recipe box
The Saturday Morning Solution for Picky Eaters
by kristina bostick
Let me begin with a disclaimer : I , by no means , am a child rearing or nutrition professional . I , too , look at the healthy meals other families eat and wonder how they get their kids to eat that . In a quest to bring some marginally better eating habits to my “ pasta-terian ” children , what follows is solely my experience .
Nutrition experts have said that a child needs to be presented with a new food 15 times before trying it — even more times before it becomes something they will reliably eat . Faced with this knowledge , it can be tempting to throw in the towel on your kids ever eating anything that grew and reaching for the mac and cheese — again . However , when you think about the sweep of human evolution , this advice makes sense — you and your progeny are here specifically because a longago cave dwelling tot was very picky in selecting which berries to eat . While a few millennia and an entire system of agriculture have happened since , it is the blink of an eye evolutionarily and these old habits change slowly .
Here in the modern world , convincing your child ’ s cave brain to try a new vegetable can seem like an insurmountable challenge but there are ways to speed acceptance . Your ancestors knew what to try because of the foodways of their community , trusted individuals told them what was safe and good to eat .
We are bombarded with food information from all corners in the modern world , but there is still one food outlet your ancestors would recognize . My son was asking what my top three favorite things about our farmers market were the other day . The poor child didn ’ t know what he was in for . In the resulting monologue lasting several minutes I identified over ten things that I love about going to the farmers market and picking up our CSA ( Community Supported Ag ) share each Saturday . In rattling off this list , many things were about how our market feeds and serves everyone — doubling SNAP benefits and serving as an entrepreneurial opportunity for farmers and chefs of all backgrounds . I also realized that to the extent my children do eat vegetables ( which is to say , sometimes , note the disclaimer ) is correlated with their exposure to the wider food community . Everyone knows where mac and cheese comes from ( heaven ) but kids need more context for the weird roots and leaves we insist they eat .
Each week we hear from our CSA farmer about how the weather has impacted what they are growing . We marvel when a heat spell means early tomatoes or lament when a late frost means a smaller strawberry crop . If you ask ( or sometimes if you don ’ t ) the farmer will tell you the best way to prepare your haul of produce . This CSA is why my children will sometimes eat okra , radishes , green beans , sweet potatoes — at least the stems of broccoli — why they tried something as far out a spaghetti squash . It all parades through our house every week , every season and “ our farmer ” grew it . There is another farmer at our market that asks you when you plan to eat the cantaloupe you ’ d like to purchase — he selects the right one from his table based on your answer . Nothing less than a trusted source saying —“ eat this one , it is good .” The chosen sphere perfumes the whole kitchen until we cut into it — perfect every time .
Now that my kids are a little older , they can be more involved in gathering our haul . Armed with cash or ( very carefully ) a card they can walk up and make transactions for their favorite foods ( often cookies , sometimes fruit and veg – again , not perfect , who is ?). It is a low stakes way for them to learn
plenty I autumn harvest 2022 19