We spent the week following Canadian Thanksgiving on the farm, and among other things we spent a day making apple juice. Freshly pressed apple juice is one of my clearest early memories about food, and I loved watching Toddler Girl enjoy juice straight from the press, just like I did at her age. We’ve talked a lot lately, her and I, about our food. Some food we grow in our little kitchen garden (the cherry tomatoes are by far her favourite), some food we make, some things come from far away, and our meat comes from animals. She’s remarkably okay with this as she watches the piggies run around in their pen. I know she’s too young to truly understand what it means that something dies to feed us, but I take comfort in her seeing how happy the animals on our farm are. I’m glad that we are able to get the bulk of our meat from small local farms, so that I don’t have to lie to her about the lives our animals lived; I don’t have to avoid telling her about feedlots. We aren’t perfect (totally had A&W takeout earlier this week!), but we put in a solid effort.
Some ideas for introducing your little ones to real food:
Grow something! Our garden is very small — it was a flower bed in another life — but we grow herbs, tomatoes and carrots. This year Toddler Girl got to help plant carrot seeds, water them, and then eat the carrots (we had some today, very sweet!). If you don’t have a yard, consider growing a container garden on the patio or even herbs in your kitchen. I have a total black thumb, by the way, but I am improving as I keep at it.
Cook from scratch. Toddlers are so interested in what you’re doing. Cook up a meal of good food and discuss how the vegetables grow and where they came from.
Go to the Farmers’ Market or a local fruit stand. Let your kids see all the fun food (and often other handmade goods) that grow in your area. Let them pick something new to try. Great for veggies, but you can also often find local meat, honey, cheese and eggs at the market.
Visit a farm. Find a farm in your area that does tours; this is especially fun for kids if they have animals! At the right times of year you can also find places to pick fruit. We even have a orchard nearby that lets you adopt a cherry tree for the year. You pay a flat rate and get all the fruit it produces. If I did that I would totally name the tree for the children.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. Amazing food is all around us! I’m excited to keep teaching my girls about it as they grow. Speaking of growing, I can’t resist showing you my apple babies. On the left is Toddler Girl two years ago at the same time of year, and Wonder Baby on the right.
pomegranate / 3329 posts
Love this!! My parents live on a farm as well, apple and pear orchard, they raise beef, I have the goats I use to breed up there, and they have a small pinot noir vinyard too. My son has the fondest memories of crushing grapes with Grandpa, now that he’s old enough he gets to help bottle the wine and cork it! Our newest little one “helped” with bottling this year too, so much fun!!
grapefruit / 4669 posts
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a farm or thought about where our food comes from! I don’t know if that’s something I’ll try to learn about/teach our kids or not, but thanks for sharing! I bet fresh squeezed apple juice is delicious.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
I grew up on a farm and we pressed our own cider, grew our own veggies and had a few animals (we ate the turkeys, not the cows.) I definitely want to teach M about where his food comes from. We grow a little veggie garden in the city, but since we go home to Maine for the summer, we basically feed our neighbors and mailman bushels of tomatoes all summer! I cannot wait ’til next year when M can help his Mamie in the garden on summer mornings.
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
So awesome! We have a small garden and Liam has had many vegetables from it. His grandparents also live on a ranch where they have a larger garden and we just brough home a big bag of veggies (and pumpkins!!) that he’ll get to try. We also give him packaged food, though, because sometimes I just don’t have enough hours in the day to make everything from scratch. I think it’s great he has a balance!
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
I grew up on a ranch, and I’m so glad my kiddos will have first hand experience with that way of life and appreciating and valuing where our food comes from and those who raise it. Also, as I think I say in every one of your posts, you seriously make the most adorable children ever!
pomegranate / 3658 posts
I think this post is really interesting juxtaposed with Mrs. Bee’s post about the paleo diet. In my very biased opinion, Mrs. S, eating real food is so much more important than rigidly following a super-restrictive fad diet. The principles you’ve outlined in this post are exactly how we govern our eating, with important exceptions for when we want to splurge for a treat. Whole, non-factory-produced food is meant to be enjoyed, not avoided, and embracing real food is the perfect way to do that. Thanks for this post.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
My grandparents have a farm. I spent a lot of time on it growing up. I look forward to taking my kids there one day.
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@PawPrints: Bee’s post summarized the recommendations as, “All of these methods of eating are a little bit different, but the common theme is that we eat too many grains and processed foods, and not enough fresh meats, vegetables and fruits.”
I think we’re all in agreement around the importance of reducing consumption of processed foods and increasing consumption of fresh foods. There is an emerging consensus around a lot of nutrition and dietary basics, and I think many of us are benefitting from increased awareness on the various ways to get there.
pomegranate / 3658 posts
@mrbee: I agree there’s a lot in common between paleo as presented in Mrs. Bee’s post, and the kind of eating described in this post. That’s why I find it interesting that the two posts, read side by side, also serve to highlight the differences in the two ways of eating. Many people took the time to comment that they are also interested in (or already practicing) the paleo diet; my comment was meant to further the conversation that I feel is inspired by the two posts taken together. (And feel free to take this as a compliment to the timing of the blog!)
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@PawPrints: I guess it’s a little tough to have a conversation after hearing the words, “super-restrictive fad diet.”
In any case, just wanted to emphasize the commonality. Don’t want to hijack Mrs. Superhero’s awesome post, so I’ll stop commenting now…
GOLD / pear / 1845 posts
We do eat in a way very similar to Bee’s post, my focus here was more on where the food comes from (both topics are near and dear to my heart!)
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
@PawPrints: mrs superhero and i coincidentally wrote posts on the same topic on the same day! i’ve learned a lot from her posts on food!
that said, we’re not following a paleo diet. we do eat dairy and rice and legumes and the only thing we’ve really cut out is grains and processed foods. we don’t bring grains into our house. otherwise the kids want to eat that instead of real foods.
but i’m not super hardcore about it. charlie gets cheddar bunnies and graham crackers at school, and i’m fine with that. he eats pizza at birthday parties and that’s ok too. we can’t control everything he eats. but at home where i can control wha they eat, we are grain and processed food free.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
I am so so jealous that you grew up on a farm!!! I, too, think it is SO important for our little ones to know where food comes from. Thankfully we are lucky that there are lots of local farms around here. I plan on taking her to the farms regularly so she knows food does not come only from a supermarket. We also have always garden and plan to include her in that as well!