School supplying fruit and veg to restaurants

Pupils from Wicor Primary School raise between £5,000 to £8,000 a year selling its produce

Green-fingered schoolchildren have been selling fruit and vegetables to local restaurants and shops.

The pupils from Wicor Primary School in Portchester, near Fareham, have been growing plants in their allotment garden for 16 years.

It has started to sell surplus produce to The A Bar bistro in Portsmouth and The Fruit Basket shop in Stubbington, which distribute to other restaurants

Selling the food grown on site raises between £5,000 to £8,000 a year, some of which is spent on buying new tools, compost and glass in the greenhouse.

Adam Maker, head chef at the A Bar in Old Portsmouth, said he was proud to get veg from his old school

Eight-year-old Oscar said: "I think it's very cool because we grow here and other people eat it at restaurants."

School horticulturalist Louise Moreton successfully persuaded the head to let her dig up part of the playing field and said she has not looked back.

"Year two are growing onions, year five are growing garlic, but we also like to grow more unusual plants like lovage, caraway and bronze fennel," she said.

Gardening is not a core subject in the National Curriculum, but head teacher Mark Wildman said horticulture played an important part in the children's education.

He said: "My thinking is that this will empower children to have more of a knowledgeable, articulate voice about what needs to happen.

"It's about connection with nature as well, if you don't know it's there, then you don't know it's gone.

"So we're trying to open children's eyes to what biodiversity is, what creatures are there under the soil, in the trees, in the bark in around the pond, so that they have a much better awareness of their natural world."

'Calms me down'

Adam Maker, head chef at the A Bar in Old Portsmouth, said it was a proud moment for him when he contacted the school, which he attended as a child, to ask for some fruit and veg.

"Too many kids are growing up on beige foods from the oven, from the air fryer, the freezer, they're not familiar with things like beetroot and, fresh, good quality ingredients," he said.

The pupils also eat what they grow and take home recipe cards and some have even started gardening at home.

Elara, 10, said: "We have wild strawberries growing by our fence. We grow blueberries and grapes too.

"For Me gardening is really peaceful. It just calms me down.

"Whenever I'm a bit stressed at home I normally just go into my garden and just water my plants because it just makes me feel very zen."

The school also has a polytunnel, a kitchen garden full of herbs, and an orchard that was planted eight years ago when Fareham Borough Council offered the school the chance to plant some trees.

They have branched out since then and have several varieties of apple, as well as historic fruit trees which were popular in the reign of King Henry VIII like medlars and quince.