A scarily good time is had at Souper Spooky Saturday
SPOOKY soups and creepy cakes were among the treats on offer at the Victorian Walled Kitchen Garden when it once again held its Souper Spooky Saturday event to get everyone in the Halloween spirit.
Several soups, all made with ingredients from the garden, were on offer with such seasonal names as Spectral Asparagus, Souper Squelchy Squash and Witches’ Veggie Brew, with some spookily-decorated cupcakes available for dessert or to just enjoy with a drink.
While adults were able to buy squashes, pumpkins, courgettes and other produce grown in the garden, there were plenty of amusements for young witches and warlocks.
Volunteer Cathy Morgan was in charge of a selection of ‘ghoulish games’ in the greenhouse, including guess the witch’s name and a variation of a lucky dip which was created during the pandemic to avoid children dipping their hands into sawdust and instead had them picking envelopes off of a washing line.
The other indoor area was the Creepy Craft Zone where youngsters could create cardboard cut-out pumpkins – less messy and probably longer-lived than the real thing – or bats made using toilet roll inner tubes.
Outdoors were tables for adults to relax at and enjoy a snack, while children could grab a print out of a bug-hunt challenge from the greenhouse and spend a few minutes looking around the main garden to find matching pictures.
‘I found them quick,’ said Lukas Orintas, 5, who said that his favourite of the creatures was what looked like a worm, ‘because it looks big’.
While several of the adult volunteers had dressed for the occasion, only one or two of the visiting children had donned fancy dress.
Among the most impressive was Mary Cunningham, 5, who was not only in a witch outfit but had a ghoulish green-painted face.
‘We bought the hat with my dress. My mum bought it online,’ she said, adding that mum was also responsible for the face painting.
