Potatoes - a follow up

  If you've been following my blog, you might recall that the kiddos and I planted potatoes in the spring.  I read a fantastic children's book, Two Old Potatoes and Me, and we planted old potatoes just like the father and daughter in the story.  You can see the previous posts about it here.

 It's fall now, and the plants had stopped growing, and looked pretty tired.  I decided it was time to dig into the soil around the potato plants, and to see what we might have grown.

 The first thing we all noticed when I dumped out the big bin full of soil and potato plants, was that there were hundreds of worms in the soil.  Big worms, little worms, middle sized worms... lots and lots of happy earth worms.  The children couldn't keep out of it, and happily dug in, searching for potatoes, and thrilled to find the wiggly worms.

 Our "haul" was pretty pitiful.  Only one of our potato plants had any potatoes, and they were very small.  We ended up with just over a handful of new potatoes.  I probably dug them up too soon, but even so, we had very few potatoes.

You are probably thinking that growing the potatoes was a waste of time - if you judge solely by the final yield, that would be true.  So how else could this activity have been of value?

The children spent a lot of time learning about potatoes, literacy, plant growth, and nature.  We read
almost every week, all summer and into the fall.  We learned what color is "periwinkle," and noticed that the child in the book has two homes, one with dad and one with mom.  For children whose home experience is similar, it's very affirming to find characters they can relate to.

The kiddos learned that potatoes have eyes, and that they can grow from them.  We saw some of the pieces of potato rot or get eaten, and then watched as the surviving plants grew.  The children added soil to the pot, burying the base of the plants frequently to encourage potato growth.  They even looked for potato beetles regularly!  They may not ever do it again, but the kiddos know how to grow their own food, and that's a powerful piece of knowledge!

When the children found worms this year, they put them into the soil around the potatoes, and watched as the worms dug down into the soil.  Obviously those worms survived and thrived, evidenced by the massive crop of worms we found. I dumped the soil and potato plants into the vegetable garden for us to dig through, so the worms and the soil is now nourishing the garden, ready for another crop.  We also learned that worms are not boys and girls, but hermaphrodites - they are both male and female! 

So no, this crop of potatoes is not going to go very far. I'm going to make mashed potatoes with them, but will have to supplement with store bought potatoes to make enough for us all to enjoy.  Still, I'm happy with the return on the investment:  we grew some children, right along with the potatoes!

Growing Vegetable Soup, BRIT's storytime

Have you met this beautiful book?  Lois Ehlert creates wonderful and vibrant illustrations, and in Growing Vegetable Soup her vegetables are almost enough to make you hungry.  This was the featured text at BRIT's storytime this week.  As always, the follow up activities were perfect for young children, engaging and playful, and highly educational.  I firmly believe Bella's book club is the best story time around!

 Activities were laid out on the tables in the library, including a fun pumpkin counting/ matching game that the children were drawn to immediately.

 We also looked at photos of vegetables, and categorized which part of the plant each one was before hearing the story, and singing a song about seeds.

 Ms. Pam cut some ripe tomatoes and cucumbers for the children to see and smell, and we admired how different they look when cut different ways.

Downstairs, in the "tree-house" room, there were vegetables to scoop...

 ... and to sort.

 Art supplies were available for children to create a vegetable plant mural.

 My group spent the most time at the seed scooping center, filling and emptying various containers for so long, that I got our seeds out back at the house, so we could continue the play later.

 There was also sand to scoop and pour, with seeds and letters hidden in the mix, and pumpkin seed planting.

I love Bella's book club and BRIT, and am so glad I get to take my kiddos and learn in such a hands on environment!  If you are in DFW, please check out First Saturdays at BRIT, 8am - 1pm on the first Saturday of the month.

Applesauce and more

 I blogged on Thursday about many of the things we've been learning this week, but could not leave out our grand finale - making applesauce!

I asked our families to please send in one apple this week, and we made two graphs about it; which day they brought the apple to school...

...and what color apple they brought.

The kiddos were very involved in the graphing process, one child even insisted that her parents go buy a yellow apple, so it would not have zero!

On Friday, we made our applesauce.  I called the children to work on it one or two at a time, and of course we started (and ended) with washing our hands.

