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

[JustineBMumsnet]

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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

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Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger?

My dad has a large greenhouse, and grows tomatoes and peppers, and starts off seedlings there to grow lettuce and cabbages, I learned so many tip and tricks for growing, getting a better harvest and how much nicer home grown tastes compared to shop bought produce.

Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from?

We grow cress - it's quick and easy, and mixed with salad or egg makes a healthy lunch, outdoors I have a couple of vegetable troughs where I grow lettuce, new potatoes and I have tried but not yet succeeded on growing carrots - perhaps this would be my year. They still visit granddads and help him with his tomatoes and peppers, and love to crunch a fresh pepper when it's ripe enough. I also have some fruit bushes at the bottom of my garden (blackcurrant and blackberry) and have great fun, getting purple fingers picking them for smoothies and fruit pies.

I feel having the experience and being involved and taking pride in growing - and seeing food grow makes young ones more interested in food and more willing to try new vegetables and fruit.

We visit our local city farm quite often which is great for DD to see fruit and veg growing. We also talk about eggs and milk and where they come from

We can't grow vegetables at home, but I use the window sill for things like cress and herbs. Sometimes we put carrot tops in saucers of water to prove that they will sprout lovely green hair. Occasionally, we buy vegetables from a local grocers, so the children can see they're still covered in mud, and really did grow outdoors.

We traipse past the local allotments, and I show my boys all the vegetables that are growing on the different plants they see. I always point out fruit trees when we see them in other people's gardens.

Sometimes we have watched YouTube videos of how different foods are picked, processed and packaged. My older boy found this fascinating.

I used to be vegetarian but, because of allergies to various things, my eldest child would find it difficult to eat a balanced diet without meat. I know I can't afford for him to get upset about this when he is older so, from a very young age, I have taken him to the local city farm and showed him all the animals. He enjoys meeting the pigs, chickens and sheep, and he knows that one day they might be eaten. I still hate cleaning and chopping meat, but I hide my distaste and often ask ds to help me.

Many years ago, a group of city-born year 6 school children asked me, "how are eggs made?" and were quite disgusted to find that eggs came from chickens' bottoms. I've never forgotten that, and I do make an effort with my own children and all the children I work with.

We always had a vegetable patch as kids and were encouraged to make our own patches to grow things we liked. I do the same with my kids so we have beans growing up the fences, raspberries too, tomatoes in gro-bags etc etc. We also forage extensively as there is nothing like a handful of blackberries to encourage a reluctant walker!
In the winter we always have some cress and micro salads on the window sills too.

I was reared on Findus Crispy Pancakes and shite, apart from a Sunday when we always had a roast.

DD is growing herbs and fruit and we are clearing part of the garden for a veggie patch.

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger?
I was always growing stuff with my parents. We always had something on the go from cress to apples and they now do lots of growing with my DCs

Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from?
We have a few raised beds, lots of fruit bushes and quite a few trees. DS1 (4) helps with all aspects from sowing to picking. some of his first words were the name of herbs and he loves to eat them; however, growing food has not made him less fussy. He insisted on growing turnips last year but refused to eat them.

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?
We are lucky to have enough space in the garden as I think an allotment would be too much work for us (2 small children and full time jobs). We are always successful with radishes which is a shame as none of us like them!
We've just started growing microseeds so we can grow something indoors in winter.

I'm a really bad gardener and we have so many cats in the area that I don't like growing things in the garden. I have, however, grown cress with the kids - that's always good as easy and quick!

I am tempted to start a little herb garden on the kitchen windowsill.

My parents used to grow some when we were younger then started again recently now they have more time, I used to hate helping!
Now I have kids we grow raspberries and each ear usually one more thing. I’d like to try planting a few strawberries this year. My kids love picking their own raspberries!

Show them the evil shit that Coca Cola do around the world and tell them that 'innocent' wacky stories on their packaging does not make up for this. Even if you try to buy us on mumsnet.

My parents encouraged me to grow strawberries in my own little part of the garden when I was young, and I would go out every day in the late summer and early autumn to pick fruit from the various fruit trees and bushes around the garden. Now I have my own daughter, we don't have a garden for this but we take her to pick your own fruit farms so she can still get the interaction with nature and the appreciation of where her food comes from.

My parents grew lots of fruit and veg when we were young; we didn't have a lot of money (not that I had any clue back then) so it was a good way of them subsidising the food but also it was lovely to get involved in sowing/watering/harvesting and then cooking our own food.

Now with our own child, we have done lots of work redesigning our garden so we can start to grow some foods. I'm not brilliant as life is so busy that plants can get neglected, so last year we started with carrots, various salad leaves and spring onions to keep things as easy as possible and that worked really well. This year we are going to also attempt strawberries which DS is really looking forward to!

