ADVENTURES IN ECO-PARENTING

LEAH KLEIN MAKES GOING GREEN CHILD’S PLAY

IS YOUR DAD A FUNGI?

Uh, I mean, is your dad a fun guy? Perhaps he’s the guy in the suit most days or the guy who
is a tad cranky in his dusty coveralls at the end of the day. Maybe he wears a chef’s coat and
you can’t even go near him while he’s on the phone trying to track down his missing leeks.
But at the right time, in the right conditions, there is a fun guy under there.

This month, it’s time to drag Daddy or Granddaddy out of his box. Whether his box is an office, a classroom, a kitchen, a studio or a salon, it is time to step outside. Go out in the world and get ready to forage with your father, dig with your daddy and garden with your granddad.

The great thing about scheduling some time out with the wind in your hair (or the sweet breeze smooching your daddy’s scalp) and your feet in the dirt is that it can fit anyone’s schedule. You can spend 10 minutes at the end of the day taking a walk around the block checking out the yards and gardens in your neighborhood. You can spend a weekend hiking and exploring in the woods. You can spend an afternoon at the farm.

Digging with Your Daddy

DiggingWithYourDaddy If your kids are littles (0 to 4), then digging with Daddy should be really simple. One large pot or a little patch of the yard that you don’t mind having dug up and some simple garden tools will do. By garden tools, I mean anything from a kitchen spoon to a child’s trowel. Add a few rocks, plastic animals or toy trucks, and you may even have time to play and sit out and read the paper for a little bit.

For the older crowd, you can have a more specific digging goal. Maybe you want to dig out a border for your flower bed and place some large rocks along it. Perhaps you have been meaning to re-seed the yard. Water is always good on a hot summer’s day, so you may want to just hang out in the yard, dig up a few weeds, water the newly seeded grass and end it with a little water play. Give older children a few options so they can have input as to how they want to contribute to the project.

If you want to build a raised garden bed for your vegetables (a good idea for most city dwellers due to lead in the soil) or build and set up a rain barrel, the number of resources online and in the library is endless. If you need a little motivation or guidance, there are some great resources available online as well as at your fingertips.

Resources:
Gardening with Children (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides)
For bottle trees and rubber bushes: www.felderrushing.net/frontyard.htm

Foraging with Your Father

Foraging with Your Father Foraging is so much fun. There are fungi to discover and ivy to avoid. For the littles, all you need is a little bag of crayons and a small notepad, clipboard or sketchbook. The littles can collect “forest treasures” in a little box or bag and either draw pictures of some of their findings or do a rubbing of the leaves. Be sure to teach the littles not to pull any leaves or berries off of living trees or out of the ground, and definitely not to taste any of their findings. Instead, pack a picnic to enjoy before you head home.

For the adventuresome or foodie fathers and the older crowd, sign up for a foraging hike. Learn to identify edible plants and mushrooms in your local ecosystems. Classes vary from hikes focusing on plants and berries to workshops on finding and cooking with anything from local wild alliums (like ramps) to bugs.

Resources:
www.wildmanstevebrill.com
www.wetcc.org/programs/WildFoodSummitII_files/wfs08Gateway.html
www.londonderry-inn.com/nature/index.php
www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/health/found-food-do-you-forage-for-food-056392
www.wildernesscollege.com/wild-mushroom-identification.html
bugsfordinner.blogspot.com

Gardening with Your Granddaddy

Gardening With Children My children’s grandparents are often found in the garden or the woods. My father is the family mushroom guy. Grandpa is the artist and gardener in the family. His garden is a work of art and his works of art often depict his gardens (www.johnbria.com). His father is the vegetable gardener (www.vegetablegardener.com). So gardening with their granddaddy comes easily for our children.

You don’t need to have much of a garden when it comes to littles. The buttercups in the meadows or the dandelions in the cracks between the city sidewalks are as magnificent as the rarest orchid to young children. Have the children take Granddad for a walk and pick flowers for their daddy or grandfather. When they tire of collecting specimens, they can come in and cool off. Place the flowers in water or press them under some heavy books. If it is a really hot day and you have access to herbs or mint, fill an ice tray with water and place a few snips of mint, lavender or thyme into each section.

Bonus Growing Project to Do with Your Little Sprouts
(Courtesy of Kat Henderson, www.whenigrowupiwill.com)

Egg Sprouts

You’ll need:
Empty eggshells
Egg carton
Soil
Seeds
Markers, crayons or paint

What to do:
Remove eggs from shells (organic omelettes for breakfast!) and remove 1/3 of shell from the top
Place eggshells in carton and (gently!) decorate
Fill eggshells about halfway with soil and moisten with water
Add seed, top off with soil and moisten
Continue to water daily until there is a hearty sprout, then plant outside, crushing the egg shell and surrounding with soil

Leah Klein is a windowsill, back porch, front porch and soon-to-be raised garden bed gardener “in training.” Her 2-and-a-half-year-old and 5-year-old “farm hands” help keep the crops, the car, the sidewalk and most of the family’s shoes well watered. Her family enjoys the bounty of and participates as members of the Lindentree Farms CSA in Lincoln, Mass. She writes as the Boston Food Mom for Examiner.com at www.examiner.com/x-1240-Boston-Food-Mom-Examiner.