Catkin & co.

Fun with foraged fruits!

It's lot of fun experimenting with foraged fruits to make natural dyes - tie dye style!

This is something I've done with my own kids as well as at events. Blackberries, mulberries and blueberries gave us a range of colours.

All we do is - take some cotton material squares and tied elastic bands around them in various places. Then add them to mushed fruit (bashing fruit enjoyed by all). Bashed the material around in the fruit juice and then removed. You should probably leave to dry, but we rarely do!

Lots of fun mushing, bashing and ‘arhhhhh-ing’! Lots of washing of hands, and an activity probably best done outdoors!!!

As we have a massive love for edible flowers - we are re sharing our Persian Love Cake from the other year! Its rose and pistachio but also full of amazing spices like cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg - and uses almonds.

All rose petals are edible, but basically if you like the smell then you are likely to like the taste! Some don’t smell or taste of much. We made a syrup by boiling water and sugar then adding petals. Once strained, some of the rose water was added to the cake and also used to make the icing. We had dried rose petals last year so had some on hand for decor!

The Catkin Kids loved making this, but loved eating it more.

Our Sensory Walk Cards are perfect pocket sized prompts to help your family focus on some mindfulness in nature.
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These cards help you focus on one sense at a time. Helping you slow down and really emerge yourself in the sights, sounds, touch and smells of nature. Suits 2-7 year olds well (but all ages too!)
⭐️
A nature sensory walk is a form of mindfulness and sharing such activities with children helps them develop their own tools for managing life’s more challenging moments. It helps them develop resilience and confidence, brings calm and relaxation,comfort and escape, helps with responsibility as children become more aware of their relationship with living things.
⭐️
The Sensory Cards come with additional Mindfulness Activity Cards and are available from our online shop.

Illustrations by

I'm re sharing my post form the other year on wonderful nettle seeds! You may have heard many great things about their health benefits - they are meant to be a little power bullet - natures 'Mother's little helper'! However before harvesting nettle seeds it's important to identify them correctly.

The male nettle flowers produce pollen to fertilise the female plants which then produce the seeds. Male and female plants can have similar looking 'strings' of flower clusters. If you harvest the wrong ones it won’t harm you, but you won't get the benefits!

Male and female nettles often grow nearby each other. Males have stringy clusters that may point up at the end. The flowers, when closed, look like little round balls or pumpkins. Whereas, the female clusters tend to hang down, heavy with the weight of the seeds. The shape is also different - more oval and like a bishops hat' (mitre).

There are different views on harvesting including how and when so we are going to experiment. Some say when green, others when slightly brown. We’ve collected some recently and have cut off from the stem not far from the top and will laid flat for any bugs to re-home themselves. We are now drying them (hanging them in a warm place). When dried we will put though a sieve to collect the seeds. It's all quite exciting!

Lavender season and perfect for lavender and blueberry cake! This was perfect served with lavender mascarpone cheese (coloured with blueberry juice!)

The catkin kids advice is - don’t go heavy on the lavender in the cake, just a bit! Otherwise it’s too floral.

You can use fresh or dried culinary lavender in recipes. Basically English lavender is the best edible (Lavandula Angustifolia). We sprinkled lavender in, but if you prefer you can make and use a syrup.

We have a range of foraging cards in the online shop covering Edible Flowers, Fruits and Wild herbs & weeds.

The blackberries are here! Time to get creating!

Blackberry crumble bars! So simple, and so good! I add foraged hazelnuts to the base for some extra crunch and firmness (well I do when I find them before the squirrels - which is near impossible!)

You can get lots of Foraging Cards from my online shop!

Mini Beast Hunt Kit!
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Little ones do love mini beasts!
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Our mini beast hunt kit is perfect for small ones approx ages 2-6. Each ID card has a clear image on one side and a ton of fun facts on the other. The kit comes with a magnifying glass too- and all this for just £8!
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Perfect for getting outdoors exploring with creepy crawly loving little ones!

Made a meadowsweet and nettle cake! The nettle brings the green colouring and the meadowsweet the almondy taste!

