Starting kids early on vegetables

My grandfather was a goofy man.  If he was laughing hard, he would make a noise that sounded like a donkey with asthma.  Almost a snort, almost a wheeze.  He was a teller of tall tales, and could say the most amazing lies with a straight face and keep grand kids believing him until one of us would recognize that little gleam in his eyes and realize that he was spoofing us.  He was great!  In his way, he encouraged us to always find the funny side of life.  When I was a child, it felt like he was encouraging us to be almost wicked and irreverent; but in retrospect, I know that laughing in the face of adversity can really help one get through the struggles.

As well as his wicked humor, my grandfather taught me a love of gardening and nature.  In the winter, we would go through his gardening catalogs to find all of the strange new varieties of vegetables and flowers.  He would show me apple trees that had three different varieties of fruit and explain grafting to me.  He showed me the different kinds of asparagus and told me that if you want it to stay white, you just cover the plant so it gets no sun.  He taught me that some plants like acid soil and that you should add leaves or pine needles to make them happy.  He taught me that the second year cane on blackberries bears fruit; and if you step on the first year cane, it won't kill the plant.  He gave me the gift of gardening and encouraged my curiosity on that topic.

The other day, I saw a gardening program for kids that will encourage them to garden and to look at trying different kinds of vegetables.  I joined the WNEP (Wisconsin Nutrition Education Program) nutritionists and the Boys and Girls Club at one of the community gardens.  The Boys and Girls Club brought a van load of 3rd-grade kids (usually 14--but only 5 the day I was there) to the garden and, did a scavenger hunt to teach the kids how to identify the different vegetables. They weeded, watered, and harvested and brought the veggies they found to the pavilion where the WNEP educators were waiting to take over.

There, they learned how to prep the vegetables they had harvested and helped make a simple cooked vegetable dish in an electric skillet.  The featured vegetable in this Italian vegetable skillet was zucchini, but while they were working on it, they all got to sample some raw sugar snap peas. All five of them tried the peas and only a couple of noses crinkled up in distaste.  When it came time to try the vegetable skillet, all of the kids and adults gave it a try.  Out of the five kids, only one picked out the zucchini after he tasted it, but the rest took at least a couple of bites of this foreign veggies. Three kids actually ate all that was on their plates, and two went back for seconds.

Out of those five kids, there was one who had never tried zucchini but said he would ask his mom to buy it and make it.  He was very involved in the process of making the recipe; and during the question and answer time, he was able to recite the different ingredients.  I had no doubt that he really would like to have it again and I hoped his mom would get it and try it with him.

My grandfather planted the seed of gardening in me, and each time I saw him there was a conversation about gardening, and different varieties we saw in our gardening catalogs.  That conversation helped that seed to grow and flourish and my love of gardening has been my gift from him and my gift to others.  The seed of trying different vegetables got planted in these kids with this kind of garden experience; but like any seed it needs to be fostered in order to make it grow.  If this young boy tells his mom that he wants a zucchini to make this dish at home and she tells him, "No, you don't like that," that seed will dry up and die.

So, parents and non-parents...I challenge you!  Try a different vegetable that you have never had. If you don't know how to cook it, find one of the millions of recipes online or in a cookbook in the library and let your family be part of the cooking process.  You don't have to buy a lot of it to get a taste--just a bit will do, but try it both raw and cooked.  Talk about this vegetable with your kids or family and ask some questions.  Did you like it?  Are there other ways to prepare this?  Did you like it raw but not cooked or cooked but not raw?  Would you like me to buy this again?  Did you like it enough to put this in your garden?

If we plant the seed early and nurture those seeds, nutritious habits are bound to grow; and what parent does not want to raise healthy kids?

Helping people do better--SNAP educators

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”~Maya Angelou

One of the common arguments I hear about SNAP is that people use the allotment to buy junk food and eat unhealthy.  "They are wasting our money on crap," I often hear.  But what if you weren't raised knowing how to cook?  What if your parents weren't big vegetable eaters and your only experience with vegetables was something from a can smothered in cheese?  What if your family never had a garden and you don't know the first thing about growing your own food or preserving it?  We do what we know until we know better.  But how do we get recipients of SNAP to know better?  To make healthier choices?  To try fresh vegetables that they have never tried before?

Part of the SNAP funding is spent on just that--educating the recipients to make better food choices that will increase the health of their families.  There are SNAP nutrition educators throughout the state who deal with low income families to teach them about nutrition, cooking, gardening, budgeting, meal planning, etc.  These educators teach the basic information people need to survive on a SNAP allotment.

You can find these educators through the University Extension system of your state.  Just look under the "nutrition" or "community resources" tab and you will probably find them.  In Wisconsin, they are called WNEP (Wisconsin Nutrition Education Program) educators, but it is just a different name for the same thing.  If you go on the link for the nutrition education, you will find recipes, handouts and publications that help teach healthy habits. http://eauclaire.uwex.edu/nutrition-education/

WNEP educators work in tandem with other organizations to teach healthy living to as many low income families as possible.  In my area, they work with the schools to teach kids how to cook and eat healthy; they work with halfway houses to teach inmates in transition how to budget and live a healthy life; they work with the local horticulture agency and the Boys and Girls Club to teach lower income kids about gardening and cooking with vegetables; and so much more.

WNEP educators in conjunction with the Eau Claire Community Foundation and the Downtown Farmers Market worked to install the token program that allows SNAP recipients to use their Quest card (foodshare card) to get tokens to be used at the Downtown Farmers Market. (see the link for the farmers market=>) This program gives SNAP recipients access to locally grown fruits and vegetables.  They get the healthiest produce and the money goes to local farmers.

