It seems as if my life has come full circle.

As a young child I looked forward to lovely food every night and did not realise for many years how fortunate I was that my mother was such an informed, enthusiastic and competent cook. I took for granted that the eggs were from the chickens or ducks, the potatoes were from Grandpa’s plot, the beans from the garden. Maybe when I was young more families grew a few crops and raised hens.

Thanks to my father I became interested in books, and in libraries, eventually working in school libraries with a special enthusiasm in assisting teachers as well as students locate books and other materials to broaden their approach to themes or subjects. Of course I continued to be interested in food and cooking and sharing meals with friends.

Throughout my thirty plus years in restaurant kitchens I worked alongside young people, seeing the world of food to some extent through their eyes and understanding that not all of them truly appreciated the turning seasons in the year and what it meant for produce availability.

I taught them that asparagus was not an option all the year! And that tomatoes were at their best in mid to late summer and early autumn.

I was able to excite their interest by showing them a new sort of salad green, or by picking green beans when they were still slender, or by offering a tasting of some of the first Australian extra virgin olive oil.

I watched with dismay the growing influence of fast food, and mourned the fact that so many families made such depressing food choices. Already I was wondering how I could change this.

And so began my work with young children and the kitchen garden movement. I knew that many schools had small vegetable plots, often the responsibility of one teacher or even one class. Such plots thrived or not depending on the situation. Few schools did much with the silverbeet or other food that they grew. I was absolutely convinced that one needed to show the children how to make a silverbeet pie, or a ravioli filling in order to turn them into silverbeet lovers.

With a dedicated team that is exactly what we have achieved, in 269 schools to date. Our aim is to expand the reach of this program so that every school that wants it can introduce some version of a Kitchen Garden project as part of the curriculum.

For more facts and stories relating to this social revolution that is in progress, go to the Kitchen Garden Foundation website.