Food at Hanford Prep
Hanford Prep has two stunning walled gardens which produce wonderful ingredients for the kitchen throughout the year.
The seasonal vegetables grown in the garden and used by the school chefs include tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce, cabbage, leeks, onions, squash and pumpkins. The walled garden also has plenty of soft fruit, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberry and loganberries, most of these are picked and frozen over the summer holidays ready for the girls return in September.
Herbs are also grown, rosemary for example is used in our homemade focaccia, a firm favourite with the girls.
Farm to (school) Table
The grounds also have an orchard which is full of apple, pear, plum and quince trees.
The kitchen team loves the autumnal season, and much of the fruit produced ends up in a series of delicious crumbles and puddings. But it’s also a time to fill the stores with homemade produce including chutneys, mincemeats, bottled fruits and apple puree.
We have so many lovely apple trees that we simply cannot use them all of the apples that they produce and so we have a Hanford Apple Day. The girls enjoy climbing the small trees to pick the apples, which then get pressed to make delicious apple juice.
This is pasteurised and bottled and sold at various school events to parents and visitors.
Menus Inspired by Seasonal Produce
The wider grounds are also a wonderful source of produce for our chefs, from wild garlic, elderflowers, mulberries to the good old bramble.
Hanford Prep's greenhouse has a wonderful lemon tree the fruits of which make their way into cakes, curd and marmalade. We always give a lemon as a special gift if you are a visitor to Hanford. The weekly menus are inspired by the garden’s seasonal produce and the girls themselves and individual dietary requirements are always accommodated.
There are some firm favourites with the girls; these include curry feasts, chicken schnitzel, pasta bolognaise and gooey chocolate puddings.
A Hanford Prep Sunday always includes a roast with the trimmings and a hearty pudding. A favourite of the girls.
A sunny summer Saturday night will be an outside affair, cooking on either the wood fired pizza oven or the Barbeque.
The most important meal, if you could call it that, of the day as far as the girls are concerned is ‘Milk and Buns’ at around 3.30pm when they are given home-baked goodies washed down with a drink.
Birthdays
Girls love having a birthday during term time as they can have a special birthday tea in the Hall.
Parents often bring cakes and treats to celebrate their daughter’s birthday at Hanford.
If however they are unable to, the chefs produce wonderful birthday cakes and party food.
Manners
Hanford Prep has always placed great importance on good manners.
In a boarding school manners are essential, as living together requires children to be more accommodating and respectful of one another’s space, feelings and possessions.
At Hanford Prep, we aim to make having good manners a positive and rewarding experience.
Making Manners
To make manners fun at Hanford Prep we actively encourage and reward good manners weekly.
Each week, the staff decide who will be commended for their kindness and thoughtfulness around school as well as for good behaviour during mealtimes. These girls may then move up in our Manners system. At lunchtime because all our girls sit on tables of mixed age groups the older and younger girls get to chat and swap stories while a member of staff supervises the serving of food and encourages conversation.
As a small school it is important that all our year groups get on well together.
Hospitality
At various events throughout the year such as:
the Carol Service, Parents’ Day and other visits by visiting speakers and guests, we encourage girls to act as hostesses, handing round food and drink.
Instilling the Importance of Courtesy
While table manners, pleases and thank yous cost little and reward much, there are other courtesies, such as letter writing, that require sacrificing a little time.
Even the briefest handwritten note from a child away at school is something parents cherish but letter writing is an important habit to encourage. At Hanford Prep we set aside time on Sunday before Chapel for letter writing, where the boarding staff are on hand to assist. The girls soon learn to enjoy writing, often sending multiple missives to friends and family.
Good manners are a way of life at Hanford Prep and not something pulled out just to impress people. By reinforcing their importance every day we hope they will become second nature, helping girls to operate confidently not just at school but also in life.
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