Want Your Kids to Eat More Vegetables? Take Them to the Farm
“I’ll be very surprised if my kid tries that,” a mom says to another parent as one of the Area 2 farmers passes out buzz buttons - a fuzzy edible flower that creates a tingling sensation in the mouth once it’s chewed. To his mother’s surprise, the boy accepted the flower and started chewing right away. About 60 seconds later, he ran to his parents laughing, “My mouth is doing some crazy things!”
Many parents who come to the farm express genuine bafflement when they see their kids sampling things like purple shamrock and oyster leaves. You’re more likely to find these items at a Michelin restaurant than your local grocery store, yet it’s not uncommon to see children crowd around a plate of wasabi arugula and pop the intensely flavorful leaves into their mouths.
Farms offer a different environment for kids to experiment and try new things. And for many, being with peers within a collective experience can reduce fears of the unfamiliar. Lowered inhibitions isn’t always a great thing, except when it comes to trying new organic vegetables.
The Immeasurable Benefits of an Area 2 Farms’ Tour
Boosts Awareness About Food and Where it Comes From
Children have the remarkable ability to become ignited by social causes and subject matters that can surprise us adults. One child might be particularly enthralled with U.S. presidents, another with environmental protection, and another still with baseball statistics. Farm tours provide multiple opportunities to cultivate awareness about things that are, and always will be, hugely important to their lives:
Agriculture. Seeing how food is grown, what environment different foods grow in, and how they go from seed to table is a starkly different and welcome alternative to combing the processed food aisles of your neighborhood grocery store.
Quality & Sustainability. The average grocery store carrot is up to nine months old and has traveled 1,500 to 2,500 miles to arrive at your grocery store. An Area 2 Farms carrot, like all the farm’s vegetables, is 24 to 48 hours old by the time it’s delivered to your door, and has traveled an average of 1.2 miles. Farm tours are educational experiences that demonstrate these differences and why they matter to personal health and the global environment.
Farmers and Community. Close your eyes and picture a farmer. There’s a fair chance the image you conjure up looks strikingly similar to Old McDonald. Children who visit Area 2 meet farmers who are young, intelligent, mission-driven, and cool. When children see impassioned farmers, situated right there within their urban and suburban community, it can transform how they think about where their food comes from and who makes it all happen.
Inspires Inquisitiveness and Discovery
When Area 2’s Marissa Bale led a recent farm tour, she asked the mixed-age group of elementary children if any of them had any questions. From the dozen or so hands that shot up, Marissa called on a kindergartner named Matthew, who asked with tremendous earnesty, “Why do plants grow?”
Without missing a beat, Marissa answered this very abstract question by saying, “Well, plants are a lot like us. They grow so that they can make the world a better place. They take in water and nutrients and light so that they can produce more plants, and that keeps the world going.”
Children have boundless curiosity, and their questions often seem to be about mundane things that we adults take for granted. These questions, however, are far from simple. They expand minds, open new pathways for understanding, and sharpen a critical skill that’s often at risk of diminishing as we get older.
According to a 2007 study by Michele Chouinard, one child might ask up to three questions a minute. That adds up to 40,000 by the age of 5. Asking questions, Leon Neyfakh says, requires a series of “complex mental maneuvers”: “The child has to first realize that they don’t know something…and that other people are information-bearing agents…Then, the child has to be able to, somehow or another, realize that language is a tool for shifting stuff from that person to them.”
With that in mind, Area 2’s farmers are well versed in embracing inquisitiveness and encouraging discovery. After all, how do you think they got their start in organic farming?
Sparks an Interest to Try New Things…Like Vegetables
Some of the most beloved chefs, culinary professionals, and even philosophers are able to pinpoint, with remarkable specificity, the moment that transformed their lives and turned them into lifelong food devotees. Almost exclusively, these memories are rooted in childhood. For Anthony Bourdain, it was a slippery, briney oyster proffered by a fisherman in France that he proceeded to slurp down…and enjoy. For Marcel Proust, it was a madeleine cookie dipped into tea that instantaneously transported him back into his youth.
A full-time career in the food industry might not be the profession of choice for your kids, but developing a healthy relationship to food is relevant to everyone. As a society, we often marvel at children who “eat their vegetables” or have adventurous palates, and the truth is that many of these unicorns are simply wired that way. Others learn with time and exposure, as the unfamiliar becomes familiar and our decision-making skills evolve to include: “Maybe I should try to eat more vegetables.”
Farm tours create these moments of potential change. The sampling of one vegetable can lead to the sampling of another, and another. You never know when a child’s interests will be activated.
A parent recently wrote to the farm to say, “Since the tour, my son has not stopped talking about organic vegetables.” It’s not hard to imagine that, for many of these kids, the farm tour will become a seminal memory for them. In ten, twenty, or even thirty years from now, they might look back and say, with absolute certainty, “That changed everything.”
Farm Tours are Great for Parents and Teachers Too
As much as children benefit, so do their parents. In addition to seeing their children light up at the site of growing produce or worms in the compost pile, chances are the parents themselves will walk away with a greater understanding of nutrient density and insects in harmony with their environment.
Farm tours have long been popular activities for families and schools because of the rich learning opportunities they offer to children. In a world where the majority of our food is processed by and purchased from large food conglomerates, being able to connect with the farms and farmers responsible for providing whole and nourishing foods is a much needed tonic.
Area 2’s farm tours are just that and more. Our farm tours introduce children and families to a novel approach to organic farming – an approach we believe will be more relevant and important to these young generations especially.
Book a time to visit the farm here, or reach out to Marissa directly at marissa@area2farms.com to schedule a group tour for your school or group!
Area 2 Farms for Locals
Your food should be equally accessible and nutritious. Which is where we come in. We’re Area 2 Farms, we grow organic produce, deliver it to your door weekly, and operate all within 10 miles of you.
