Ratho Primary School have just held their third successful farmers market.

Supported by the Lothian branch of The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET), the market is a project involving the entire school, and its aims are to help children learn where their food comes from, how food is produced and to appreciate the wide range of local food products available.

In the weeks leading up to the market, P3 pupils visited two farms on the Hopetoun Estate and learnt the ‘farm to fork’ story of beef, chicken and lamb.

P7 pupils from the school whipped up some tasty leek and potato soup with alongside RHET Lothian Project Coordinator, Karen Valentine.

On market day, pupils ran stalls offering fresh vegetables from Craigie's Farm and East Coast Organics, Craigie's jams and flour from Mungoswells – a community cafe featuring lots of delicious home baking and ‘make your own’ soup packs.

Parents and visitors were able to try bread made by the children. Other activities on offer included milking Charlotte, the RHET Lothian fibreglass cow, grinding wheat the old-fashioned way on a quern stone and a food miles game promoting eating local, seasonal produce.

Chris Welander, a teacher at Ratho Primary, said: “The farmers market supported by RHET was a fantastic success! The children were actively involved in buying and selling organic produce and developing business skills. The children’s understanding of where our food comes from has increased and it was wonderful to see our school community support us with their generosity in buying what was on offer! RHET have helped support this event for a number of years and have supported our school so well.”

Jeremy Balfour, MSP for the Lothian area, also attended on the day and said, “It was a great event helping young people to understand where food comes from and our part in it.”