Agri Aware’s Incredible Edibles education initiative now runs in over 1,600 primary schools nationwide. The project poses a number of tasks throughout the year for students to take on. Sharing their experience of task one are third class pupils at Wicklow Educate Together National School.

“Our school is so excited to be taking part in Incredible Edibles again this year and third class are taking charge.

“We thought we might not be able to start task one because of online home learning, but our teachers found a way around this and set us a mini project. We got to decide if we wanted to do a poster, a fact file or a booklet.

“We learned so much during task one of Incredible Edibles. We found out where our food comes from. One classmate’s project explained how a neighbours’ farm prepares the field for growing, then harvests the barley and sends this to a factory in Dublin. Another pupil explored how carrots are grown and end up on our shelves. We researched and learned that some food is grown in Ireland, such as strawberries and potatoes, but foods like bananas are only grown in hot places, like Asia and Africa and avocados in South America.

“We then discovered how our food gets from the farm to our tables. We learned that Irish farmers grow fruit, vegetables and grains and care for their animals. Then when they are ready, the food is harvested and sent to be processed. Trucks and planes collect the food and bring it all over Ireland and the world. The shopkeepers sell the food which we buy and that is how it ends up on our tables.

“We discovered that some people like to cut out the middleman and go to the farmers to buy their food. We do that every summer when we buy our strawberries from the local farmer.

“One pupil told us how their granny milks the cows and uses the milk to make butter and cheese. Another pupil explained how chips are made from potatoes; that the potatoes are planted and after harvesting they are washed and peeled, cut into chip shapes and frozen, ready to be sold.

“We can’t wait to start task two in February. Hopefully we will be back in school by then and can do hands on activities with our teachers and friends!”

Keep an eye out for our next Incredible Edibles diary next month.

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