I heart Harvest Time

We're just finishing off our harvest of snap peas. They've been providing a nice little snack before school for about a month now.

I never really know what to expect from the harvest... you can plant so many things and some die or fail to yield a harvest because of strange weather conditions, insect damage, or... who knows.

So I took a trip down memory lane (thank you, iPhoto) to see what last year was like and get excited about what's to come...

Swiss chard. Bright lights variety.

Tasting the school garden. River just getting started on a cabbage leaf.

Nothing better to load up a dump truck with than a bountiful harvest!

Working Together to Grow

It just so happens that I have a prime location for my apartment garden. It receives full sun all day on the edge of our parking lot. And it just so happens that my nearest neighbor loves to garden as well.

Halida and her family are from Bosnia and we have a good time chatting about our little hobby. "What you call?" she asked me one day, pointing at carnations. "Karanfil," she told me.

We've developed quite a little friendship over the years I've lived here, and it's all because of our love for the garden.

Last year I realized that nobody in my apartment complex talks to one another. "What is this about," I asked myself. We live in such close proximity, yet people don't even say hello when they crisscross in the parking lot on the way to the dumpsters or the mailboxes. I'd chalked it up to cultural differences when an Asian man from an apartment across the way flat out ignored my smile and friendly "hello!"

Determined to hasten change, I talked to the apartment manager, rented out the "community room," knocked on doors, left invitations, and posted flyers for a potluck. I heard children scuffling on the other side of the door, but nobody answering... "What are they afraid of?" Only a couple families came, and imagine the odds, two of us brought lasagne! But it was still a success because it did increase the community bonds for the people that did come.

After that event was when I realized, Halida and I have a relationship with one another because we're outside tending to our gardens! The others rarely go out except to hop in their cars and zip away, zip home, and shut the door on their private lives.

My relationship with Halida has been beneficial in other ways, too. When I go on vacation, she's the one that will keep my garden alive and feed my cat. What would I do without my community? Do my non-gardener neighbors even realize what they're missing?

Help for Parents of Picky Eaters!

What do I do if my kid rejects vegetables?

1) Keep offering. It's biologically natural for kids to show a preference for salty and sweet foods. However, it can take many tries to get them to accept a new flavor if it's neither salty nor sweet. Ask children to try one new thing at meal times. Remind them that they don't have to like it, just try it. Ten or more tries is pretty standard. Don't give up.

2) Let them choose a new vegetable at the store or, better yet, the Farmer's Market. Let them use their senses to find something colorful, or beautifully textured. If you don't know how to cook it, ask the vendor for their recommendations. Kids often just want to feel in control. It's that simple.

3) Let them grow it. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, just letting kids have a hand in producing their food increases their chances of eating it! After all that love and care, planting the seeds, the excitement of watching it sprout up, watering it, and watching it sprout big and turn into something will make them want to at least taste it. Fresh food (right out of the ground) always tastes better and the nutrients will be more plentiful. That's right, the vitamin content of foods can decrease within the first hour after it has been harvested. Kids will associate this excitement with great flavor - and they wont even know they're tasting VITAMINS, which they can be trained to crave.

These are just a couple of ideas... More to come.

Like Peas in a Pod

Eating together as a family matters. You've heard it before, right?

I recently had got the opportunity to sit down with my son, just the two of us, and enjoy a meal together. This is a bit rare in our household because, as a single mom, it's hard enough to get his dinner prepared (gluten-free, dairy-free, and nut-free) after our long day at school, eat, and get the kitchen cleaned up before hurrying upstairs for the bedtime routine. So, I find myself sitting for a brief couple minutes, and then I excuse myself to bang around the kitchen so that after-hours can be all about homework before I get some rest myself.

I'd given myself plenty of guilt about what my son was missing: time with mom, some company at the table, the extra experience of witnessing how adults act at the table, the list goes on... But I had forgotten what I was missing. River is good company. He is my baby, growing big right before my eyes. I don't want to miss anything. When I forgot about what wasn't getting done and just sat and shared an entire meal with my son I finally felt full.

Then came the icing on the cake. He took a tiny little sideways glance at me and said, "Mama?" before returning his gaze to his plate. "I love you. Thank you for my yummy food."