3 Ways You Can Help Your Child Appreciate Where Their Food Comes From

This summer why not involve your child in some activities that will help them appreciate where dinner is coming from.

While you can't completely drive all the pickiness out of your child you can greatly increase the amount of fresh fruit and veggies they eat if you take them right to the source.

Kids get very excited about eating their veggies when they have a hand in acquiring them.

Here are three summer activities that are fun for the whole family and provide food for the table.

Gardening

Start off with a little gardening. You don't need an acre to get a garden going so if you're strapped for space take heart. You can grow veggies in as small a spot as a small porch or balcony.

Choose easy plants such as peas, cucumbers, onions, potatoes or yes even tomatoes. Make a tiny garden just for your child. Get excited with your child as their plants grow. Help them to harvest and prepare the fresh veggies for the dinner table.

Kids get so excited about harvesting their own vegetables they might not even want to share! My daughter gets rather possessive over the spring peas and June strawberries.

 Berry Picking

Take your child berry picking. What kid doesn't love berry picking? And the end results are a bounty for your kitchen. Find berry farms in your area and make a day of it. Eat the fresh fruit on breakfast cereal or plain as dessert.

With berry picking your child can see what it takes to provide local groceries with the fruit they sell and the vine or tree ripened fruit will taste so much better.

Fully enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Canning

Introduce your child to the wonderful world of canning. If this is new to you also learn about it together. Start with something very easy and hard to mess up such as apple sauce. Buy some apples from the grocery store or pick them in an orchard. I love Gravenstein apples for this because they break down as you cook them and turn into applesauce on their own.

Start with small batch canning that will let you can small amounts of fruit and use pots you already may have in the home.  Maybe give your child a mini lesson on how people in the past had to can all their own food.

Summer is such a great time for food. Fresh from the garden, orchard, or farm your child will be begging you for more veggies!