Pumpkins and Apples

Last week we made the most of the sun and had a trip to the allotment were the children enjoyed picking some apples, blueberries and a few raspberries. All our fruit trees are very dwarf ones, which means the children can easily pick the fruit themselves and when needed I can easily prune them too.

We have lots of pumpkins growing this year, not sure what has happened to the butternut squashes I planted out, as we have none! One of the pumpkins was ripe enough to bring home and we made some pumpkin soup and pumpkin muffins.

The children enjoyed scraping out all the seeds before I then peeled and grated the pumpkin and I talked about how all the seeds they were scraping out, if left to dry might grow into new pumpkin plants if we planted them.

Pumpkin Muffins

225g plain flour

10ml baking powder

2.5ml bicarbonate of soda

100g margarine

90 sugar

1 egg, beaten

125ml milk

250g grated pumpkin flesh

Cream the margarine and sugar together, then add the beaten egg and mix.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together, then add a spoonful of flour mix at a time to the sugar/margarine mix, until all the flour is mixed in.

Then add the pumpkin flesh and mix well.

Bake at Gas 5 for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden, makes 12 muffins.

I found out our pumpkin life cycle cards for the children to sort through and to try and sequence.

I have had fun and knitted a hedgehog from a kit I had and then found some left over wool to make a pumpkin, have seen some some lovely patterns, for conkers and acorns, that I would like to knit too, they can be found here. I was really pleased with the way they turned out and L loves them.

On a not childminding note, I finished my lace scarf that I have been knitting, fairly easy pattern as long as I concentrate, the only problem is I'm not sure if I am going to get a chance to wear it as M is eyeing it up!!