Mothership Meals and Satellite Saucers: Farm Camp

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Farm Camp

I'm up in New Hampshire for the month of August now, and as usual in a state of semi-paralysis when it comes to food.

It's partly due to being in my mother's kitchen -- my mom is lovely and a great cook but something still happens and I just don't feel so motivated. Any Freudians out there? -- and also due to New Hampshire's short growing season and sluggish nature when it comes to embracing the foodie local yokel thing.

For example, I have to drive 25 minutes to get organic milk. I am not a total freak, so I just drive 2 minutes to the local Cupboard and buy regular milk for my coffee. There's no Applegate Farms turkey for my son's sandwiches, so I just get the Sara Lee at the Hannaford. And there are only 2 farms within 25 miles when I do a search on eatwellguide.org, so... I bring a cooler full of frozen meat and chicken and fish from Brooklyn.

I love New Hampshire, so I'm happy to weather these food challenges, but I do find it ironic that being in NH for the month of August means I eat more crappy food than I would if I were in NYC.

And anyway it is changing -- dramatically, even since last year. Bigger farmers markets, more produce, tons of publications about the local foods. Watch out, Vermont. New Hampshire is on the move.

One of the leaders of the change is d'acres, an "educational homestead" in Dorchester, NH. It is a super-groovy place with hippie interns who live in tree houses, and a dreamy farmhouse kitchen with a bunch of musical instruments and beautiful carvings and a composting toilets. They raise pigs and chickens and vegetables, and hold workshops and circle dances and do a lot of educational outreach. But they don't do a lot for kids, as I learned when I was searching for a farm camp for my kids. So I contacted the farm and offered to help them start a farm camp for kids. They took me up on the offer, and so here we are, taking part in the first ever Kids Week at d'acres. Two days into it. Here are some of the highlights:

Feeding the Pigs. We meet at the recycle station in the morning, where we help unpackage a truly alarming amount of food that the local grocery store throws away every week. Perfect bananas, whole watermelons, celery that looks better than anything in my fridge. It is appalling, and that's not even getting into the amount of packaging we amass. Anyway, we gather it up and help take it to the pigs, who gallop to meet us. The kids have been climbing right into the pen and helping unhusk the corn and break open the watermelon. These are the piglets, just a few months old and very funny and sweet.

This hen got loose, so all the kids took a turn holding her. She got very quiet and let them all take their turns. This is the first time either of my kids got to hold a chicken.

On our way up to the pasture to see the oxen, we picked apples off the ground, where they'd fallen from a 100-year old tree. They were a small yellow apple that I've never seen before. To quote one of the kids, "this is the best apple I've ever had in my life." It really was -- tart and sweet and crisp. No one on the farm knows what kind of apple it is.

We picked millions of blackberries!

This kid kept hugging the pigs.

The hen house! The kids gathered over a dozen eggs, and we made thumbprint cookies with blackberry jam.

What a great time. The kids are having so much fun being farm kids, without the chores.
ps don't ask me what d'acres stands for. Nobody knows.

1 comment:

Jenn said...: Hi Larissa. I am a volunteer with the Eat Well Guide, and wanted to first empathize with you re: short growing seasons. I spent most of my summers in VT and, like NH, eating seasonally was not as easy as the rest of the year in Manhattan. I am happy to see that you mentioned the Eat Well Guide in your blog! Thought you’d be interested to know that Eat Well has teamed up with the Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, to issue a Local, Organic Thanksgiving Challenge.We’re inviting people to take a spin on the Eat Well Guide to find local food and prepare at least one local (preferably organic) dish for Thanksgiving, and share recipes at the CU site. Read more about it at the Green Fork. [http://blog.eatwellguide.org/2008/11/take-the-local-organic-thanksgiving-challenge/]. Thanks for your post and hope that this information suits you this thanksgiving. Best, Jenn; November 18, 2008 at 1:38 PM

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The Mothership Method

(Or, how to sit down for dinner with your family without completely losing your mind)

It would be great if kids AND parents wanted boiled chicken and baby carrots every night for dinner. But, too bad, we picky parents want spicy, exotic, fun foods, and our kids want, well, sorta lame foods.
Here's the solution: break it down. Serve the dish deconstructed, and let everyone put their own dish together at the table. Sort of like tapas, or smorgasbord, or tacos. Or how in some parts of China you get a bowl of rice, and everything else is in the middle of the table and you take what you want for your own little bowl of rice. That way everyone gets to eat what they want, parents don't have to nag their kids, and kids get to feels some ownership over their meals. Plus, kids get exposed to the look and taste of the foods you hope they will one day love. But it's not just tacos. You'll be amazed at what can be served with the Mothership Method.

Ten Tips to Get Through Dinner Without Having A Nervous Breakdown

1. Accept That Kids Are Picky. No need to freak out on your cooking ability, or look at your kids like there is something wrong with them. It's called "neo-phobia", and it's just how they are, especially from ages 3-6.

2. Serve Meals Broken Down. Even grown-up meals like coconut curry or linguine with clams can be served in their elements, making them more appealing to kids. Grown ups can assemble their own jumble of deliciousness at their own plate while kids take on the pared-down elements.

3. Push if it Works, But Don't Nag If It Doesn't. Some kids are okay with being expected to taste everything on their plate. Others aren't. I think it's okay to push kids -- but not if you're turning dinner into a battlefield.

4. Suggest a Smell. Smelling a new food is easier than tasting it, and can sometimes provide a kid with the information needed to take that scary first bite. But don't confine smelling to new foods. Smell favorites, too, and help them develop their sense of smell by making a game out of it.

5. Don't Ask "Do You Like It?" Instead, try, "What does this remind you of?" or, "Would your cousins like this?" or, "Does this taste salty or sweet?". Asking if they like it or not gives kids too much power and ends the conversation. Besides, we don't care if they like it! We just want them to keep tasting it until it is familiar.

6. Don't Get Frustrated. Imagine being in Taiwan, or Nairobi, or Rome for the first time. Would you eat everything on the local menu? New foods are scary and gross. Our kids need time to learn about the foods that we eat.

7. No SubstitutionsThis is family dinner, not a diner. You, in all your wisdom, have provided foods that are healthy and delicious and appropriate for your children. There is something on the table for them to eat. Period.

8. No Snacks Before Dinner. This can be the hardest with our hectic schedules and hungry kids. But children who come to the table hungry are more likely to eat than cause trouble.

9. Put Peer Pressure To Your Advantage. School children are more likely to accept new foods if the alpha girls in their group accept them. Swap healthy food ideas on playdates.

10. Involve Your Kids In Cooking, Shopping, and Gardening. The more experience kids have handling and preparing a variety of foods, the more likely they are to eventually accept the foods. (But don't get upset if they help you make a complicated wonderful meal, and then refuse to eat it.)