Greening Sam and Avery

strawberry picking

If you have not taken your child out to pick their own food of some kind (apples, raspberries, black berries, strawberries, etc.)  you absolutely have to! Seeing your child find food that they can pick right off of the plant and eat in that moment is an amazing thing. Sure they can do that if you grow veggies or fruit at home but there is something about walking through a HUGE field hunting for lots of the same thing that is so interesting and exciting, at least to a little kid. 

For a grown up picking your own strawberries involves a lot of sweat, a sore back, sore knees and well pretty much sore all over! But we did it, two giant flats of strawberries, two happy little girls and four bellies full of freshly picked strawberries. 

We even had some friends come out this morning to join us!

Having the girls pick with us may seem like more work than it is worth but they really can learn at a very early age how to pick strawberries. 

Here are a few simple rules that even two year olds can understand:

1. Always look at all sides of the strawberry before you pick it off the plant. 
2. The strawberry should be bright red all over. 
3. Make sure there are no holes or bad spots on the strawberry. 
4. Never pick a green strawberry! 

Happy picking!!  Jam making and pie making will take over my life for the next few days. And the girls cannot wait to help me mash up all those berries. 

gardening report (gardening with kids)

We are in the middle of yard sale/garage sale madness at this house! Five families have dropped off stuff at my house to be sold Thursday through Saturday. The kids (mine plus three other friends) will have a lemonade and cookie stand too! 

But in the midst of pricing, organizing, and setting up to sell all of our junk, I mean slightly used wonderful stuff, we had to do some planting.

First off I just wanted to ask if any gardeners have ever seen Rhubarb that looks this THIS!

Should I harvest it? Is it suppose to flower like that? What do I do with those really long stalks? Any advice you have on harvesting rhubarb would be AWESOME! Please leave a comment. 

Today we planted yellow onions, romaine lettuce, yellow beans and bush beans. The girls had a great time taking turns to plant with their dad. 

 Our method for having the girls help is to hand them a few seeds and then we point to where the seed should go and they put it in. Once all the seeds are planted we work together to push the soil back over the seeds. I imagine this is a pretty common way of having little kids plant row crops.

Sam, at age 4, is already pretty good at handling the smaller seeds (carrots, onions, etc.) but Avery is just on her first planting year to be involved so she just helped with the bigger bean seeds.

Beans are, in my opinion, some of the best plants to grow with young kids. The seeds are big and easy to handle. The seeds sprout fairly quickly so that they don't have to be patient for too long. The beans are easy to pick off and a great immediate snack in the yard. My girls both loved helping to pick the beans last year and I know this year they will get just as into the process.

To see a list of other great plants to grow with your little ones head over here. And be sure to check out the book "Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots"  by Sharon Lovejoy. It is an awesome resource for gardening with kids. 

How is your gardening going so far this year?  And WHAT do I do with my rhubarb?!

let the gardening begin

We are preparing for gardening season! WOOHOO!! That makes me happy just to say that. 

I cannot wait to be digging in the soil, planting seeds and then many months from now helping Sam fill her bucket full of produce and yummy fresh stuff for us to eat. I just love being in the garden with my girls. 

But for now we do some indoor activities to get us ready. 

First we are reading a book we just found at the library. Super silly, but who knew there were so many vegetables!

I put some serious enthusiasm in my voice when I read this book, like I am doing a cheer at a football game, and the girls think it is hilarious. Plus, we have been able to look at all the pictures of things we could grow and talk about what we have room for and which ones we really want to try to grow this year. If you are feeling the need to discover some new veggies in your meals using this book to introduce them to your kids might be a good idea. 

Then Sam got busy making her own garden! Gotta love the Jung Seed catalog (any plant or seed catalog would work). I let her pick out which plants she wanted to put in her garden and where she wanted to put them. Great cutting and glueing work for her. 

And the final product! 

She really loves carrots. 

Are you starting to think about gardening yet? How do you get your kids involved?

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The Nitty Gritty!

This is the second year we have done this project. Last year she picked the food she wanted based only on color and this year she was much more focused on what foods she actually likes to eat. I love seeing the change and growth in her.

This is a project that can easy grow and change with the age of your child. With much older kids you can have them actually look at seed packets to determine how much growing space certain things need. Then they can do the math problems to really figure out the best way to use your garden area to grow the most food. And letting kids have a say in the food you grow is always an awesome idea! Or if you have the space give them a section that they can plan out entirely and then take care of throughout the whole season!

Happy gardening! 

 

cookies for the birds

 

A few days ago the girls and I got a chance to have a playdate with some friends and make bird cookies.

The kids got to get their hands messy mixing up the "dough" and then got to cut out fun shaped cookies to hang up for the birds.

We have ours hanging up in our backyard by the bird feeders. They would look great hanging as ornaments in a tree but our trees are pretty far away from the windows so the girls can't see the birds as well that far away.

