A Showgirl's guide to Farmhouse Breakfast Week 02 Feb

All of her efforts paid off last week when we invited more than 130 pupils to join us for a hearty breakfast here at the Lincolnshire Showground.

For Rosie, planning started as soon as the dates were set in the diary! Once she had approached HGCA for resources to use during the national Breakfast Week and Ruth Wilkinson from Wooden Spoon & Whisk was on board it was all-go. Next up was contacting local schools and producers from all over Lincolnshire to tell them about what we'll be getting up to and invite them to join us. An important step for Rosie is to visit the schools that wish to join us to make sure her planned morning of activities is inclusive for everybody, which means finding out about allergies and certain dietary requirements.

The morning of activities included plenty of fun-facts about breakfast, local produce and where it all comes from, as well as smoothie-making, a porridge demonstration (and tasting!) and omelette and bacon sandwiches, followed by a chance to meet a local farmer, plant a cereal seed and take it back to school to nurture and grow.

Our supporters helped Rosie with her big shop for the week by providing lots of food to fill up lots of tummies. You'd be surprised at how much little ones can eat, so here's what we managed to get through in five days:

• 60 sweet apples
• 50 bananas
• 50 carrots
• 2 large pieces of root ginger
• 8 litres of apple juice
• 10 litres of orange juice
• 30 pints of semi-skimmed milk
• 1,200g Lyle's golden syrup
• 1,500g dried apricots
• 1,360g squeezy clear honey
• 5 bags of green grapes
• 5 boxes of blueberries
• 1 box of raisins
• 250 rashers of unsmoked back bacon
• 200 small white finger rolls
• 5 brown sliced bread loafs
• 2,250g tomato ketchup
• 2,500g butter
• 1 tub of Vitalite (dairy free butter)
• 1 tub of soya margarine
• 300 eggs (as well as 160 packs for children to take home with them!)

A huge thanks to all of our supporters: Alford NFU, Welbourne's Bakery, L J Fairburn & Son, Waitrose, Wooden Spoon & Whisk and Agrii. And a big Showgirl thanks to Rosie for working so hard to deliver a fantastic week for our local schools - here's what they had to say:

"My favourite part of the morning was eating the porridge because it was the first time that I have eaten it - the porridge was yummy!"

"My favourite part of the morning was eating the omelette and the bacon sandwiches because they tasted so delicious. I also enjoyed the porridge because I got to choose my own toppings."

"My favourite part of the morning was making the smoothie because I liked the banana, apple, carrot and apple juice. The ingredient that I didn't like was the ginger because it was too spicy."

"I enjoyed planting the seed and learning where our breakfast comes from."

"My favourite part of the morning was the smoothie making because we experimented with different amounts of ingredients. The ingredients were bananas, apples, carrots, ginger, water and apple juice. To improve the taste I would put more ginger and carrots in."

"I enjoyed milking the cow, it was fun!"

"My favourite part of the morning was everything. The porridge was scrumptious, the bacon was lovely and the smoothies were delicious!"

Photos by Anna Draper for Lincolnshire Echo - you can view the full gallery here.

Keep up to date with plans for Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2017 by visiting the webpage.