We are working on the garden and the children have "their" patch to grow vegetables in it. They planted potatoes at the weekend (and were already asking if they had grown by Monday)

3 year old DN wanted chicken for dinner but that wasn't what was planned for that day. He went out on their small holding and reappeared on the stairs clutching a surprised hen. He'd somehow doggedly negotiated the hen house flap, several farm gates, and a stair gate. There's a child who knows exactly where his food comes from but he still didn't get his chicken dinner.

No animals were harmed in the events in this (true) story.

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger?
Yes, although not with my parents assistance - my dm is known for killing plants. I was not patient enough though often ended up with baby carrots and almost scallions not full size onions. I suppose though my mum did grow rhubarb and potatoes but they tend to look after themselves.

Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from?
Yes we do and in pots. It's a great way to get fresh air everyday when it hasn't rained to water the plants. Also as we have shared very floral garden with our neighbours important to have plants my Dd can interact with. Nibble on a mint or chive leaf. Learn what safe etc.

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?

As space is a premium so we have pots of various sizes and different types of plants in lots. If you want to use pots, put holes in the bottom as they often don't already have them in and the rain etc will not be able to drain properly - learnt this the hard way one winter.
Probably recommend lots of different seeds and plants as plenty to keep Dc occupied with. Some will grow, blossom and be ready to harvest earlier to if you have a good variety. Thinking lettuce continuous and quick, strawberries over summer, carrots taking you into autumn.
Also find which plants will grow the next year etc,. As this will save costs if you have a tight budget. (Strawberries, chives and mint for us this year)

I had my own vegetable patch when I was growing up and my Dad helped me sow and weed. I grew up loving vegetables to grow and eat.

I still have a small outdoor vegetable patch but sadly my children show no interest in it at all. They have a limited range of acceptable vegetables to eat, some of which I grow.

I grew up on an arable and soft fruit farm down the road from 2 dairy and 1 beef farm with a veg patch of 1/3 acre so had a pretty good grounding in food

My dc have grown up on farms however the most I've grown myself has been apples. Simply due to lack of time as a working single mum. We do make good use of PYO. To be honest I don't think my dc are any less well informed than I was.

My grandparents had a big garden, and they grew lots of fruit and veg. I remember helping them a lot. And there is always something to pick and eat outside. And I always remember how fresh it tasted compared to shop bought produce.
My DC help my parents in their garden and they love it. We have just started growing tomatoes, herbs and salad in our new greenhouse. DC regularly go and check them, DD says talking to plants help them grow :)

We grow loads of rhubarb and have a greenhouse that we grow either tomatoes or peppers, chillis, corguettes in. We have a big grapevine with seeded grapes that we make a jam jelly out if each year and we have apple and pear trees. DS likes food alot and likes to talk about it we do cloud diagrams called How many people does it take to make...?.. a jam sandwich for example, you need wheat to make flour, then someone to harvest it, then a truck to take it to the factory, then someone to work the windmill etc it gets really complicated and he loves to see all the elements. Got the idea from the local Budhist centre.

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger? Yes, we had a vegetable plot in the garden.

Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from? Have grown some herbs, but no fruit or veg.

Live in a flat, so only got room for pots of herbs.

Did you ever grow food with your parents when you were younger?
We grew the odd veg here and there but the rest of our family are farmers so I was surrounded by growing food.
Do you grow your own fruit and/or veg with your children so they can see where it comes from? We have grown beans and rhubarb with our DD to help her understand where food comes from.
If you do grow your own food, tell us what works and what doesn’t – and your tips and tricks for growing!
I suggest growing things which they will enjoy eating and that grow fast.
Do you grow in the garden, or indoors?
We grow in the garden

i did gardening growing up but mostly flowers. i grow a lot of fruit and veg for my own pleasure. The things the kids enjoy are peas and strawberries, i've had them out sowing peas with me this afternoon. nothing that requires too much attention and things that you can eat straight from the plant work best. if your kids like mud harevting potato bags is fun

My self and my husband love growing our own veg and have done for a few years. We have a 2 year old son and have already started growing cress in egg shells with him! He loved digging in the mud so we are going to do him a little patch of his very own this summer.

We're just getting our garden sorted for growing fruit and veg - raspberry canes are now in, so I'm hoping we'll get some fruit this year. The kids love eating apples straight off the tree, and in our old house my daughter would go to the hidden corner of the garden to eat the chives that were growing there.

I never grew food when I was younger, but now I love growing food and it makes me so happy when ds 3 joins in.

We tend to grow easy things like tomatoes and potatoes, we have a windowsill full off herbs and ds loves taking a cutting and placing them in water to watch for the roots to grow we currently have lots of pots of mint thanks to his mini green fingers.

We grow indoors and outdoors we have currently planted strawberry seeds indoors but will be moved into the garden. We have a blackberry bush and our neighbour has a Apple tree so we are very lucky to have such avaliable food.

On another note we also have a compost bin which ds loves to chuck all our scraps in, then we use it when planting new seeds nice to come full circle.

My dad had an allotment but I didn't help with it. We've grown random veg in the past with the kids but not sure they'd remember. Would like to grow it again but it's always a lack of time.