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Cooking with kids – Tip #2

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LET THEM DO HARD THINGS

Second in a 4-part series on cooking with kids
By Jamila T, chief area manager & veggie fairy godmother:

(TIP 1: Start with projects)
(TIP 3: Set kitchen ground rules)
(TIP 4: Use common sense)
(PS: Clean up & celebrate!)

Knives are important culinary tools, even when you’re cooking with kids. Instead of limiting your child’s involvement in the kitchen, teach them how to responsibly handle sharps and other tools. Expectations should be reasonable and based on age, but kids are capable of more than stirring bowls and pushing buttons.

Let them cut vegetables, flip pancakes, and stir sauces. If they are strong and confident enough, let them add and remove things from the oven. Just use your best judgement based on your child’s maturity level and abilities. You know them best!

This week’s challenge

Chopping! Use a knife small enough for them to handle safely. Show them how to keep their fingertips out of the way.

This week’s recipe

SUMMER FRUIT SKILLET JAM

Ingredients:
1 qt LOCAL fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, etc), chopped
1 small SAUNDERS BROS apple, peeled, grated
½ c ALFREDO’S BEEHIVE honey
½ lemon/lime/orange, juiced

Directions:
1. Combine ingredients in 12-inch skillet. Cook on medium-high for about 8 minutes.
2. Mash the fruit as it cooks, stirring frequently. Caution: Warm jam bubbles and pops!
3. Once a spoon can be pulled through the pan without fruit immediately filling the empty space, the jam is finished.
4. Pour into a glass container and cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Jam will firm as it cools.

Success?

Celebrate by posting a picture on our Facebook page!

Want to be ready for next week’s recipe?

Add a variety of fresh, local root vegetables to your basket when the Seasonal Roots home-delivered farmers market menu opens on Friday.

Eat Better Live Better / Feb 22-23

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A TRIBE CALLED SEASONAL ROOTS: OUR SHARED VALUES
By Kristin Henderson, chief veggie conversationalist

Sure, everyone likes the way Seasonal Roots makes fresh, local food convenient and affordable. But there’s so much more to it than that. When each of us got involved in Seasonal Roots, we became part of something larger than our individual selves. We joined forces with people who share some of the same values.

What are those values? Whether farmer, food artisan, or member:

We’re caring for our families by bringing them together around nutritious, delicious meals…

Read more below or view as a PDF with clickable links. Recipes, tips, hacks, specials, and feature stories to help you eat better live better with sustainable local food in every issue of our newsletter!

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Cooking With Kids – Tip #1

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START WITH PROJECTS

First in a 4-part series on cooking with kids
By Jamila T, chief area manager & veggie fairy godmother:

(TIP 2: Let them do hard things)
(TIP 3: Set kitchen ground rules)
(TIP 4: Use common sense)
(PS: Clean up & celebrate!)

Confession: I love to cook. I HATE cooking with my kids.

I have four of them, and every adventure that begins in the kitchen ends in a mess. A big one. They eat half of what I am preparing and poke holes in the rest. Boredom is inevitable, which leads to wandering during tasks or frustration. It is borderline terrible, but in my eyes, it is terribly necessary.

Learning to cook is an important life skill and will empower kids to make wise food choices. Time in the kitchen is also an opportunity to model practical applications of math, reading, and following instructions. It gives my girls time to hone fine motor skills, explore food science, and practice the art of patience. Cooking with kids is important, even if it drives me crazy.

Does cooking with the kids in your life make your brain hurt? Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing my favorite tips. Here’s the first one.

1. Start with projects

Family meals tend to be more time sensitive than cooking projects. Projects like zucchini muffins will allow your child to experiment with new skills, without ruining dinner. Once skills like grating, chopping, tearing greens, and peeling garlic (my personal favorite), have been mastered, they can graduate to meal prep. Trust me, your children will revel in simple tasks. Plus, it is very helpful to have little fingers peeling garlic cloves while you sauté chicken.

Ready to dive in?

Challenge the kids with grating zucchini and make these zucchini muffins. Instead of Greek yogurt, substitute Seasonal Roots’ Trickling Springs Creamery yogurt made from grass-fed milk for extra goodness. You can also use yellow summer squash instead of zucchini — pretty much the same taste and texture.

Mission accomplished?

Celebrate by posting a picture on our Facebook page!

Want to be ready for next week’s recipe?

Add honey and summer fruit like strawberries, blueberries, or peaches to your basket when the Seasonal Roots home-delivered farmers market menu opens on Friday.

Eat Better Live Better / Feb 15-16

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Recipes, tips, hacks, specials, and feature stories to help you eat better live better with sustainable local food in every issue of our newsletter!

Read more below or view as a PDF with clickable links.

