Bird feeders & chestnut soup

It felt both strange and familiar to welcome back some of our Under 5 families today for our first festive session following lockdown #2. It was great to see people reconnecting and toddlers having the opportunity to play together in the woods.

We had a birdy theme this week. We played games like 'birds and worms'- using pegs for beaks to find the worms and bring them to the nest and 'nest robbers' where songbird pairs had to store some food in a safe place and hope the sneaky corvids didn't steal it!

The children threaded toast, dried fruit and apples onto garden wire to create bird feeders and we made a little bird hide. There weren't many birds to be spotted whilst our noisy group were bustling about!

The chestnut soup was very popular. See the recipe below...

Ingredients for 4-6 servings

• 1 small onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 stick of celery
• 2 tbsp oil
• 200g red lentils
• 1.5l vegetable stock
• 180g cooked chestnuts

Method

• First dice the onion and carrot, and finely slice the celery. 
• Heat the oil in a large saucepan, and add the vegetables. Cook on a low heat for around 10 minutes to allow them to soften gently.
• Rinse the red lentils under a cold tap, then add to the pan. Add the stock, and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook until the lentils are soft and swollen – approx 40 minutes.
• Add the chestnuts and simmer for 20 more minutes. 
• Transfer to a blender and liquidise until smooth.