We bake lots of cookies at this house for the holidays so it was a lot of fun to learn how to make cookies for the birds as well!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Have to share the amazing business that Kate, Ben, Asher and River have just outside the Madison area. It is a community supported kitchen that delivers to your doorstep local, seasonal and healthy meals! They just recently set up shop in Mazomanie, WI and are growing super fast. Check out 608!

Now, if you would like to make some bird cookies of your own to give to the feathered friends in your life for Christmas here is the recipe!

1 Cup whole wheat flour

1 Cup oats

1/2 butter/crisco/lard

1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix dry ingredients together. Add butter, mix to make it crumbly.

Add two whole eggs, crush shells and all.

Add a cup of bird seed.

optional: cup of dried or fresh berries

Shape using cookie cutters. Poke hole for string.

Bake at 350 until hard.

I think when doing it again, I would give kids dough to press into the cookie cutters, and make sure to make them thick.

This recipe is Kate's so thanks should go to her! I hope she doesn't mind that I am sharing it!!! 

just because they are green does not mean they aren't tasty

That was a long title!

The temps will be dropping here very soon and I wanted to do something with all the green tomatoes that I still had on the plants. Thanks to my sister-in-law I knew just what to do with all these green tomatoes!

This was the small pile!

So, I followed a great recipe and turned them into some really good green tomato salsa!

We made 11 jars of salsa and have already given two of them away to friends as thank you gifts!

Sam was very confused at first as to why we were picking the tomatoes that are green, when I have been telling her all summer to only pick the red ones! But once we started picking she loved finding the green ones. They are harder for her to spot than the red ones so she really loved the "hunt"!

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The Nitty Gritty!

I am exhausted and have had a long day otherwise I would share the recipe that we used. If you are really interested leave me a comment and I will send you the recipe sometime soon!

Good night!

 

fall in the garden

Did you see the great post by Go Explore Nature about getting your kiddos in the garden in the Fall? If not you need to head over there and check it out.

Sam and I headed to the garden today to finish pulling the carrots.

We had a lot to dig up but with us both using our shovels and just digging away it took no time at all! She loved digging and loosening up the soil around the carrots and then wiggling them until they were loose enough to pull out. While we were digging we found moths, worms, ants and spiders, lots of great little critters! Even though it was really chilly Sam and I had fun digging in the dirt.

Great Fall activity!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Okay, this didn't actually happen today! I am at a college friend's wedding today and did this with Sam yesterday. But I really wanted to share the link to the post that I mentioned and show off our amazing end of the season carrots.

Go dig in the dirt as many times as you can before the ground freezes! You just never know what your kiddos may find in the Fall!

fall fun - what to do with 50 pounds of apples

We are drowning in apples around here!

So, what have we done with all these apples?  First we made apple pockets. Not a huge dent made in the pile of apples (it used all of TWO apples!) but they were very yummy and Sam got to help make them. 

Ingredients -

• 2 apples
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• Flour for dusting
• 1 pkg. (7.5 oz) refrigerated biscuits

1. Heat oven to 350F. Peel apples; grate them into a medium bowl. In a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. Stir half of cinnamonsugar into grated apples.

2. Roll each biscuit to about 5" circle. Spoon apple mixture onto circles. Fold circles over and pinch edges to make halfmoons. Place on a baking sheet.

3. Brush pies with water and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon and sugar. Bake 20 minutes. Makes 10 pies.

While snacking on these we started to plan out what we would do with the other 49.99 pounds of apples!

I LOVE apples pies and was so excited when a friend (thank you Pastor Kirsten!) reminded me that you can make pie-filling and then freeze it. Here is the recipe that I follow for my apple pie filling.

Ingredients -

• 6 cups finely sliced apples
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon ( I don't actually measure this or the nutmeg anymore and probably put in a bit more than what they say)
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

I combined all the ingredients, mixed them up really well and put them into a large ziploc bag (would love to have used a big jar but didn't think of that ahead of time!). I made four apple pie fillings that will be ready to go whenever we want a fresh apple pie.

And finally, the reason that we got SO many apples is the homemade applesauce. My girls will eat this daily and we ran out so quickly last year that I knew I wanted to make much more this year.

Applesauce making falls mostly in the hands of my husband. I wash and peel the apples and he does everything else! In a BIG pot we put as many cut up apples as we can fit. Then we fill the pot about half way full with water and set it on the stove. Cover and boil, stirring frequently. As you stir you break up the bigger chunks. The more you stir and the longer you boil the less lumpy the applesuace will be. We like pretty lumpy applesauce so ours doesn't take too long to make. Once you have the consistency that you like turn off the heat and add your sugar and cinnamon to taste (Chris doesn't know amounts he just knows how much we like, so this you will kind of have to figure out through trial and error). Once it has cooled divide it up into containers and put in the freezer.

