Farm-Fresh Food: The Kafarski Family

Watch the video together with children. Notice how the parents, Tiffany and John, teach Wyatt and Violet about how food grows, and notice how they all celebrate their work as they appreciate a family meal.  

After watching, you might: 

Find learning opportunities when you’re shopping together for fruits, vegetables, or eggs. 

• Whether you’re at a grocery store or a farmers’ market, talk about where the food came from.  
• Did the fruit or vegetable grow on a tree, vine, bush, or under the soil? Check the labels: was the food grown close to your home, or far away?
• What did the fruit or vegetable need to grow? (sun, soil, and water)
• What do you remember about the hens from the video and the eggs they laid? (The hens needed healthy food, different hens’ eggs were different colors, and so on.)  

Celebrate scents. The Kafarski family grows herbs on their farm: thyme, basil, mint, and parsley. Even if children are hesitant to taste herbs, encourage them to close their eyes and smell fresh or dried herbs and spices.  

You can do a lot in a pot! Try growing your own herbs or tomatoes—there’s so much that can be grown in a small or large pot, whether it sits on your kitchen windowsill, stoop, or porch.  

Play Lily’s 5 senses game at mealtime: Take turns noticing what you see, taste, hear, smell, and feel.  

Make your own frittata! The Kafarski family loved their “egg pies”! You can mix eggs up with almost any vegetable or vegetable combination—and top with almost any type of cheese—to make a kid-friendly snack or meal. Frittatas are great for using up leftover vegetables! This recipe is super-flexible (you can freeze single servings in self-sealing bags or plastic containers for quick meals later): 

• Combine 6 eggs with ¼ cup milk, about 1 cup of any vegetable(s), and ½ teaspoon salt. You might also add herbs or pieces of cooked potato. 
• Melt a pat of butter so it coats the bottom and sides of a 10-inch oven-safe pan, and pour in the egg/vegetable mixture. 
• Bake at 400ºF for 15-17 minutes, sprinkling cheese on the top about 10 minutes before removing from oven.