07/10/2026
October Newsletter
There is something special about cooking together as a family.
It might be the simple rhythm of chopping vegetables, stirring a pot, sharing stories around the kitchen table, or watching children discover where their food comes from. Cooking gives us an opportunity to slow down, connect, learn from one another, and create something nourishing together.
And just as our families grow and change, so do the seasons.
Learning From the Changing Seasons
Each season brings something different to our gardens, our kitchens, and our lives. Spring brings new beginnings. Summer brings abundance. Autumn invites us to harvest, preserve, and give thanks. Winter encourages rest, preparation, and reflection.
Growing food teaches us that change is natural.
A seed does not become a plant overnight. It needs the right conditions, care, patience, and time. Families are much the same. We grow through shared experiences, challenges, celebrations, and the everyday moments that bring us together.
Cooking with seasonal ingredients can become a beautiful way to notice these changes. A summer salad becomes an autumn soup. Fresh berries become jam. Surplus vegetables can be preserved for colder months. What we grow today can nourish us tomorrow.
Growing in a Changing Climate
But our seasons are changing too.
A changing climate can bring warmer temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, drought, flooding, new pests, and growing conditions that are different from those we have known before. For anyone who grows food, these changes can feel challenging and sometimes uncertain.
Yet gardens can also teach us resilience.
We can choose plants suited to changing conditions, improve the health of our soil, collect rainwater where appropriate, protect our crops, grow a greater variety of foods, and learn which traditional practices can help us adapt.
Most importantly, we can learn together.
Children who help plant seeds, care for vegetables, harvest food, and prepare meals are learning more than how to cook. They are learning patience, responsibility, creativity, resourcefulness, and respect for the natural world.
Autumn is a wonderful time to bring the harvest into the kitchen. Root vegetables, apples, pumpkins, squash, leeks, cabbage and seasonal herbs can be turned into comforting meals that are perfect for cooking together.
Hearty Autumn Vegetable Soup
You’ll need:
2 carrots
2 potatoes
1 onion
1 leek
1 small squash or pumpkin
1 litre vegetable stock
A handful of fresh herbs
A little oil
Salt and pepper
Method:�Chop the vegetables together — with younger children helping to wash and prepare ingredients safely. Gently cook the onion and leek in a little oil, then add the remaining vegetables and stock. Simmer for around 25–30 minutes until everything is tender. Blend until smooth, or leave it chunky for a more rustic soup.
Serve with warm, crusty bread.
Apple & Cinnamon Crumble
You’ll need:
4–5 cooking apples
100g oats
100g plain flour
75g butter
75g brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Method:�Peel and chop the apples and place them in a baking dish. Mix the oats, flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle over the apples and bake at 180°C for around 30–35 minutes, until golden and bubbling.
This is a great recipe for children to help with — especially making the crumble topping!
Roasted Pumpkin & Squash
You’ll need:
Pumpkin or winter squash
Olive oil
Garlic
Fresh or dried herbs
Salt and pepper
Method:�Cut the squash into chunks, toss with olive oil, garlic and herbs, and spread onto a baking tray. Roast at 200°C for around 30–40 minutes, turning once, until soft and caramelised.
Try adding the roasted squash to soups, pasta, salads or grain bowls. Using leftovers creatively is a simple way to reduce food waste.
Make Mealtimes Matter
Cooking together doesn't have to mean preparing an elaborate meal.
Give everyone a job. Let one person wash the vegetables, another measure ingredients, another set the table. Talk about what is growing in the garden and where the ingredients came from.
Ask children questions:
What grows well in autumn?�Which foods can we save for winter?�What could we grow differently if the weather changes?�How can we use our leftovers rather than throwing them away?
These conversations turn an ordinary meal into an opportunity to learn about food, nature, climate and one another.
Growing Together
We cannot control every change in our climate, but we can choose how we respond.
We can grow with curiosity rather than fear. We can cook with what is available. We can share what we have. We can learn from nature rather than trying to work against it.
A family meal made from something grown in the garden is more than food on a plate. It represents care, cooperation, patience, and connection.
So this autumn, why not make the kitchen part of your garden?
Grow something together. Cook something together. Sit down together.
Because when families grow food, cook food, and learn together, they are not only preparing a meal for today, they are learning for tomorrow.
