We went to our local farm shop on Friday to top up on the weekly veg (we’re going back to the veg box once our chaotic summer finishes next week!).
Anyway, it was the usual fun of trying to persuade the 15 month old not to eat straw and convicing the 3 year old that I really didn’t need 17 kilos of potatoes. But that aside, as ever, it was an experience packed with the freshest organic vegetables, most of which had been picked in the last 24 hours.

Kohl rabi
The farm shop is teeny weeny, but it’s always busy. And staffed with a friendly smile.
And this week I decided to occupy the 3 year old, while I browsed for inspiration, with a round of “I spy” for vegetables.
So Louis duly started doing the rounds of all the vegetables on display and proudly announcing what they were.
Some of his answers were to be expected – carrots, onions, potatoes are something I would hope most 3 year olds would be able to identify (though Jamie’s research would have us believe otherwise). But by the time my munchkin got round to leeks, broccoli, cauliflower and kohlrabi, I was feeling faintly impressed.
He correctly identified courgettes, French beans, runner beans, kale and even broad beans (“Yuck, Mummy!”…). In fact the only 2 items he didn’t know were:
“What’s that black thing over there, Mummy?” – aubergine
and

Turban squash
“What’s that funny orange thing?” – turban squash.
Pretty good going.
Now you might think that, being a part-time food writer, I’ve been force feeding him vegetable facts before breakfast every morning. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, whenever I’m cooking, if he’s around, we talk about the ingredients. And when I go shopping, I get him to help me pick the vegetables, but that’s it. So it really hasn’t been difficult.
Contrast that to the experience of a dear friend of mine when running a recent children’s session as part of her programme on children’s health:
Of the 7-9 year olds in the room, hardly any knew that chips are made from potato and few could identify vegetables beyond carrots, peas and sweetcorn. And this wasn’t in an area that could be called in any way “deprived” – the excuse we all usually make.
So what’s going on?
How come my 3 year old knows his vegetables and these 9 year olds didn’t?
And does it matter?
Well, going back to basics, unless you know what vegetables are, you’re unlikely to know what to do with them and this makes you less likely to cook them.
And learning about food isn’t something that should be done via sterile text books in a classroom environment. You’re much more likely to really learn what it’s all about by cooking them at home.
So what can we do?
Well, it’s one of the reasons I created the Veg Box Recipes website – to provide a one-stop website where people could find out about seasonal food ingredients, what to do with them and discover (and share!) simple, tasty recipes, without the potential embarrassment of having to ask anyone!
What do you think about all this?
Are we, as a nation, making too much of a fuss about children knowing about fruit and veg? What could we be doing differently? In these days of readily available vitamin supplements, should we care anyway?
Let’s get some discussion going!
Clare
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