Welcome to jACKrABBIT! Here you can buy seeds for growing your own produce and ingredients for cooking and baking, you can find recipes for everyday and for preserving home-grown food and find activities and ideas for getting you and your children out of doors and enjoying nature. We also sell native wildflower seeds to encourage those important bees and butterflies into your garden.

A Lovely Bit of British Plaice


















I bought some plaice from the fishmongers and decided to cook it with one of my new spice blends; the tropical spice goes really well with fish. I served it with garlic and herb potatoes, some garden picked salad and minted mayonaise.

For the potatoes
Cover the potatoes in a light coating of oil. --- Mix jACKrABBIT garlic and herb potato spice with equal amounts of dried breadcrumbs, then coat the potatoes with the mixture till covered. --- Roast the potatoes for about 45 minutes (depending on size) till cooked.
For the fish
Sprinkle the tropical rub onto a plate and lay the fish over it till you get an even coating. --- Grill for about 10-15 minutes (sprinkle lemon juice over whilst cooking) till the fish is nearly cooked through, then turn to cook the underside. 
For the minted mayonaise
Chop about 8 fresh mint leaves, and bruise slightly to release the flavour. --- In a small bowl mix mint with about 4 tablespoons of mayonaise and 2 capful's of cider vinegar.
--- Serve the dish with the minted mayonaise on the side and some salad. ---

I served it all with a refreshing glass of Urban Harvest apple juice.

'King Creole' BBQ Rub

YOU WILL NEED
2 tbsp mustard powder
1/2 minced onion
1 clove minced garlic
up to 1/2 tbsp hot pepper sauce
1 tbsp cajun seasoning
METHOD
Blend all the ingredients together and rub into meat, you can then grill, fry or cook on the BBQ.

*Moroccan BBQ Rub

YOU WILL NEED
1/2  small onion, finely diced
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
generous handful of fresh coriander, chopped
generous handful of fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp Moroccan spice

METHOD
Blend all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Rub the blend into the meat of your choice, then leave for 30-45 minutes.
Grill on the BBQ till the meat is cooked through.

Sweet Spice Blends

Pudding spice, or mixed spice as it can be known, is a great spice for any sweet dish; use in cakes, biscuits, tea-breads, crumbles, fruit dishes and lots more.



Ginger-bread spice has been used in baking for, well, a long time. Ginger-breads were usually tea-breads, and then the gingerbread biscuits evolved from these. It can be used in all kinds of sweet dishes and gives a subtle gingery flavour.


*Jack's Apple and Blackberry Crumble

Jack is my 13 year old son, he learnt this recipe at school, but makes it all the time at home, and it always turns out very tasty (apart from when he forgot to put the sugar in), so it is a good recipe for both adults and children to try. It's great in the autumn when we go out picking fresh blackberries, and our neighbour gives us cooking apples from their tree.

YOU WILL NEED
For the stew; 4 large cooking apples - 50g sugar - 1 tbsp water - blackberries to taste - 1 tsp jACKrABBIT pudding spice.
For the crumble topping; 150g flour (sieved) - 100g sugar - 50g butter - 50g oats.
METHOD
Pre-set the oven to gas 4, 180C, 350F - Place all the stew ingredients into a large saucepan and heat rapidly - Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the apple goes soft - Place the stew in an oven dish - Place the flour and butter in a mixing bowl and rub together till crumbly - Add the sugar and oats and repeat - Place in the oven for 15 minutes - Serve with custard or ice cream.

*The Great British BBQ



















~Cardboard BBQ made by my son Nial and myself. He made a dish for everyone; the carnivor, pescitarian and vegetarian. For instructions to make the BBQ please visit Nial's Patch.~

Okay, perhaps, especially considering the weather at the moment, this is an optimistic post, but I'm sure we'll get some sun this year!! and being a glass-half-full kinda girl I have to believe that we will. The British BBQ isn't always great, with its slimy chicken oozing pink juices, leathery steaks and burgers so blackened you're not sure where the burnt bits end and the middle begins. But they can be truly great too. The British BBQ Society was started in 2008 to help turn things around and build up a new enthusiasm for BBQ cooking, and the Best of British BBQ has been going since 2005 to promote Britain as great BBQers. There has been a revival of British food over the last few years and the BBQ is very much part of that, and as well as that, very much part of the British summer.

For a great BBQ prepare everything in advance. Marinading is often the staple of the BBQ, but it often does not bring out the flavours and dry rubs can offer an excellent taste extravagansa. Lots of interesting side dishes are essential, as there are not many people who just like a plate of meat (or vegetarian alternatives). You can also buy smoking chips (I know that Wilkinson sells them) in a number of varieties such as apple smoke or oak smoke to add another layer of flavour. Don't forget fish, well cooked BBQ'd fish offers another texture and a delicious flavour to the mix. And then there's the pudding!! After being on a beach aged 16 and then served up BBQ'd bananas with melted chocolate inside, all wrapped in tin foil, nothing incredibly difficult, I've never done a BBQ without a sweet dish at the end again.

jACKrABBIT is in the process of creating a new range of different BBQ spices for all kinds of meat and will be adding recipes as well, including some sweet ones. There will also be some recipes for using your home grown produce on the BBQ, which is one of the best ways to cook it. You can find a good list of recipes at the Best of British BBQ website too.

*Hand Knitted Finger Puppets

Juicy Jess
Snails may be a bit of an annoyance to gardener's, but they fascinate alot of children. They slide along the ground on what is one muscular foot and leave a trail to follow. Jess comes with a snail racing game.
£2.90 each.

Nectar Norma
Bees are so important in pollinating all the flowering plants and helping us to grow our fruit and vegetables. Most bees in this country are solitary bees, and Norma comes with information for building a bee habitat. £2.90 each.


Scarlet Charlotte 
The ladybird finger puppet comes with information for building a ladybird sanctuary in your garden, which gives ladybirds somewhere to hibernate over the winter. You can also find lots more activities here. £2.90 each.


Flirty Gerty
We will be adding lots of information about how to attract different kinds of butterflies to your garden, and what to plant for the caterpillars to eat. Until then you can flap around in the garden with gerty. £2.90 each.

Sidney Spider
Spiders spin beautiful webs which they use to catch their food. There are not insects but are arachnids which is why they have eight legs, not six like all insects. Sidney comes with his own spelling game. £2.90 each.








Buy two puppets for £5, please state your two chosen puppets as you order.

Buy all five minibeast puppets for £11.50, your puppets will come with two information sheets.

Our hand knitted finger puppets are supplied by Little Fingy who give to Cancer Research UK and environmental improvement schemes in the Britain. The puppets are knitted in Peru, and Little Fingy support the communities that produce them.