Give the kids a knife or two

We try to involve the kids as much as is practical in unpacking and preparing our summer produce. The more they interact with the food, the more likely they are to eat it when served, and I'll take any advantage I can get! At four and two, they aren't quite ready to be handed a knife to help chop. But they can--and do--play with their wooden fruit and vegetable cutting sets while we chop away at the real food. Way more fun than regular wooden play food, these veggies are "sliced" into segments and held together by velcro dots. The wooden knife makes a satisfying thwack thwack as they slice through the foods.


We have two sets that we keep jumbled together. The Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box (above, $14 at Amazon.com) has a mix of breads, veggies and fruits. The other, by PLAN Toys (left, $15 at Amazon.com), is all produce. The PLAN set is a little higher quality and just plain prettier. But the Melissa & Doug set is the winner for including a bigger variety of items and dividing each piece into more segments. It's far more fun--and realistic--to cut a carrot into four pieces than into two.

The Boy just wandered in and I asked him what he would tell people about his cutting sets: "I like them because they're fun! And because I can put them back together in different pieces." He's referring to their game of making Frankenstein veggies by velcro-ing the segments together in different combinations--one thing you definitely can't do with real produce!

Getting kids excited about trying vegetables

One of the great thing about the produce box is the way it entices The Boy--who is not always the most adventurous eater--into trying new foods. There is something so exciting about discovering what is in the box each week that his natural reluctance is put on hold.

During the off-season, he goes back to his reluctant self. But he recently begged at the grocery store to take home an artichoke to try. In fact, as soon as he spotted them in the produce section, he was ridiculously excited at the idea of trying a new vegetable!

For that I can thank Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z, a charming picture book by Lois Ehlert. Like a pictorial directory of fruits and veggies, it offers up colorful watercolor collages of different vegetables and plants for every letter from A to Z. The text is sparse--just the letters and the names of the foods--letting the vibrant illustrations take center stage. Seventy-four foods are featured, from familiar favorites like apples and blueberries to more unusual items like the ugli fruit. The back of the book has a glossary that tells you a little bit about each fruit and veggie. I appreciate the enticing and accessible way it introduces these healthy foods. It's turned a trip through the produce section into a scavenger hunt as he searches for items from the book. How fun is that? He has his eye on trying the starfruit next.