Two local schools won’t let the grass grow under their feet in a new project this summer.

Wolsingham Secondary School in Weardale and King James I School in Bishop Auckland will be taking part in a ‘Bake Your Lawn’ project.

Pupils will plant wheat seeds in the school grounds this month (April) and harvest them in July. At the start of the new school year in September, they will prepare and mill the crop into flour and bake their own bread.

The seeds have been bought by the Love Food project, which supports the production, use and appreciation of locally grown or reared food throughout Teesdale, Weardale, the Allen Valleys and Derwentside, and are being provided to the schools free of charge.

The Bake Your Lawn programme has been established by Sustain and the Real Bread Campaign to enable schools and other organisations to learn about the growing process and how bread is made.

Organiser, and assistant to the Director of Love Food, Angela Whiting said: ‘It is part of our aim to help young people understand where their food comes from and how it is made. They won’t get much more locally made bread than from growing the grain themselves.’

Love Food will provide guidance to each school throughout the process and is also funding baking workshops in the schools at the end of the programme by Dave Baker, of the Moody Baker artisan bakery in Barnard Castle.

Love Food’s main delivery partners are Teesdale Marketing, the North Pennines AONB Partnership and the South Durham Enterprise Agency.

The project is funded by Local Food, a £57.5 million funding programme supported by the Big Lottery Fund, by the North Pennine Dales Leader programme and by the Barnard Castle Vision with additional in-kind contributions from partners.

The Real Bread Campaign is also funded by Local Food.
 

< Back to the news page