TO THE SINK!
We had families with children staying at the B & B this past February. We had started offering farm to table dinners for those that request it in advance. These guests had done just that and as the meal was ending one of the boys (age around 9) came to me and asked for some water. The conversation went like this:
Boy..."Can I have a drink of water?"
Me...."Of course. Come to the sink and I will give it to you." I turned on the faucet and put a glass under the tap and filled the glass with water. I then handed the filled glass to the boy.
Boy..."The water is from the sink! Neeeeat!!!!!"
I realized then that not only do children not know where their food comes from but they believe their water comes from a bottle purchased at the supermarket. These families came with cases of bottled water.
These families come to our little corner of Vermont to ski. Many choose to stay with us, not only because we offer luxurious accommodations and amenities, but because they have immigrated to the U.S. from another country where their villages & cities were not far from farms. Their food came from these farms and so we remind them of a bygone time. They want their children to have the same experiences and so when they come here the parents and kids get to milk the goats and collect the eggs, etc. They find the food we serve amazingly delicious and we tell them it's because it is fresh, without preservatives and additives. We show them that the chicken egg yolks are orange and not pale yellow. We explain that is because they can roam the pastures and eat all the things they find delicious to them (bugs, worms, greens) and healthy for them. Then the chicken lays their gift to us of this delicious and wholesome egg.
This conversation was a definite eye-opener for me. I already knew that the future of our farms were imperiled since children and their families believe that their food comes in plastic bags.....but water! I am just a little cog in the wheel of teaching this but how do we really get it out there on a grander scale.
So I will stop here because I don't want to fall into the trap of sermonizing. I still keep dreaming of a world of happy animals and plants providing great food which will make for a happier mankind!.......Irene
We had families with children staying at the B & B this past February. We had started offering farm to table dinners for those that request it in advance. These guests had done just that and as the meal was ending one of the boys (age around 9) came to me and asked for some water. The conversation went like this:
Boy..."Can I have a drink of water?"
Me...."Of course. Come to the sink and I will give it to you." I turned on the faucet and put a glass under the tap and filled the glass with water. I then handed the filled glass to the boy.
Boy..."The water is from the sink! Neeeeat!!!!!"
I realized then that not only do children not know where their food comes from but they believe their water comes from a bottle purchased at the supermarket. These families came with cases of bottled water.
These families come to our little corner of Vermont to ski. Many choose to stay with us, not only because we offer luxurious accommodations and amenities, but because they have immigrated to the U.S. from another country where their villages & cities were not far from farms. Their food came from these farms and so we remind them of a bygone time. They want their children to have the same experiences and so when they come here the parents and kids get to milk the goats and collect the eggs, etc. They find the food we serve amazingly delicious and we tell them it's because it is fresh, without preservatives and additives. We show them that the chicken egg yolks are orange and not pale yellow. We explain that is because they can roam the pastures and eat all the things they find delicious to them (bugs, worms, greens) and healthy for them. Then the chicken lays their gift to us of this delicious and wholesome egg.
This conversation was a definite eye-opener for me. I already knew that the future of our farms were imperiled since children and their families believe that their food comes in plastic bags.....but water! I am just a little cog in the wheel of teaching this but how do we really get it out there on a grander scale.
So I will stop here because I don't want to fall into the trap of sermonizing. I still keep dreaming of a world of happy animals and plants providing great food which will make for a happier mankind!.......Irene
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