So far we have made four BIG batches of applesauce. I have no idea how to describe exactly how much applesauce that is but trust me when I say it is a lot!

We will continue to make applesauce, eat the apples and store some in the fridge to lengthen their life as we enjoy this seasonal treat. Yes, even apples are something that are grown seasonal. They are cheaper, better quality and better for the environment when you buy them locally and in season!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Our freezer is getting quite full.  We have prepared and frozen tons of green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, strawberry jam, zuccihini bread and biscuits and now applesauce. It makes me smile every time I open up the freezer to see all the food that we have in their that either we grew ourselves or was picked locally and in season. I think I am also passing along great habits to my girls!

 

 

crafting and food

Starting to talk and learn about Fall around here! Super excited for crunching leaves, Fall colors, carving pumpkins and cooler hikes.

While Avery was still napping Sam and I got messy with paint and creative! The craft went super quick making one tree so if we did it again I would have more pieces of paper ready so she could make even more trees.

This first one is Sam's.

 

And here is mine.
 
We made falling leaves with our hands and finger prints.

Here is where I got the idea.

We also spent time in the kitchen today. Had to do something with this guy!

 
Zucchini dinner rolls are the first thing that got made today. Four loaves of zucchini bread were made with the last massive one that we found plus lots of grilled zucchini. I need to find another great recipe that can freeze easily. Any suggestions?

We also prepared a lot of tomatoes today! I say we but that is a Chris job. He has taken on almost all of the preparing and freezing of produce this season. And today he tackled a massive amount of tomatoes.

 
We cooked dinner for some friends two nights ago and Sam really enjoyed pointing out the things in the meal that we had grown ourselves.

So, it was a busy day. Happy Friday to all of you!

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The Nitty Gritty!

If I were to do the tree painting again I would skip painting the branches as that made it harder to really see our hands. And if you have a kiddo that is willing to do a little bit of painting at a time you could do each color seperately, let it dry, and then come back with another color. This might help make the hands and colors stand out better (or just better paint might help that too!).

 

bird week - eating like birds

We are kicking off a bird week here! And I am super excited about some of the things that we have planned.

Today we started the week off by talking about bird beaks. We talked about what the birds eat that we see in our backyard (seeds, bugs and worms). I asked her what they used to eat with and if we ate the same way. After a great conversation and me showing her some bird pictures so she could really see the beaks up close I explained that we were going to try and eat like birds.

 
I showed her a plate of peanuts and explained that just like birds have to use their beaks to crack open seeds and get the food that was on the inside we were going to use tools (that look somewhat like beaks) to crack open peanuts. She was fascinated by the whole concept!

 
She had a set of wooden salad tongs, needle nose pliers and regular pliers to experiment with.

 
 
Chris even got in on the peanut crushing fun! And both girls really liked the snack.

This worked out really well as a way for her to see what birds have to do (sometimes) to get their food.

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The Nitty Gritty!

Obviously this is not for those with a peanut allergy; sorry! But for those that can do this activity be sure to pair it with some bird watching being sure to point out how birds open the seeds. If you have chickadees near your house you can point out how they grab a seed, hold in between their toes and break it open with their beaks. The work they do is very careful and detailed.

All day I have been thinking that they would be such a fun snack to do with preschoolers or campers when they are learning about birds. But after I just wrote that first line above about peanut allergies I realized that there is probably not a school or camp out there that could do this activity. I keep trying to think of something else that could be used but I am drawing a blank. I will keep thinking!

Day 345: breakfast on the farm

This morning we went to our first county breakfast on the farm. This one happened to be at a dairy farm just a few miles from our house. I sort of thought it would  be a small event with the farm family cooking some locals a breafast of food from their farm. HA! I was misinformed!

 
Have you ever seen a pancake griddle that big before?

 
And this is about HALF of the parking lot!

 
We started out eating breakfast, which is great, and then headed out to see the farm.

 
 
And my understanding that it was just about a meal was also VERY wrong! There was a live band that was really good, a whole exhibit booth hall with games and stuff for the kids, tours, hay rides and face painting!

 
All that while also getting a behind the scenes look at a dairy farm.

 
We got to get an upclose look at where the cows live, where "mommy" cows (the pregnant cows) live while they are waiting to give birth, where baby cow lives, what all goes into their food and just about everything else that has to do with raising dairy cattle!

And probably the girl'a favorite part was eating ice cream early in the morning!

 
We had a great time! I am not sure if Avery will ever stop saying MOO!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Live in WI and want to check one out for yourself? It is not too late there may still be one coming up in your area. Take a look at the WI Dairy Farm Bureau website to see dates and locations.

I found them in Michigan too!

And in Minnesota!

Those were the only states I could find but there may be many more out there! You should look into it.