Growing Food and Kids

1. Go on a picnic.

2. Stage a relay race.

3. Find a creek and catch crawfish or minnows.

4. Hunt for snakes or frogs in your garden.

5. Climb a tree.

6. Read a book under a tree.

7. Pick vegetables in the garden.

8. Take a hike.

9. Pick wildflowers and share them with a friend or neighbor.

10. Find some water and take a swim.

What other ideas would you add to the list?

Ok, so maybe we already knew this. But now Hollywood has noticed too: Farmers are the new sex symbols. Case in point: Alex O’Loughlin (pictured below) in The Back-up Plan (also starring Jennifer Lopez and now playing in theaters everywhere).

For years, Hollywood’s sexy leading men have been lawyers, cops, firemen, advertising men. Not farmers. But apparently, that’s changing. Even filmmakers have realized that people who make food from dirt are truly cool.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I promise I’m not ruining anything. But basically, Jennifer Lopez meets a guy at exactly the wrong time in her life. Not only is he charming and sexy, but he’s a goat farmer who makes his own goat cheese and sells it at farmers markets. (See, sexy isn’t it?)

One of the cutest scenes in the movie is when Lopez’s character drives out of the city to visit the goat farm. She’s seen the guy a few times in the city and likes him, but nothing has prepared her for the moment when she drives into the rolling green pastures and suddenly sees him, hot and shirtless, toiling on a noisy tractor. She drives right into the fence.

The movie is cute and funny, but I love that in a subtle way, it promotes local agriculture and gives a human face to today’s farmers. Go see the movie, and go hug your own farmer (or just buy something from him or her at your local farmer’s market). Who knows? Before long, your local single farmer may be the most sought-after man (or woman) in town!

Photo credit: Picapp

Today is Haiku Day in the WordCount Blogathon. Bloggers across the Internet are posting in the form of haiku today. Fun, fun! As you might remember from elementary school, a haiku is a poem focused on one thought that is expressed in 17 syllables (five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line).

So, here’s my attempt at a blog post haiku:

So much depends on

Little fingers in the dirt,

Murky bath water.

Want to try your own haiku? Feel free to leave it as a comment below!

There’s so much to love about Walt Disney World. We just returned from a week there with our boys, and while I expected the rides, the games, the food, and the souvenirs, I didn’t expect the gardens. That’s right, even Mickey and Minnie have a vegetable garden.

Here’s a look at some of Minnie’s gardening supplies and her lovely rose garden.

But the cartoon characters aren’t the only ones gardening down in Orlando. Disney, which seems to do everything well, is also into  sustainable agriculture. At Epcot, the amazing work of Disney’s own Sustainable Agriculture and Research Center is on display. At “The Land,” we took a boat ride through the Disney greenhouses where some of this research is at work.

There, plants are grown in the air, in the sand, and in motion through the use of conveyor belts. Tomato plants are trained to grow on trees, and root vegetables are trained to grow in water. Plants are grown sustainably in all types of containers and environments. The whole place is full of experiments that could make a huge difference for the state of agriculture around the world, potentially helping to solve hunger problems in agriculturally poor areas.

It’s almost enough to make you feel like you’re doing something charitable by visiting Disney World. And because the organic fruits and vegetables grown at Epcot are served in restaurants throughout the parks, we definitely felt good about eating the yummy food (especially when dining with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the gang!).

A lot can happen in a week. When we left last week for vacation, the garden was mostly just green sprouts. But when we got home yesterday, after a week away, it was a different story.

First, the boys brought in these two bell peppers, the biggest ones we’ve ever grown.

Next, Lee pulled these onions out of the ground. We’re ready for a salad!

Finally, our first attempt at growing English peas seems to be paying off. Hopefully, we’ll be picking and eating more of these this weekend. 

Things are definitely looking greener (and riper) around here. What vegetables are ready to harvest in your garden?

