Children’s understanding and experience of food issues is better than many people think, according to the results of research recently carried out with over 2,500 school-age children.

The research, commissioned by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) in conjunction with Farming and Countryside Education (FACE), found that 79 percent of children aged 7 to 11 said they had cooked at home, with 32 percent doing so on a regular basis (once a week).  The children described making snacks and sandwiches and helping parents prepare meals as experiences of cooking at home, alongside more traditional activities such as baking cakes.

grainchain.com has created a new Families section within the main website.  Incorporated in this section is a recipe section where each month a selection of recipes are showcased including a recipe for bread; a breakfast or lunch recipe; a main meal and a sweet or savoury bake.  November’s recipes include pizza scones; cauliflower cheese; and iced fairy cakes.

An article in today’s Times (The best thing that’s ever happened to sliced bread, Thursday 12 May 2011) investigates a great British invention: the sandwich.  Rumoured to have been invented in 1762 when the 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, wanted a meal that he could eat during his card game and requested sliced beef in between pieces of toast.

I was brought up in a world full of pre-packaged sandwiches and it seems incredulous that it is just 30 years since the first one hit the shelves: at Marks and Spencers.  Salmon and tomato apparently. Swifly followed by the now-retro prawn mayonnaise in 1981.

grainchain.com offers lots of resources and recipes for bread and flour.  Take a look at our section on where bread comes from to find out how wheat from the fields gets transformed into something we can eat; or be inspired by some of our tasty lunchtime recipes.  Try pitta pockets, or either tuna or ham & cheese wraps.