I consider the WNEP educators to be a critical part of the SNAP funding, but while Congress is playing around with the farm bill, their funding could be cut.  How can we expect SNAP recipients to do better with their allotment if they don't know better?  Education is critical to moving ahead toward a better life!

Today, I'm going to see a SNAP educator in action.  I'm going to pop in on Pamela in one of the community gardens where she will be working with kids to educate them on gardening and healthy eating.  More on that later...

Making the list for the second month on the SNAP challenge

Tomorrow, I can go shopping again for some of my groceries for my next month on the SNAP challenge, and I find myself getting almost giddy over the opportunity to have different food in the house.  I've already been looking over the ads to find the right place for me to shop for this week.  I want to find some of the best bargains I can to help me make healthy meals all month.  Some of my meals by the end of this month were sadly lacking in the nutrition department and I leaned too heavily on starchy, filling foods to make it through.

I lost weight on the first week because I was eating healthy but was eating less.  The last three weeks, I ate a lot of carbohydrates and actually started to gain weight.  I can see why people can be on SNAP and be overweight.  It isn't necessarily because we are feeding people too well--it is often a result of eating fillers to stretch the dollars.  Rice is cheap and is easy to add to dishes to stretch them, but it doesn't have a lot of fiber and will stick on your butt and belly more than fruits and vegetables will.

 I'm getting over my food snobbery.  Now, I know that most things can be off brand or store brand and still be great.   In fact, I'm discovering some store brands taste fantastic.  The stores insist on a quality product because their name is on it.  Aldi's has become a normal place for me to shop so I can stretch my food dollars to include the produce aisle.

I'm following the suggestion of Pamela from the UW Extension...I will be shopping every week and not buying the whole month's food all at once.  That way, I will be able to take advantage of  the weekly sales and will have more variety.  I will plan at least three of my meals each week so I can make a list and stick with it.  That will increase the chance that I have some healthy meals throughout the month.

I started a grocery list a couple of weeks ago, and it has two parts:  one side is for essentials, and the other is a grocery wish list.  If I have enough money, I'll get a couple of things from that side of the list to make some special meals.   For instance, I might get a can of coconut milk to make a pork curry.  The milk is a luxury, but it will make a big batch and I can load it up with carrots and spinach and onions and potatoes.  I might not even notice that there isn't a green pepper in it.

 I won't need any sugar or flour this time around, but rice and oatmeal have become staples in my diet.  So has popcorn that is made on the stove top.  Instead of spending lots of dollars on chips and unhealthy snacks, I've been eating popcorn instead.  I love it, and the smell in the house seems to add to the TV watching experience.

Dried beans have really been my friend this month.  I can't afford meat, so I've been adding beans to some of the dishes to get my protein.  Also, I've discovered that homemade refried beans taste so much better than those in a can.  Okay, so I discovered that because I forgot some pinto beans on the stove and cooked them too long, but some accidental lessons are delicious.  Smush them up and add in some salsa and some fresh green onions from the garden...yum!

I've decided to get some whey protein as part of my second month.  I need to get some dried milk for some of my bread recipes and I figure I'll just substitute the protein powder instead.  That way, I have it around for making smoothies, too.  Yeast is on the list, too.  I've caved and will be making bread so the food goes farther.  I'm actually looking forward to a green onion or radish sandwich on oatmeal bread.

My coffee this month will be a can of Folgers.  I love the Archer Farms whole bean coffee at Target, but it just isn't in the budget.  I can't seem to give up coffee, so I will just go for the cheaper alternative.  For another beverage, I'm looking at getting a packet or two of kool-aid.  I can probably make my own popcicles with some of it.

I'm not a milk drinker, so my husband suggested last month that instead of buying fresh milk for cooking I might want to just get evaporated milk.  It was a great suggestion!  That stuff keeps for years, so I don't have to worry about milk going sour in the fridge.  That will be the way I buy milk from here out.

I anticipate that I will be shopping at three different stores and the farmers market this week to get everything I need.  I have that luxury.  A lot of people who are on SNAP don't even have a car, so they have to plan what they can carry on public transportation or shop at the nearest Quick Trip or bodega.  I cannot imagine trying to handle groceries and a child or two on the bus.  What a pain that must be!

Field Trip: St Francis Food Pantry

Just a short blog this morning.  I'm working the day shift, so my writing and interviewing schedule is off.  After I got done with work yesterday, I went to the St Francis Food Pantry in Eau Claire to check out how things work. They were kind enough to show me around and answer all of my questions.  I'll write more about the process later.

I also spoke with Pamela from the UW Extension office.  She is a nutritionist that works with people on foodshare to help them budget and plan meals to help them stretch their foodshare allotment.  The nutritionists also teach foodshare recipients how to eat healthy with minimum cost.

They have a community garden where the labor is shared for a share in the produce.  Every Monday-Wednesday morning, they work with the kids in that area to teach them gardening and healthy eating.  I think that is so cool!

I'm hoping to catch a meal at The Community Table tonight.  I should be able to catch serving time after work.  I'm hungry for healthy food and that is a great place to find it.  The thing about this challenge is that it is teaching me how limiting it would be to live on this without places like The Community Table, St Francis Food Pantry, and Feed My People Foodbank.  I have few choices about what to eat because I bought stuff to last a month.

Pork was on sale, so I'm using a lot of that.  Things that can be made with flour, oatmeal and sugar are becoming my regular diet.  I've got 1 1/2 cans of pineapple left and that is what will take me another 18 days.  I'll use the juice in muffins to flavor them and get more vitamins in them.  I still have a can and a half of evaporated milk left.  That will be put to good use.  Everything is rationed.  This is insane!