What the heck is this floating in my soup?

I can just see it now, my child at an important meeting with the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, and he leans over to the guy next to him and asks “What is this green stuff floating in my soup?”   Well fortunately for us, my son has seen plenty of green stuff in his life.  But I am always amazed when I am in the process of going through the checkout lane at the grocery store .  When the cashier gets to my produce I am always asked a long string of questions. “What’s this? “,  and me “ An endive.”  “What’s this?” and me “A horseradish root.” “What’s this?” and me “Watercress.”    You get the picture.  The amazing thing about the kids I live around in Delta Junction, Alaska, is that a lot of these kids are vegetable genius, these kids know their veggies!  Gardening in Interior Alaska is a way of life, and right now Alaskans are starting our plants indoors!  It may only be March, but we are getting started on our leeks, celery and celeriac and those with green houses get to be even more adventurous! 

A Renaissance Man Mama, believes that every young child would greatly benefit from the lost art of horticulture.  Not only does this Latin Lover Mama get some vocabulary in like hortus/garden, herba/plant, flos/flower, humus/dirt, and folium/ leaf, but the science behind plants and gardens is amazing!!!  There is a cornucopia of activities that you can do with a garden.   Plus your exposing a child to a garden CAN (but not always) encourage young ones to try a greater variety of vegetables, plus save you some bucks in the grocery store.  Personally speaking, but I am an experienced horticulturist, I only grow the vegetables that cost me a small fortune at the grocery store, like fennel, leeks,  and gourmet lettuce.  This year we are going to experiment with lemon grass, celeriac,  kohlrabi, broccoli raab, and even more varieties of radishes!  My idol, the ultimate Renaissance man, Thomas Jefferson,  had a very large garden, he experimented with plants all from all over the world and tried to learn about the natives horticulture styles.

Culturally speaking I really do believe that it is important to expose your children to as many types of vegetables as possible.   You find that food is culture and culture in foods.  Being well versed in vegetables is a way of being exposed to many cultures.  Before my first trip to Europe, there were a lot of  vegetables that I had never been exposed to, but after traveling through Europe, I was enlightened!  It really changed how I view food.  When I cook Asian food (major and minor) I recognize that they have their own vegetables and spices, and it inspires me to grow new types of vegetables to make my food more authentic.  Exposure makes children more worldly, and let’s face it,  but do you want your offspring to grow up and go on an important lunch interview and order a hamburger because they are to  afraid to explore new foods.  Or how foolish they will look if they are invited to the bosses house for dinner and do not recognize the food their bosses wife just put in front of them!