The Year of Food and Farming is joining forces with some of England’s top celebrity chefs, to encourage children to get involved with festive food this Christmas. Historically, preparation for Christmas dinner begins on the last Sunday before Advent, called ‘Stir up Sunday. This is the day that Christmas puddings are traditionally made, with everyone in the household, particularly children, mixing the pudding and making a wish.
As part of its efforts to rebuild the nation’s food culture, the Year of Food and Farming is encouraging parents to re-create Stir Up Sunday this weekend (24th-25th November), and has enlisted the support of high profile chefs including Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, Phil Vickery, Rachel Green and Prue Leith, Chair of the School Food Trust. To help foodie families get started, Raymond Blanc has donated his favourite Christmas pudding recipe to the Year, and schools have also been invited to get involved.
New research from the Year of Food and Farming shows that today’s children are now missing out on these Christmas rites of passage. Almost half of children never get involved with making the Christmas dinner, and six in ten have no experience of stirring up a Christmas pudding. Alarmingly, many children currently have no experience of the countryside, which in turn makes them far less likely to venture into the kitchen: a recipe for disaster when it comes to the health prospects and “agricultural literacy” of the next generation.
For further news on the ‘Stir Up Sunday’ campaign, full research findings and Christmas pudding recipe details visit www.thinkfoodandfarming.org.uk.
