The boys and girls headed up to Dunskey estate on Friday morning, by kind invitation of the Orr-Ewing family. We were greeted by Chris, Verena and Aggie who took us foraging in the grounds for wild garlic (minus some adults who managed to get lost!!). Many pupils were surprised at what wild garlic looked like – lots of us had never seen it before, even the adults! Although there was no mistaking it – we could smell the garlic before we saw it! The children learned about natural plants that are edible.
After we had each filled our tubs with garlic, we headed back to the house and split into groups in the kitchen. We had to work together to wash the garlic, tear it up and grind it down to a paste using a mortar and pestle – this really got our muscles working as it was no easy job!! We then added pine nuts, oil, parmesan, salt & pepper, and some lemon juice and continued to grind it altogether until it was smooth.
Chris had cooked some pasta which he mixed with our pesto and we all got a little bowl to taste – there were lots of thumbs up and only a few thumbs down!
We then had some time to have a run about in the garden, before the buses arrived to take us back to school (along with the lingering smell of garlic, which has followed us around all day!).
Many thanks must go to the Orr-Ewing family and the staff at Dunskey for providing the pupils with this experience.
