At the Farmers' Market with Kids

Readers might remember my recent post about my love for Farmers' Markets. I am trying to get my daughter in on the Farmers' Market fun. She now has her own bag and set that gets her excited to shop locally. Now, with the cookbooks At the Farmers' Market with Kids by Leslie Jonath & Ethel Brennan I have found an exciting array of recipes and tips to allow my daughter to cook up what we get. By shopping at local Farmers' Markets we support sustainable eating and healthy habits. This year we even signed up for a CSA. I know we will get to expand our palettes with foods we may not usually buy. My daughter is excited for the weekly pick-up.

At the Farmers’ Market with Kids profiles the fruits and vegetables available at most farmers’ markets, explaining how to tell which ones are ripe and how to store them. With age-specific tips that cater to children of all ages, plus 65 nutritious and kid-pleasing recipes to put your farmers’ market spoils to use, this cookbook makes it easy for everyone in the family to eat healthfully and live well.

Each recipe in At the Farmers' Market with Kids comes with tips on which things your child can help with. The food we have made literally disappeared before I could even photograph it. We mauled the Strawberry Corn Muffins. My daughter ate one for breakfast every morning! I used the over-abundance of fresh watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melon to make her the Melon Medley Paletas (ice pops). For our recent trip, we made dried-fruit bracelets from nectarines and my daughter was happy as a clam, and eating healthy too! We have plans to make some Five-Spice Zucchini Bread this weekend, and I cannot wait to see how the Chocolate-Beet Cupcakes come out! The recipes are unique and instead of assuming a child will not eat healthy, it encourages you to make your child a part of the process. I have never believed that kids will not eat healthy unless the veggies and fruits are hidden and At the Farmers' Market with Kids proves that. My daughter loves seeing the process from farm to table, and she enjoys the delicious treats it allows.