On the remaining Fridays of the WordCount Blogathon, I’m republishing popular posts from the past. This one originally appeared in October 2009.

We parents knew that spending time outside did something positive for our kids (besides making them take a better nap). And now a new study shows that people who spend more time in the natural environment, as opposed to manmade environments, place greater value on personal relationships and community, and are more generous with money, than those who don’t.

“We are influenced by our environment in ways that we are not aware of,” says Netta Weinstein, lead author of the study, which was published in the October issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. “The more you appreciate nature, the more you can benefit.”

The study’s authors offer a few good reasons why spending time in nature might make us more interested in other people. But I’d like to add a few of my own [which are completely unscientific but based on experience and a pretty good maternal instinct]:

• Nature reminds of our (small) size. When I’m indoors all the time, consumed by work, a book, the computer, or food, my thoughts tend to revolve around myself and the little indoor world I’ve created for me (my office, my kitchen, my playroom). But when I regularly spend time in the great outdoors, I can’t help but be reminded that the world is so much bigger than me, that there are so many concerns greater than mine, so much beauty greater than what I can create. The realization of my own smallness in the big scheme of things might help me take the focus off myself and lead me to show more interest in other people.
• Nature distracts us with discovery. There’s so much to learn and discover outdoors, especially with children. There are rocks to be overturned, hills to roll down, gardens to grow. The process of regularly discovering new things helps children develop inquisitive minds. And talking about those discoveries and ideas helps children grow into social people who love to share what they’re learning and hear about others’ ideas.
• Nature encourages us with its community. When we (and our kids) spend a lot of time outside, interacting with plants and animals, we observe the strong sense of community in the natural world. For instance, look at how bees and flowers work together to help food crops grow. Maybe our observation of strong community ties in the natural world makes us subconsciously more focused on building community in our own social world.

What do you think – does nature make you and your kids nicer? If so, why do you think so?

Photo credit: 123RF.com

As I write about gardening and outdoor topics (for this blog and for other publications), I’m always interested in reading what others have to say about these subjects. And it’s no surprise that there are a ton of good blogs focused on gardening and exploring the outdoors with kids. Here are six good ones to take a look at:

• Slow Family Online. Written by Susan Sachs Lipman, Slow Family Online is just what it sounds like: a blog about slowing down, spending time outdoors, exploring the world around us, and taking our time. Its idea of the “slow family” is similar to the “slow food” movement. And it’s just the sort of family I want.
• Loving Nature’s Garden. Alison Kerr’s blog is focused on gardening and green, sustainable living. She reviews new gardening books and writes kid-friendly posts about garden critters and gardening as a community.
• Go Explore Nature. Blogger Debi and her two exploring sons are all about finding adventures in everyday life. This blog is full of ideas and inspiration for exploring the great outdoors.
• Backyard Mama. Written by Shannon, another mom committed to outdoor play, this blog is full of fun ideas and photos of interesting kid-adventures.
• Western Gardeners. Whether you live out west or not, Jodi Torpey’s excellent gardening blog always offers helpful tips and tools for gardeners, as well as a little bit of gardening culture — books, travel, garden design.
• Children & Nature Network. Dedicated to reconnecting children and nature, the Children & Nature Network features newsy content about what’s going on in the worlds of researchers and individuals, educators and organizations dedicated to children’s health and well-being.

What other gardening/outdoor blogs do you like to visit?

My boys love to go for a walk in the woods, or just around the corner. And they have the most fun when we bring along a brown paper bag for each of them with a list of things to find and put in the bag. If you want to organize your own nature hike, take into account the ages of the children involved and the time of year. Here are some ideas to get your list started:

1. A twig shaped like a “Y.”
2. A mushroom.
3. A snakeskin.
4. A smooth stone.
5. A jagged stone.
6. A dandelion (to blow and make a wish).
7. A piece of litter (to throw away or recycle!).
8. A leaf.
9. Pine needles.
10. Wild berries.