How do kids like their vegetables?  Lady Moon Farms wanted to know. You might be surprised by what we found.

Lady Moon Farms was interested in finding out more about kids and vegetables.  We sent Karen Kain to get some answers. This is a four part series working with a seventh grade horticulture class.

I wanted to find out what kids were eating and what they liked. I decided to do some fun projects. First I brought some seeds, peat pots, squirter bottles, soil and compost into class. With my camera in hand I was able to see first hand what the students were doing and ask them some questions.

The first day I arrived, the class had just returned from spring break. They had been working on virtual plants; picking out the type of plant they wanted to grow and maintaining it on their computers. Only two students had plants that were dying from their week absence. The computer provides the tools that they need to water, weed and keep their plants alive.

After the virtual plants were watered, each of the 28 students took my online survey. I asked them; what veggies they liked, if their parents made them eat veggies and why they ate them. Survey results to be posted soon.

I brought in some homemade compost and passed it around the room. A handful of the students knew what compost was and one student was responsible for maintaining the family compost at home. I was proud of my home made compost, which smelled great.  I don’t think the students were too impressed.

Then they planted  kale, carrots, and radishes. Many of the students wanted carrots because they liked eating them.  I wanted to introduce kale to them because most were not too familiar and some didn’t like it and radishes are easy to grow. After the seeds were planted and watered we walked outside to see the garden beds that the students will be responsible for transplanting their plants and maintaining them until the school year ends.

Stay tuned for the survey results, the students reaction to juicing and tasting organic kale recipes.