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!
No comments:
Post a Comment