Howdy Hey!
The sun is out and spring is in the air! Which means multiple things. 1. There’s only TWO winter markets left! How did that happen?! 2. That means summer markets are starting soon! And 3. Our time as interns is quickly coming to an end… I always thought that senior year would drag on, but this semester has flown by!
This past Saturday, SEL intern Charlotte kicked off the intern demonstrations that will proceed for the next two markets. She focused on low-sugar sweets for kids with her demonstration, and some of the recipes can be found on her latest blog post! Just a quick public service announcement though- it is totally and very possible to eat too many chia seeds… I brought home all of the leftover chia seed pudding (which was amazing)… Too amazing because I ate all of it in two days. I have no regrets though because it was so yummy and worth it… but just be cautious. Your tummy will thank you.
Anyway, in addition to her demonstration it was also kids day at the market and I had the pleasure of running a table for the kiddos! Before market began, SEL intern Kathleen and I walked around to buy veggies that kids could try samples of. We bought some BASIL (!!!), parsnips, carrots, pak choi, watermelon radishes, apples, and beets and cut them up into bite size taste test pieces. Rather than just having samples, we created a game out of it, and had kids guess what veggie they thought they were eating based off of a list of veggie names. In addition to the taste test game we had a ‘make your own butter’ station where kids were able to take home their own container of raw milk (also from the market) and shake it until the fats in the milk congealed together into butter. Some kids were able to do it at market, and the look on their faces was priceless! It was hilarious to look across the market and see everyone shaking their bottle. The cool part of the activity was that it gave the parents ideas for things to do at home on a larger scale. Butter is so easy to make!
This semester as I’ve wrapped up my studies at UNH I’ve mostly been taking classes for my education minor. Because of this I’ve been able to work in schools fairly often and have figured out how I need to approach kids so that they can get excited about learning. Last Saturday at market was the first time in my life really that I’ve ever interacted with little kids and was 100% comfortable and just having fun. That sounds insane, as I want to be an educator, but growing up I was never around kids younger than me and had to learn how to act around them! Little did I know it’s easy: just be a kid. I’m pretty good at that. Kids get pumped about anything you show them when you’re equally or more pumped about it. Also, when you share information with a kiddo, they most likely will bring it up to their friends and parents… bring on the food waste prevention demonstrations for kids!! They are the next generation of people who will run our world, and if we teach them from day one to reduce their waste I can only imagine what amazing things might they decide to do if that’s the norm when they grow up! It’s a snowball effect!
Now, for this weeks food waste challenge, I challenge everyone to make a meal that combines leftovers together. By combine I don’t mean have the same chicken and mashed potato dinner you had last night. Try to make a completely different dish! Shepherd’s pie with leftover mexican food or lasagna with leftover curry! The possibilities are endless. Think outside of the box and make sure your leftovers get eaten!
Until next time-