by Fountain Forestry, a river life session by The Tweed Foundation, farming provided by Alistair Hodge and Lesley Mason of RHET, the Douglas Fold of Highland Cattle by Allan Telford, gamekeeping by Craig Birkett the gamekeeper, in which he showed them how to prepare pheasant for the table, and ourselves at Field to Fork baking bread and cooking and tasting the pheasant gougons! The pupils had a fantastic day, huge thanks to our providers, and took home with them a tree sapling kindly donated by Cheviot Trees. 

Sadly Karen is no longer with us at Field to Fork as she and her husband moved to the west coast. Her cookery expertise has been much appreciated and she will be greatly missed - we hope she enjoyed her time with us! We are now have the fantastic assistance of Jane, Stephanie and Jan who will share the role meaning it will not be such feast or famine for them and give the project more flexibility.  

We are thrilled (as you can see!) to have been announced winners of the Scottish Land and Estates 2018 'Helping it Happen' education award at a ceremony held at the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh recently. We have always been very proud of what we offer at Field to Fork but it is fantastic to have the huge commitment of the Estate, who fund this project, acknowledged at a National level. We are grateful to schools for their support and hope we can continue to develop what we do in order to connect more children to what goes on in the countryside and where their food comes from.  

Primary 7 from Edenside made Stuffed Baked Potatoes as they explored getting the balance right between the energy we consume from food and the energy our bodies use. Outdoors they looked at the crops we grow for energy - as carbohydrates and as fuel, and thought about the energy required to grow them.