Let's Talk about Food

What's your favorite
food season?

In trying to encourage the kids to become excited and interested in the food they eat, we challenged them to name the season(s) in which certain crops can be grown and distributed locally within the northeast.

Talking about seasonal produce with the kids often leads to discussion of their local climate, what their state or community is capable of growing or raising throughout the year, and issues of distribution such as cost, transport, and access.

We also like to have the kids discuss the origins of their favorite foods and meals so that they can better understand where and how their preferred foods are first grown and prepared as separate components to be processed into singular goods.

Can you break down your favorite food?

Media (text and image) created and published by Rebekah Carter 2010.

Exploring G.R.O.W.

Green Rows of Waltham (acronym: GROW) is a city-owned community garden located at the UMass Field Station alongside eight acres of Waltham Fields' farmland and the Boston Area Climate Experiment (acronym: BACE). GROW provides Learning Garden participants the opportunity to see what other people are growing locally and is a great place to test out plant identification skills! We also examine the individual garden plots for ideas to bring to our Learning Garden.




Who's teaching who?



Media (text and image) created and published by Rebekah Carter 2010.

From a Farm, Not From a Farm

Where's it from?

From a Farm, Not From a Farm is a simple game we like to play in the Learning Garden. The kids are divided into two teams. At the starting line, one member from each team is given a product (often represented by an empty food package); the child must race to the "From a Farm" and "Not From a Farm" buckets, deciding along the way in which of the two buckets to place the item.

Help from team members is welcomed.


After all items have been given and the final participants have returned to the starting line, we sit down and discuss the results.


The exercise is a great reminder of the necessity of farms to humans for food and other products we use in our daily lives. It helps teach the children how to identify plant and animal-based products and packaging apart from synthetically-made materials.

Decision made!

Media (text and image) created and published by Rebekah Carter 2010.

Parts of a Plant

One of our favorite activities in our Learning Garden programming this summer was our discussion-based "Parts of a Plant" exercise. Much like it sounds, the exercise asks the children to identify the six basic parts of a plant, discuss their individualized purpose, and to classify various food items as root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, or seed.

Regardless of age or botanical experience, the activity encourages the kids to work together in identifying common foods as essential components of an entire organism and even-larger ecosystem. Best of all, this exercise can be used just about anytime or place! Continue the activity at farmers markets, restaurants, grocery stores, community gardens, and other local farms.

Media (text and image) created and published by Rebekah Carter 2010.