Cook and Count

Fruit is produced so that the seeds can be widely dispersed by whoever eats it -either birds or animals or people. This is how new baby fruit trees and bushes get planted in nature. All fruits are sweet and flavourful. They are good for us and taste good too.

These recipes have been designed especially for children to make (mostly) by themselves. Quantities are small and times involved in preparation are short (though sometimes the freezing times are long- be sure to check.)

Let the children cut up the fruit with plastic knives. Do not worry if the pieces are not beautiful and uniform. Larger, irregular pieces will take somewhat longer to cook and occasionally an adult will have to do a final chop before the recipe is ready to cook or freeze. Other than that, remember this is the child's cooking and not yours- s/he will like it if s/he makes it himself so try to keep your involvement to a minimum. Praise the child/ren's efforts.

All fruit should be washed. An easy way to do this is to put a bucket  half full of water on the floor and let the child/ren wash the fruit in the bucket and dry it with a towel before cutting or peeling.