Restoring a sense of wonder

The children gathered around the mint leaves are already giggling. They don't really expect the small green leaf to taste like mint. Mint is something they associate with bright, white shiny sweets.In the centre of this whispering giggling mass of curls is Anna Browne.Today, Anna is patiently explaining the children should use three of their senses, first looking, then smelling, then tasting.Eager little hands bypass the eyes and nose to bite straight down on the leaf and their delight and surprise is contagious: "It is mint!"Anna, whose children Dara and Leo attend Mullingar Educate Together, is sharing her knowledge of horticulture and science, as a volunteer at the school.The primary school children are taking part in a special gardening session where they are learning all about herbs that are growing in their garden: "This gives children the opportunity to see the beauty of having a garden with food in it. They get to see the full natural cycle of planting, growing and then eating. The kids just love it: they really respond brilliantly to everything we are doing here," says Anna."Everything" encompasses a whole range of gardenbased activities. The children at Mullingar Educate Together have a herb garden filled with mint, rocket, sage, lambs tongue and lavender. There is also calendula, which the children stripped of its petals to make infusions of the type that herbalists believe are good for soothing cuts and abrasions.The children have also brought the food in from the garden to bake rhubarb tarts and celebrate harvests with baked potatoes topped with butter and their own herbs.The volunteer sessions at the Educate Together School are only one of a number of initiatives developed by Anna over the last year, all designed to recapture people's love of growing their own food."Growing has always been a real love of mine. But while I had heart I lacked courage. I would never have quit my job to pursue this. Then I lost my job back in June, which helped me to really focus on designing workshops and sharing my passion for growing with others," explains Anna.Anna believes that grass is an awful waste of space in a garden: "There is beauty in planting a garden with food in it. I grew up on a farm in the sixties and seventies, at a time when people were starting to turn to supermarkets for their food."Our family remained relatively sufficient, for financial reasons. We kept and stored potatoes over the winter and grew most of our own vegetables. This is something that people are starting to come back to. The growing popularity of the workshops I run for adults, teaching them how to grow veg, are a testament to that."I have even had to add new ones this year including a seedsaver and a parent and child class to meet with the all the interest that is being shown," said Anna.