Mumsnet users discuss getting their children to understand where food comes from with innocent

[JustineBMumsnet]

This activity is closed

Getting your DC’s to learn about and understand where their food comes from, can be a great way to ensure they are engaged with what they are eating...particularly healthier foods such as veggies and fruit. innocent would love to hear about your own growing experiences, and/or any barriers you may face growing your own food at home.

Here is what innocent has to say: “With 9 out of 10 young people not getting their 5-a-day, we’re on a mission to get kids growing and eating their own veg. Growing at home doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need seeds, soil and a windowsill. In such a fast-moving, instant gratification world, growing their own food also teaches kids the value of patience, and gives them an understanding of where their food comes from. More time getting their hands dirty, less time glued to screens.”

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger? Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from? If you do grow your own food, tell us what works and what doesn’t – and your tips and tricks for growing! Do you grow in the garden, or indoors? Or perhaps you would love to grow your own food but you feel you don’t have enough space?

Whatever your experiences and methods comment on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

We don't grow our own veg as the chickens eat all the plants, though we have in the past. We do buy from local farms, and do a lot of pyo.

OTOH, for me growing up, my parents were pretty much self sufficient and grew all their own fruit and veg, produced all their own meat, eggs, milk (and made yogurt, cream, butter, soft cheese from it). What they didn't grow or produce usually got swapped on the rural network - dad would do tractor driving in return for flour, beating for pheasant, foot trimming for a free go at the pyo strawberry fields and so on.
I may have been slightly traumatised by my dads nose to tail approach to meat cookery decades before it was fashionable, and extreme seasonal eating tbh

We used to grow potatoes, cucumber and lettuce but our garden doesn't allow it now.

We live in a farming community so my children have grown up knowing where their food comes from.
Growing your own fruit and veg is so satisfying and educational. Even if you just do a pot with a few strawberries or some salad leaves, kids get so much from the experience. I l love the idea of using Innocent cartoons for planting.

I have only grown a few things and really intermittently, but I have a toddler now and want to start doing more for this exact reason.

We grow salad, cress and mustard and spring onions on the windowsill.

We grew raspberries, strawberries and runner beans when young. Sadly I'm not green fingered in anyway- I even manage to kill cacti- so my own children miss out.
But we do grow cress and herbs inside. We talk lots about where our food comes from and they are involved in cooking actual meals not just baking sugary snacks. One is a fab eater and understands what's healthy and what isn't. My other child isn't but then he's not even 2 yet. So there's still time.

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger?
No - we used to pick wild berries in the autumn, though. DM loves to garden, but even now never grows food.

Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from?
Yes, I felt this was really important. I've grown tomatoes every year as he likes them and loves to eat them off the bush. I also have raspberry canes that escaped and now run rampant in part of the garden, producing more than we can physically eat! DS is only 3, so has limited understanding, but he is very interested in my seedlings this year. We've had some casualties already.

If you do grow your own food, tell us what works and what doesn’t – and your tips and tricks for growing!
I find it's a lot about trial and error. We grow things like tomatoes because we eat them, and things like radishes/beetroot which grow quickly. I've also added unusual coloured beans this year.
My tips are - plan your garden, so you know what you need to plant, and don't put seedlings on a windowsill in a little used room and forget to water them - otherwise, no aubergines this year!

Do you grow in the garden, or indoors?
Both. I do a lot of container gardening, as I started when we were renting with a view to moving. I've just this year got a raised bed, which I'm very excited about. At the moment, there are propogators on every windowsill and the dining room table . Most will go outside but I find chilli and sweet peppers do better indoors (in the chilly north) so they take up permanent residence on the windowsills with the herbs.

We didn't really grow fruit and veg when we were kids (other than the standard cress heads!!) but I do make a point of planting veg and fruit with my children (aged 3 and 6) so they know where their food comes from.

We are just about to plant chillis, peppers, onions, tomatoes, basil and coriander in the garden and plant a few strawberry plants every year. The kids love seeing the veg grow and get very excited when they ripen off!

I never grew food, I grew a sensitive plant and cacti. I've grown tomatoes with DD, DS2 has only got interested since I mentioned the Big Grow product test, which we've signed up for.

As a child we grew broad beans and potatoes in the back garden and I have continued this with my own children, in our allotment. They grow so easily and children find digging up potatoes is like finding treasure!

We've tried growing our own food at home as I hoped it would get my son eating more vegetables, but I don't think it really worked. He refused to eat some of the carrots as they were purple!

