The LocalHarvest Blog

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

A while back one of my sisters and I were sitting around talking about the farmers market she had been frequenting, when one of her sons came in and got mildly interested in the conversation. We began talking about where and when different things grow, and I was surprised to realize how unfamiliar he was with the origins of his favorite foods. Potatoes grow underground? Cucumbers on vines? Almonds on trees? I will never forget the flash of insight that lit up his face when he said, "So that's why there are always pictures of cows on milk cartons!"

We know that kids are not born knowing where food comes from, yet we may assume they pick up that information along the way. In most cultures, in most periods of human history, children did just that. Nowadays, though, how could they? The typical activities of modern childhood do not afford kids many opportunities to use their natural curiosity and observation skills to learn about food production or the wider natural world. Given the chance, children still like to do so.

Summer and fall are great times to take kids to visit farms or plant a garden so they can see food production in action. What's not to love about picking berries, digging for potatoes, squatting on the ground to watch worms wiggle through the soil, or leaning against a fencepost watching goats be goats? Most children I know have fun doing these things, IF (and it is a big ‘if') their grown-ups do not spoil the experience. From a kid's perspective, it isn't very fun to be outside if your parents make a fuss when you get muddy, or whip out the hand sanitizer every time you touch something cool. And who can really look at anything if the grownups are always in a hurry?

Don't get me wrong: some days I am that parent. ("The ripe strawberries are RED!" or "Keep moving, we have to go!") In other situations I can be the kind of parent who wants to make everything into a "teachable moment." But I am trying to relax and remember that if I want my child to be curious about food and enjoy exploring the natural world, I need to give her chances to do these things and then get out of the way. I am not suggesting that we take our kids to farms and leave them to their own devices. Not at all. Yikes. I am suggesting, though, that once our kids are settled at the farm or in the garden, we step back a little and let them have their own experience. Maybe we talk with them about it on the ride home, or maybe we let it be. They'll figure out which strawberries taste the sweetest, and next year they'll remember that it was the red ones. They might even remember that strawberries grow on the short plants with the dark green, deeply veined, serrated leaves that grow in groups of three.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT