Have you ever churned butter? Milked a cow? Made a cane fishing pole? How about planted seed for a garden?
These are some of the fun activities that children have had the opportunity to participate in when they have attended the Nourish Kids programs at the Union County Farmers Market.
We love children at the market. Several of our vendors have activities and items just for children—in fact, some of our vendors are still school age!
Farm Market Fresh offers a one-time, fun “newsletter’ as well as different “challenge cards” for the children when the family visits the Farm Market Fresh booth.
Nourish Kids is our special program for families that has been designed to get children excited about local food and eating healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables. In other words, children have fun while building healthy eating habits.
First, you meet at the UT Extension booth to register and get your children checked in for all the fun. Each child receives a really cool tote bag upon registration. All children ages 2-12 are welcome and it is free.
After checking in, children (and adults) will have the opportunity to sample something fresh from the market.
Our first tasting was strawberries and, of course, everyone loved them and had already tasted them at some time in their young lives.
Kohlrabi was our next taste adventure and none of the children had eaten kohlrabi before—in fact, most of the adults had not either.
Microgreens were next and, since 4-H was sponsoring our National Dairy Month Celebration at the market, we had two special dairy demonstrations by Lexxi Cummings of a yummy Father’s Day Strawberry Parfait. Stickers for youngsters abound at the tasting station.
After the children are loaded up with stickers, they receive their $5 in Produce Bucks to spend at the market. Produce Bucks can only be spent on fruits and vegetables available at the market and they even have their own shopping tote bag in which they can place all their purchases. We hope that adults talk to their children about shopping and spending money, and research has shown that children eat what they buy. It’s a good way to get more fruits and vegetables in your child’s diet.
Next, families are directed to the Nourish Kids activity area. During our celebration of National Dairy Month, families met with Presley Lay, Union County Dairy Ambassador, to learn more about the health benefits of including dairy foods in our diets while churning butter the old-fashioned way.
Kids received bracelets, pencils and more stickers, and could take home a dairy coloring book or color at our art table. 4-H members Trip and Dash Webb were stationed with Bessie, our plywood cow, to help kids learn about dairy farming and milking. A fun and educational day was had by all.
Nourish Kids meets from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month under the pavilion at the new, ever-expanding Heritage Park. There are only three Nourish Kids Saturdays left.
The July program will be sponsored by the Farm Bureau and rumor has it that it is National Ice Cream month, which might affect the program of the day. Around noon, the older set will also be invited to prepare and cook one of the Nourish Kids recipes. Learning to cook is an asset for all children as well as being fun.
For more information, please call UT Extension/Union County at 865-992-8038 or email bbergero@utk.edu. We’re looking forward to seeing both you and your children at the market.