Meadow sweet is plentiful where I live, near the river - it loves wet areas. We are letting it grow as wild as it wants in areas of the park as it fights the ever spreading dock leaves (thanks floods) and the bees love it so much!!! Therefore with so much about, it would be rude not to experiment with it! Some for me, and tonnes more for the bees!

Excited to share that linked to my project - we have a new sculpture in Rowntree Park. This is part of York Trailblazers - a city wide trail that opens on the 1st of August.

The trail involves Tansy Beetle sculptures (the jewel of York), that represent an influential York person/group from the lesser known York’s history. I worked with a group of teenage girls to research a trailblazer. HER work had how we use public space at the heart of her work and that links well to our ‘Make Space for Girls’ York project.

The girls selected artist to make the artistic design using their ideas. We have loved this project and can’t wait to do the trail and see all the beetles and designs.

York

I’m running nature crafts this Wednesday in Rowntree Park, York - 11-3pm

Bees, butterflies, sun catches, wind chimes, fairy folk, Hapa Zome and probably more! All suited to ages 2-12 approx. No booking nedded, just drop by!

Also we have story telling at 12.30 and 1pm and 2-4pm there is an inflatable rugby course!

For those on the HAF programme, free lunch is available at 12.30pm.

See you there!

Fan of foraging? Our popular foraging range includes these flash cards on a key ring aimed at 2-8 year olds (approx)

Perfect pocket sized pack to take out on a walk. 17 cards with a clear image for identifying fruits and nuts of summer & autumn.

Available in our online store (link in bio) www.catkinand.co/shop

Tree ID cards you just can’t leave(s)!

Set out on an adventure this summer and get to know your local trees with our Tree Leaf ID cards.

The cards are perfect for tree identification whilst out and about plus games such as snap and memory pairs at home!

Head to the online shop now!
Www.catkinand.co/shop

Catkin & co for those with wide eyes and wild hearts.

Have you seen our Animal Tracking Kits? I have realised that I’ve not featured this awesome kit on my Instagram for a very long time but it’s one of our best sellers!
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Featuring a range of animal track cards - clear image on one side and facts in the other including size and shape, where most likely to find and more!)
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What you also get is animal casting powder to ‘save’ tracks you find, plus an animal tracking mix to create your own tracks plus a bunch of wooden tools to help with this! It really is a great way to have fun outdoors with children - seeing what you spot and deducing what made the print!!
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We have lots of nature based cards and kits in our online shop that are perfect for those with wide eyes and wild hearts.

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Those of you who have followed me a while, know I absolutely have a thing for grasses! Every summer day is a joy spotting the different types and their colours and textures.

I find a bouquet of grass just as beautiful as flowers, and even better it last longer that flowers and lives on as it dries out! I have vases of grasses we have found together as a family all over the house!

If you are interested in finding out a little more about some meadow grasses, don’t forget there is a free download on our website. It doesn’t cover all meadow grasses (as there are many) but it’s a good starter for some common ones!

Made a Nettle, Lemon and Elderflower cake for the teenage girls coming to my herbal remedy workshop as part of my ‘Make Space for Girls’ Festival.

The fact it was declared “the best thing I’ve ever tasted’ is good enough for me!

Foraging cards, foraging recipes, herbal remedy sets and much more are available from my online store www.catkinandco/shop

Woodland Animal Poo Kit. The Poo Kit is more than disgustingly good fun, it’s packed full of learning opportunities.
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What’s in a Poo Kit?
-Set of animal Poo ID Cards
-Ingredients to make Poo Dough
-Textures to add to the poo
-Wooden rolling pin
-Wooden ruler
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The cards have lots of facts on the reverse including the size, shape, texture and smells of the animal poo you may spot. Perfect for helping you identify poo on your walks and explorations!
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In addition to the cards is the kit that includes all you need to make your own replica animal poo - endless fun and fascination for children (and adults) of all ages!
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Thank you to whoever shared my poo info as I’ve had a flux of sales today after a desert period! 🤎🤎🤎

Life is busy at the moment. Good busy. I managed to grab a moment of mindfulness post run this morning by picking this little bouquet of clovers and meadow grasses. I love the purples of the clover and the velvet grass.

It’s another busy day, but even a few moments like this make such a difference.

