Tuesday October 14th, 2008
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The Kids' First Meal from the Garden
Posted by Bridget Murray Law on July 2, 2007 - 8:13am.
The first of July means the beginning of the harvest season-in fact, the Fourth has always been my father's yardstick for when he can expect the first ripe tomatoes. So this weekend, I took stock of my crops.
The peas and radishes had fallen victim to the heat, and it appeared some evil entity had eaten my tomatoes when they were just green and forming (more on that in my next post).
As for the squash and zucchini, they'd completely taken over, though they've not yet grown to the 20 feet my father insists they will. I also saw loads of green beans going gangbusters all over the vine.
I pulled on some gloves, and went in for the kill on the zucchini. Yank. Ouch! I soon learned that it's more like the other way around. You can't just pluck them off the plant (well, bush, really); you have to dive in headfirst and get spiked in the face by what feel like porcupine quills. What you really need is a mask. I managed to grab the largest zucchini I saw, only to find it had been gnawed on. I picked a few more tiny ones, but was feeling quite bloodied by the quills, so I moved on to the beans.
I enlisted my toddler twins' help with picking the beans. Given the lack of quills, I thought they might enjoy it. Wrong. They were only interested in plucking the leaves, not in picking the beans themselves. And when I handed them the beans for safekeeping, they tried to put them back on the vine. I finished picking the beans on my own.
At least I had my first crops harvested; now it was time to cook them up for the boys. I will admit I used a little butter (just a little) because...well...the boys have never eaten home-grown before. And now, the moment of truth had arrived. I carefully cut up the zucchini and beans, sat the boys in their high chairs, and placed the steaming garden veggies on their plates.
Each twin tried a piece of zucchini, pulled a face, and immediately spat it out. Duncan then went about stacking his zucchini next to his plate. Maybe they'd like the beans better?
Only marginally, it turned out. They spent more time mashing the beans into their plates than eating them. I'm not ready to give up on the twins yet, though. If I can keep my tomatoes from getting eaten on the vine, maybe I can get the twins hooked on those instead?
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Congratulations on your wins, Bridget. We've heard a lot about your losses (and sympathize!) but from the looks of the platter in the picture, your zucchini and beans are a success to savor! My wife's suggestion is to be sure to add a little butter to the veggies to make them more palatable to the kids and melt some grated cheese on the zucchini slices. Are you going to be feeding them fried green tomatoes next - or aren't you even left with a few green ones?
I'm surprised that you had critters eating your tomato plants, usually the only thing that eats the plant is tomato worms, they are nasty looking. I will sometimes have birds peck at my tomatoes but that is easy to remedy. Just throw a net over the tomato basket and you should be fine. If you have tomato worms you just have to pick them off one by one and squish them, yuck! The twins might like that. Have fun!
Ah, kids. :) I don't have kids of my own but I am around them most of the time. And just like Vicki said, you have to keep trying, I'm sure they'll get it soon enough. I used to tutor kindergardeners for a while and let me tell you, it's tough work! I can't imagine trying to get them into eating their vegetables when I had trouble making them paint their names and ABC's!
I agree with madhatter into trying to add some spice to the vegetables, I always try to dress things up just to make a little more interesting for the kids. It's important to do it in moderation though, you don't want them to think that it's always going to be fun and games!
Good luck with the twins, they're adorable.
"Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit." --Pliny the Elder
it's hard to grow stuff. you need good soil, lots of sun and something to eat the bad bugs. i tried growing tomatoes in NYC -- from seed -- and within a few days of moving them outside they had pests that only attack tomato plants. the nearest other plant was probably a mile away so where these bugs came from i had no idea. aphids. there's also some kind of fungus that gets at them. best you can do it have some ladybugs handy to eat the aphids and have plenty of sun to fight the wilt. or douse with chemicals.
Luck Factory
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"Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit." --Pliny the Elder