I showed them how to use the vegetable peelers, holding the apples with one hand, placing the blade of the peeler flat on the apple, and pushing it away from themselves, then showed them how to use a knife too.

They worked really hard to peel and cut their apples, and then put the pieces into a large pot, ready for me to cook.

You can really see the concentration and determination on their faces as they worked on this new skill.

This child let me help me him peel an apple, but once it was peeled, grabbed the pieces and sat in a quiet spot to eat them.  Apples taste delicious raw too!

I did the cooking, then served up warm, fresh, cinnamon applesauce for the kiddos for snack.

 Lots of thumbs up from the children!  My favorite thing said about the applesauce?  "Can we have seconds on applesauce?"  (Yes!) and then a few minutes later, "Can we have thirds?"  Oh yes!

One more special surprise on Friday was an invitation to pick tomatoes at my friends' home again.  With so many new children here, most of the children who got to go and pick this time had not been to do it before, and were tickled with the new experience.

Kid quotes from this visit, "Can I eat one?" and of course, "Can I eat another one?" and even better, "Hey! I actually LIKE tomatoes!"

I like tomatoes too, and I really love seeing children connect with their food, learning to prepare it, and to appreciate healthy and delicious vegetables!  The attitudes and preferences they learn now will be with them for a lifetime - yeah for tomatoes!

Picking tomatoes and green beans

Earlier this week a neighbor asked if I would like to help pick their vegetables for a few days.  I love vegetable gardening, and wish I could get better results in my own, so I jumped at the chance to get in on some fresh ripe tomatoes and green beans.  I decided to take a few kiddos at a time with me, so they could also experience warm, sun-ripened tomatoes. 

I talked the children through the picking process, how to use one hand to hold the plant, and the other to gently pull the fruit, and of course, to place the produce gently into their picking basket.

 We looked for the reddest, ripest tomatoes, and left behind the yellow and orange ones (mostly).

The children were fascinated and thrilled at the experience of picking, even though they also noticed that it was work, especially looking for the hidden green beans.

Oh, and tasting!  I heard wonderful words from the children, like, "Can I eat one?" and "Can I eat another one?"

 They were so proud of their haul, which included 17 fair sized tomatoes, lots of beans, and a pile of cherry tomatoes - even after we'd eaten a bunch!

 Back at home I had them sort the produce.  They asked if they could take some home.  There was certainly enough!  Everyone chose one ripe, red tomato to take home, and we also set some aside for another friend, and put the beans away for lunch another day.

 One child decided to eat her tomato as she was leaving - and her loose tooth came out in the tomato!

I took other children on other days, and followed the same routine: showed them how to pick carefully without damaging the plants, looked for the ripest fruits, and enjoyed the calm of working in the garden together.

Look at their faces - the children loved this experience.  I had one child tell me later, "I don't like to eat tomatoes, but I like to pick them!"  It's a good start.

One of the children noticed the soft fuzz on the growing green beans - something that is long gone by the time they reach the grocery store, but that home gardeners everywhere are familiar with.

 There were also just a very few strawberries, but well worth looking for.

Can you guess where the strawberry is in this picture?

We loved the opportunity to explore the garden, to pick, and of course, to eat.

After several days of picking, we had an abundance of green beans - and a few purple beans from our own garden too.  We added them to our lunch on Friday, along with the cherry tomatoes, salted sliced tomatoes, and other, store bought ingredients.

We had also found some over ripe green beans,  ones that had escaped notice for a few days too long, and were no longer tender and crisp but rather well on their way to drying out.  The pods were yellowing, and the beans inside them were larger and harder than the ones we like to eat.

While they were eating, I handed out an over ripe pod to each child, and let them explore it.  We pulled the pods open, and found the beans inside were hard and had turned white!  They looked like "beans," as opposed to "green beans."

 We even tried eating the semi-dry beans!  They were different than the green ones, but still tasty.

The best news of all is that there are more green beans and tomatoes left, even after our feasting.  I'll freeze the beans, and cook up the tomatoes, and we can enjoy this haul of vegetables again next week. 

Oh yeah, I have awesome neighbors!