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Summer Fun Cooking With Kids - June 27, 2007
Some kids take to dirt, bugs and gardening like fish to water. Others have to be bribed, coaxed and ordered into helping plant and harvest the fruit of the earth.
Most little kids love planting beans, marigolds and rapidly growing plants where they can quickly see results. However, when it comes time to pull or hoe weeds, again and again over the course of the summer, even the most eager gardener's zeal flags a little. Or a lot.
One of my daughters took to gardening and if she doesn't have her own garden at some point in her life, I'll be very surprised. The other two could be pleaded into gardening, but probably will never have their own.
But everyone enjoys picking ripe things from the garden (if kids are old enough to do it adequately is another question, and must be decided with each individual child). And cooking things you have actually grown and babied to maturity--well, for many of us, it is the one sure way to get kids to eat their vegetables. Usually. Finding a worm staring up at you from the broccoli doesn't do anything to endear broccoli to young minds.
I think all of my kids love homemade vegetable soup because they grew up growing and chopping up the vegetables that went into our very own recipe for it.
Regardless of whether you live in a city where you can only grow things in a patio or rooftop garden, all kids should be exposed to where food comes from.
A wonderful new cookbook for children focuses on teaching kids the joys and "rightness" of using locally-produced foods in season whenever possible: Simply in Season: Children's Cookbook (2006, Herald Press) by Mark Beach and Julie Kauffman.
This cookbook springs from a much wider excellent collection for adults, the Simply in Season cookbook by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman Wert, (Simply in Season ) It is all based on the premise that the food choices we make not only affect our lives, but the lives of those who produce food. If you must buy vegetables, buy from local producers whenever possible for fresher, more nutritious food that uses less energy in transportation. Buy at farmers' markets, food cooperatives, or on "subscription" through a "community supported agriculture" (CSA) venture. (See more about CSAs at peaceDVD.com > Peace and the Earth )
So, instead of eating tomatoes out of season when so much transportation energy is used just getting them to your plate, you can teach your kids about vegetables which are available seasonally. For instance, use pumpkins in the fall when they are plentiful in most parts of North America, and white or sweet potatoes during winter.
Mary Beth Lind, co-author of the original Simply in Season book from which the children's recipes were borrowed, says that too often childrens' idea of vegetables is "French fries with ketchup. It is time we redeem food from the hands of multinational corporations and cartoon commercials. It is time to put food, real food, into the hands of children and let them play."
Using food in season and making it nutritional doesn't have to be boring. The book includes a recipe for chocolate cake using beets, applesauce, yogurt and whole wheat flour!
Make sure your kids learn something about where food comes from this summer. And about Who really makes the food grow.
Contributed by Melodie Davis: [email protected] Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way
Some kids take to dirt, bugs and gardening like fish to water. Others have to be bribed, coaxed and ordered into helping plant and harvest the fruit of the earth.
Most little kids love planting beans, marigolds and rapidly growing plants where they can quickly see results. However, when it comes time to pull or hoe weeds, again and again over the course of the summer, even the most eager gardener's zeal flags a little. Or a lot.
One of my daughters took to gardening and if she doesn't have her own garden at some point in her life, I'll be very surprised. The other two could be pleaded into gardening, but probably will never have their own.
But everyone enjoys picking ripe things from the garden (if kids are old enough to do it adequately is another question, and must be decided with each individual child). And cooking things you have actually grown and babied to maturity--well, for many of us, it is the one sure way to get kids to eat their vegetables. Usually. Finding a worm staring up at you from the broccoli doesn't do anything to endear broccoli to young minds.
I think all of my kids love homemade vegetable soup because they grew up growing and chopping up the vegetables that went into our very own recipe for it.
Regardless of whether you live in a city where you can only grow things in a patio or rooftop garden, all kids should be exposed to where food comes from.
A wonderful new cookbook for children focuses on teaching kids the joys and "rightness" of using locally-produced foods in season whenever possible: Simply in Season: Children's Cookbook (2006, Herald Press) by Mark Beach and Julie Kauffman.
This cookbook springs from a much wider excellent collection for adults, the Simply in Season cookbook by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman Wert, (Simply in Season ) It is all based on the premise that the food choices we make not only affect our lives, but the lives of those who produce food. If you must buy vegetables, buy from local producers whenever possible for fresher, more nutritious food that uses less energy in transportation. Buy at farmers' markets, food cooperatives, or on "subscription" through a "community supported agriculture" (CSA) venture. (See more about CSAs at peaceDVD.com > Peace and the Earth )
So, instead of eating tomatoes out of season when so much transportation energy is used just getting them to your plate, you can teach your kids about vegetables which are available seasonally. For instance, use pumpkins in the fall when they are plentiful in most parts of North America, and white or sweet potatoes during winter.
Mary Beth Lind, co-author of the original Simply in Season book from which the children's recipes were borrowed, says that too often childrens' idea of vegetables is "French fries with ketchup. It is time we redeem food from the hands of multinational corporations and cartoon commercials. It is time to put food, real food, into the hands of children and let them play."
Using food in season and making it nutritional doesn't have to be boring. The book includes a recipe for chocolate cake using beets, applesauce, yogurt and whole wheat flour!
Make sure your kids learn something about where food comes from this summer. And about Who really makes the food grow.
Contributed by Melodie Davis: [email protected] Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way
