On my first day assisting with the children’s programming sponsored by Lettuce Link, vegetables came up again. Every summer, the Seattle Community Farm and Marra Farm host educational childen’s programs. Groups of kids spend around an hour and a half learning about who grows their food, how it gets to their plate, and what should be on it. One of the goals of the program is to introduce youth to nutrition habits that will allow them to live healthier and longer lives. How do you do that? Snacks, of course. Fried rice, green egg omelets, and a salad with homemade ranch dressing- good food with good vegetables. On the first day of class, I was helping the students with coloring in MyPlate, which are nutritional guidelines put forth by the USDA and First Lady Michelle Obama. MyPlate illustrates the five building blocks of a healthy diet. Vegetables are the largest group on the illustration, larger than grains and much larger than fruits, dairy, and protein. Half of your plate at every meal should be fruits and vegetables. That was news to me. I should eat more vegetables.
(http://www.choosemyplate.gov/about.html)
A couple days later and it was harvest day at the farm. The lack of vegetables in my life became apparent again. The first thing that our Farm Coordinator, Scott, does with volunteers at the farm is make them guess things. Of course, my first day on the farm was no exception. We wandered through the beds that were either just beginning to grow or h and he would ask me what vegetable or herb was growing there. Occasionally, I would get hints like “this one is a root vegetable”, or “this one is the trendiest vegetable”, or “you eat this in salsa”. And sometimes, I could identify the thin feathery leaves of a carrot poking out from the ground or the spiky branch that is characteristic of a zucchini plant. Most times, I would make a more or less random guess and hope that I wasn’t embarrassing myself. Admittedly, I had never seen, tasted, or heard of rainbow chard in my life. I need to learn more about where my food comes from. And I need to eat more vegetables.