Food and Farming

Have you ever wondered where our food comes from or how it has been processed? Come to Hooke Court to find out how what we eat and how we prepare our food affects our health and our environment. 

Visit a Local Cheese Factory – ½ day

Visit award winning Denhay Cheese Factory and learn about the cheese making process. Take some cheese back to Hooke Court to use in the cooking of your lunch. Transport not included.

Visit the Village Dairy and Trout Farm – ½ day

Visit the village trout farm to learn about the life cycle of a trout intended for the plate whilst choosing one to bring back to cook for lunch. Take time to learn about the milking process at our local dairy and collect some milk to use in your cooking.

Learn about Hooke Court Animals, Vegetable Plots, Poly Tunnel – ½ day

Spend time in our poly tunnel and on our vegetable beds learning about the food we are growing and help to plant, maintain and harvest as well as gain an understanding of composting. Take a walk around our animals on site and learn about their breed, husbandry and care.

Kneading, Rubbing and Crumbling – ½ day

Spend half a day making bread, pastry and crumble mixtures and learn to use them to make a healthy and nutritious meal.

Sauce and Soup Investigation – ½ day

Learn to make a tomato sauce, a white sauce or soup and then use these bases to make a meal such as fish pie or spaghetti bolognaise. Make a delicious chicken pie or make your white sauce into a cheese sauce and make a cheesy leek and potato crumble 

Carbohydrate Cooking – ½ day

Learn to cook pasta, mash, roast, baked or even sauté potatoes. Make a batter and produce toad in the hole. If you have also chosen to learn how to use sauces you may like to make a lasagne or shepherds pie accompanied with some fresh seasonal produce harvested from our own garden.

Cook your own Lunch – ½ day

Visit our very own on site poly tunnel to harvest produce to compliment the ingredients brought from the factory and farm visits to make your own healthy lunch also incorporating whatever is in season. Taste test challenges will be undertaken to see if you can taste the difference between home cooked food and that bought ready prepared in the supermarket, taking time to look at the carbon footprint of the foods as you taste them.

Historical Cooking – ½ day

Choose from our range of historical eras and select the cooking activity.

What is in your Food, where does it come from, how is it made? – ½ day

Spend some time learning about calories, fat and sugar content of foods, taste different foods and learn about carbon footprint through a series of exciting games.

Paint and Plant a Pot – evening

Paint your very own plant pot and plant a tomato seed to take home where if it is looked after properly may produce something delicious to eat.

Rural crafts – evening

Try your hand at quilling or decoupage to take back home.

The Answer Lies in the Soil – evening

Make compost and learn about our wormery. Help to separate out waste to promote our own compost heaps.