Farm to Table Project

My kids' school has a farm share and each week the pre-schoolers get to go pick up the veggies.  Then the teachers have to figure out what to do with all those veggies.  They have made kale chips, beet pancakes, apple-carrot muffins and who knows what else.  The preschoolers get to help with the cooking and then they all get to taste the dish and even provide a rating on how well they liked it.  It's like one of those smiley-face pain scales they hang on the wall in the hospital.  (You know, the one that you would laugh out loud at while you're pacing the room in labor.....if laughing were an option at that moment).  In this case, I believe the food-rating options are "really liked it", "just liked it", "kinda liked it", and "didn't like it."  I'll wait until Tai is a little older to lecture him on constructing a valid likert scale. 

Eventually, the teachers got smart and enlisted the help of a few pre-schoolers, mine included, to compose a letter home to parents asking for help with creative veggie recipes.  Tai embraced this project whole-heartedly.  Over the course of a week, I heard about this letter from Tai approximately 27 times.  I got, "Do you have any recipes that use beets?  kale? edamame?" and "Maybe we can make pumpkin bread or beef stew?"

He had me at beef stew.

I am not a great cook, but beef stew is one thing I can do.  And it uses potatoes and carrots and garlic and onions.  I figured I'd jump on that and let some other parent figure out what to do with the rutabagas.

Earlier this week I gathered veggies from the school's share and last night after dinner, my entire family worked together to make a huge crock-pot full of stew for the entire school.  I don't know how I didn't realize this ahead of time, but everything takes three times longer when working with kiddos.  It was extra work for us to keep manufacturing easy, safe jobs for Quynh.  To his credit, Tai peeled all the carrots, but it took him a good 35 minutes and some of them were peeled to within an inch of their life.  Ever seen a carrot with a waist?  I have.

After struggling for a while with a butter knife and a raw potato, Quynh request a sharper knife.  She was totally jealous that Minh got to chop the garlic with a cleaver. 

This morning my two kids, beaming with pride, delivered the stew to school.  They scooped some out right away and brought it to the infant room for their morning snack.  I can't wait to hear how it goes over in the toddler and pre-school rooms.  After all that work, I do hope they eat it.