Our Sensory Walk Cards are perfect pocket sized prompts to help your family focus on some mindfulness in nature.
⭐️
These cards help you focus on one sense at a time. Helping you slow down and really emerge yourself in the sights, sounds, touch and smells of nature. Suits 2-7 year olds well (but all ages too!)
⭐️
A nature sensory walk is a form of mindfulness and sharing such activities with children helps them develop their own tools for managing life’s more challenging moments. It helps them develop resilience and confidence, brings calm and relaxation,comfort and escape, helps with responsibility as children become more aware of their relationship with living things.
⭐️
The Sensory Cards come with additional Mindfulness Activity Cards and are available from our online shop.

Illustrations by

What’s your favourite butterfly?

Get to know the common butterflies of the UK with our pocket sized ID cards. A clear photograph on one side, and lots of facts on the other. The cards come in a handy little cotton pouch that’s perfect for pockets or bags. Only £8 a pack and hours of fun Head to our online shop - link in bio. 🦋

It’s time!!!!

The Elderflower is out and it’s time to bottle the nectar!

They may be be photogenic, but they are tasty and so simple to make! Nettle Crisps.

I love using nettles in cakes, they add a magnificent colour, but nothing beats a simple nettle crisp. Who’s a nettle fan?

Horrah! Time to move aside Wild Garlic, as it’s Garlic Mustard time!

I LOVE ‘Jack by the hedge’ aka Garlic Mustard as it’s more subtle and delicate than wild garlic but yet still with that distinctive garlic taste!

These simple Garlic Mustard leaf, goats cheese and tomato wraps are a perfect snack. You you’ll stuff the leaves with any mix you like, takes just minutes!

Our foraging cards, recipe booklet and nature journal are perfect for ample family foraging. But the top tip is that you’ll often find Garlic Mustard near edges, hedges and walls hence its nick name. Run a leaf between your flowers and smell - the scent is the slight garlic smell. Love it!

I’ve been a busy bunny of late organising a full months programme of events for teenage girls and I’m not foraging as much as I’d like. But we did recreate the amazing nettle and lemon cake with cherry blossom jam that was such as success at my Beltane event last year.

Nettle & lemon cake with cherry blossom icing - spring in a cake form… now can someone tell the weather it’s spring?

Foraging cards, recipe booklet and foraging journal in our online store - aimed at families with wide eyes and wild hearts.

Cherry blossom biscuits!

We have a big love of cherry blossom! Each year we make syrups and jam from these blooms. We are fortunate to have a massive abundant blossom tree in the garden.

Finger print cherry blossom jam biscuits are easy to make. How to make the Jam featured as a recipe in our recipe booklet that’s part of the ‘Spring Foraging Collection’. Available on the online shop.

Easter loveliness to you all!

Easter.

Bunny ears in dogwood.
Wreath in willow.
Garden crafting with the kids.

Happy Easter!

Today is the spring equinox!

There are ideas on how to celebrate Ostara/spring equinox with children over on our blog. We love marking seasonal shifts with simple mindful activities.
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The blog includes:
- info on the Spring Equinox & Ostara
- the story of Ostara
- ideas of activities to do with children to celebrate
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Link to our website on our main insta page - hop over now! 🐰
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id love to hear how you are marking this seasonal shift.
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Today is the spring equinox!

There are ideas on how to celebrate Ostara/spring equinox with children over on our blog. We love marking seasonal shifts with simple mindful activities.
🌸
The blog includes:
- info on the Spring Equinox & Ostara
- the story of Ostara
- ideas of activities to do with children to celebrate
🌸
Link to our website on our main insta page - hop over now! 🐰
🌸
How are you marking this seasonal shift?

Celebrating Ostara and the Spring Equinox with children.
🌸
Over on my blog there are lots of ideas of ways to mark this seasonal shift as a family.
Includes:
- info on the String Equinox & Ostara
- the story of Ostara
- ideas of activities to do with children to celebrate
Ostara and the Spring Equinox.
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Link to our website on our main insta page (linktree clickable) - hop over now! 🐰
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This year the Spring Equinox falls on Wednesday 20th of March at 3.06am we are looking forward to this nature shift and celebrating through lots of nature crafts and activities, and of course - foraged bakes… but probably not at 3.06am to be fair…
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