Eating Locally, Eating well
At Lathallan, we embrace a farm-to-fork culture at school with many of our own fruit and vegetables grown on campus and served up at lunchtime. We’re always striving to find fresh, seasonal and locally sourced food options to promote healthy eating habits among our pupils. We are fortunate to have a number of farming families within our school community and our students engage in hands-on activities to foster a connection with the food they consume.
It’s been another bumper year for apples in our walled garden so pupils from across our school have been collecting this year’s crop to use in fruit crumbles and to continue creating cider with Christian from the Wee Scottish Cider Company who recently won ‘Best Brewed Product’ at North East Scotland Food and Drink Awards 2023.
Armed with excitement and brimming with camaraderie, the children, donn their outdoor wear and pick the fruit during their break time while on ‘farm duty’.
Connecting with Christian
Since 2020, our Nursery and Junior School pupils have been learning how to make homemade apple juice, using fresh fruit grown in the school grounds. Dr Christian Stolte from Seidear, The Wee Scottish Cider Company, has been teaching our children how to press apples and shared interesting facts about where apples originate from.
We later began discussing the potential of transforming the freshly picked apples into delicious champagne method sparkling cider and Christian generously shared his expertise and the facility that he has set up near Maryculter.
Using the same method that is used to make Champagne, Christian’s small-batch cider is to be enjoyed like a fine wine and unlike many big firms, Christian does not dilute his cider with water and instead only uses freshly pressed apple juice.
The Fruits of their Labour
The first batch of ‘Lathapple’ sparkling cider was ready in 2022 and the second batch was released in September 2023.
