We have become quite removed from our food chain in today’s world. Drive-thru windows, convenience foods, and ready-made meals make it easy to forget where our food comes from.
It’s also easy to forget what fresh food tastes like. Fresh as is as nature intended. Farmer’s markets are making a comeback as is the eating local movement.
We have taken the approach with our kids to immerse them in fresh food. To connect them with what they eat. Here are a few ways to engage your kids with food:
- Plant some food. Kids are more eager to try foods that they had a hand in growing. Let them pick some seeds, plant them, and care for them. You only need a small area of your yard, or use planters on your deck or porch.
- Take them to the farm. Sign up for a CSA and pick up your food weekly. It’s a great way for them to see how a farm operates.
- Go to the ‘pick your own’ farms. Berries in early summer, pumpkins in the fall. Help them understand that food grows from the ground not in the store.
- Let them get dirty! Watering the garden and picking weeds can be made to be fun.
- Check out the farmers market. Your kids can often try different foods right there and the farmer’s can tell them some cool stuff about what they are eating.