I remember growing herbs on the windowsill and mint in the garden with my mum. I think my dad was an enthusiastic gardener! I remember one year growing a whole crop of slug ridden radishes which made me sad!
I started gardening with my little one last year. We successfully grew in pots, herbs, tomatoes, radishes and salad leaves.
Our cucumbers didn't grow and our pumpkins sadly rotted on the ground. I've since been told I need to keep the pumpkins off the ground with a brick or similar.
I will be expanding the veg patch this year and growing in containers again. Slugs are our biggest bug bear. I don't like using toxic chemicals, we had some great copper tape that went round the rim of containers and seemed to work.
My little one has his own watering can and suitably sized garden tools which helped to keep his interest.
I think it's really important children know where their food comes from and the only salad leaves my one has ever eaten are the ones he grew himself!

I don't and haven't grown any fruit or veg before but would love to get into this and get my kids involved too just don't have the confidence. Need to know what's seasonal and how much space each fruit or vegetable will need. What will grow well and under what condition.

We grow herbs which we use in cookery - each child is responsible for their herb - they love the responsibility and loving tend their herb. They get to put it into the meals we cook - again they love this and it helps them understand the importance of fresh ingredients.

We grow them inside in the winter and move them outside in summer.

My DD is only 18 months but loves being out in the garden, we keep hens and she understands where the eggs come from (and loves giving them cuddles). We grow veggies and fruit and have lots of herbs, my DD likes to help pick them though then applies her skills to the flowers and shrubs.

We grow potatoes, peas, carrots and berries

Kids love eating them and say they taste better from the garden

I didn’t grow veg with my parents no, but my dad does it now and he inspires us.

Our daughter loves to plant things- last year we grew carrots and potatoes, she loved picking them and eating them, especially the carrots!

Me (not) teaching my children about the origin of their food in the supermarket

DS1 (6): I don't want salmon, yuck yuck
DS2 (3): I like salmon
DS1: salmon is fish!
DS2: outraged Salmon is NOT fish. Mummy is Salmon, fish?
....
Me: You like salmon, does it matter if it is fish?
...
DS2:yuck
...
Me: Salmon is Salmon and Fish is Fish

(I have a suspicion following Teresa May's initial Brexit is Brexit speech that she was in the same supermarket that day)

Well our children have been informed of the basics. Milk comes from cows. Eggs come from chickens. Sausages come from pigs... Let's just say we haven't gone into detail re the sausages. My three year old is convinced pigs lay them like eggs

We grow herbs in the windowsills and have apple and pear trees in the garden. Keep planning to start a vegetable garden but haven't gotten around to it yet.

My parents didn't really grow much. They had a sage bush & I have vague memories of DM growing something - maybe runner beans. Oh, & then there was the one strawberry plant that appeared from nowhere & was just left to it's own devices. We used to munch the strawberries when we were playing in the garden.

We grow some things now - rhubarb & blackberries at the very least each year. We don't do it "so the children can see where it comes from" though, we do it because it's fun & satisfying. The things we've found most successful in our garden & with our stick it in the ground & ignore it style of gardening are sweetcorn & potatoes. We've also had great success with cherry tomatoes in our lean-to but they do rather take over. I've not really got any tips/tricks, other than my weird watering invention for when we went away for a week in the summer & abandoned our tomatoes... I poked holes round the bottom edge of plastic water bottles, tied knots in one end of pieces of string that I fed through the holes so the knot was inside the bottle & buried the loose end in the soil. Once the bottle was filled I put the cap back on & this seemed to create the right amount of pressure to stop the water leaking out but it did leech out along the strings. We came back to find the bottles almost empty, the roots trained along the strings & the bottles somewhat crushed! I was rather impressed it actually worked, but I'm sure there's more sophisticated products available for keeping plants watered when you're away...

Ok. So the only thing I ever grew as a child was cress in school.
About ten years ago, my aunt gave me a chilli plant. Mine died whilst an identical plant my grandma received, flourished.
Once my daughter brought home a green bean plant from school. It was doing really well until I decided to plant it in a larger plant pot. The result? Death.
Last year, I did grow some mint (successfully). The kids loved it. It was like having a new baby in the family! But then apparently, mint is the easiest thing to grow!

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger?
From what I can remember only cress in egg shells.
Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from?
My daughter has just turned 3 and we have planted some herbs this year. I need to put in some raised beds to do some more
If you do grow your own food, tell us what works and what doesn’t – and your tips and tricks for growing!
I only do herbs at the moment, my advice is if you’re crap at gardening try growing mint as it never dies
Do you grow in the garden, or indoors?
Both
Or perhaps you would love to grow your own food but you feel you don’t have enough space?
I don’t have much space so use pots to grow things.

I am rubbish at growing things but so want to do this. We have managed cress and green beans so far. Saying that we did grow tomatoes in a previous life pre DC and that worked well.

We grew tomatoes and strawberries when we were children. My grandad grew tonnes of fruit and veg: berries, cucumber, tomatoes, rhubarb, apples, cabbage. Collecting them in was always a family event and we loved it.

I don’t grow anything with dd as we have no garden and I am known for killing anything green. I even killed off a cactus.