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A Sustainable Valentine

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SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE FAMILY FARMERS AND GIVE THE PLANET A VALENTINE!
By Kristin Henderson, chief veggie conversationalist

At Seasonal Roots, we believe in that old saying, “You reap what you sow.” When you help local sustainable family farmers, you don’t just reap fresher, more delicious, nutritious food. You also reap a healthier environment.

Here’s why. The Flores Farm on Virginia’s Northern Neck is typical of the differences between small family farms we partner with and big corporate agriculture.

Gerardo Flores emigrated from Mexico more than 20 years ago. Now he and his son Omar farm 50 acres that are sustainably planted with an amazing variety of crops: herbs, greens, lettuces, root crops, and dozens of different peppers. That’s Gerardo pictured next to a row of his crops side-by-side with a field of wild flowers. Compare that to the factory farms of big corporate ag, which plant acres upon acres of land with the same thing. Out in California, those monocrop deserts stretch as far as the eye can see.

Nature doesn’t work that way. Neither does a small family farm that uses sustainable practices. Gerardo and Omar’s diverse plantings create more natural ecosystems that are good for our soil, water, and air. Their rich patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, and ponds are the perfect habitat for native plants and wildlife. That’s much better for our environment than monocrops or yet another suburban development.

In addition, grocery store produce typically travels 1,500 miles from where it’s grown to get to you. Gerardo and Omar’s locally grown harvest travels less than one-tenth that far. Shorter trips produce less pollution from transportation. And that’s good for the environment, too.

By choosing to buy local food from sustainable farmers like the Floreses, you’re helping them, the environment, and yourself. That’s like giving the whole planet a valentine!

Eat Better Live Better / Feb 8-9

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COOKED GRAPEFRUIT?! TAKE A PEEK AT WHAT YOUR NEIGHBORS ARE UP TO IN THE KITCHEN!
Seasonal Roots member Kristen shared a kid-friendly recipe with us on Facebook that involves a broiler and grapefruit. Krista, another member, shared a recipe for carb loading the right way, with sweet potato hash brown patties. Krista wrote: “These were and continue to be a big hit, I’ve made them with the Kennebec potatoes too!” Do you have a great recipe that uses our local food? Send it our way and EAT BETTER LIVE BETTER!

Read more below or view as a PDF with clickable links.

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Word-of-Mouth

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HOW THE LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT IS SWEEPING THE NATION
By Kristin Henderson, chief veggie conversationalist

Our food system is broken, but word-of-mouth is changing it. People are telling each other about their personal experience with local food, one friend at a time.

For Margo LaMarsh, it started at Bible study. That’s when a friend told her how Seasonal Roots was connecting local families with local farmers.

“Eating better is all about cooking with fresh ingredients,” says Margo. “And there’s nothing fresher than local food.” So Margo joined her friend and became a member of Seasonal Roots.

Because local food is fresh, it has more nutrients and tastes better, so those good nutrients are more likely to get eaten. That’s what Margo discovered when she served Seasonal Roots beets to her high school daughter.

Her daughter was not a veggie eater. “I don’t like beets,” she said.

“When did you ever have beets?” Margo asked – knowing full well that before then she’d only ever had pickled beets from a jar. “You have to take one bite.”

When she finally took that bite, she exclaimed, “These are so good!”

Margo hadn’t done anything special with them. She just wrapped them in foil, roasted them in the oven, and peeled them afterward when the peel practically falls off. “When it’s fresh, you don’t have to do much. They taste good all by themselves,” Margo says. “So I’m a firm believer that the only reason she liked them was because they were so fresh.”

Now her daughter eats pretty much anything veggie. And Margo, who used to work for NASA before becoming a stay-at-home mom, now works for Seasonal Roots. She’s a neighborhood market manager, pictured here with Josh of Harvest Hill Farm on delivery day, making weekly deliveries to members in York County.

Margo acknowledges that eating more fresh local food requires a little more planning than eating processed food out of a box. “But having it delivered saves you time,” she points out. And as her husband says, “We use that time to cook more, which is a lot more fun than going to the grocery store.”

Eat Better Live Better / Feb 1-2

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WHERE DO YOUR EGGS AND MEAT COME FROM?
And why are ours so much better?

In 2009 Keith Farrish noticed that, while many things in life made him happy, few compared to driving his tractor. After 20 years in the buttoned-up business world, Keith and his wife Wendy started SADDLE RIDGE FARM.

It’s a small family farm near Culpeper, Va., where they raise chickens, pigs, and cows in open pasture. Their goal is to maintain and improve the mental and physical health of the families who eat what they raise. So they take care of their land and animals in a sustainable way that predates newer, “modern” farming practices…

Read more below or view as a PDF with clickable links.

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Join us and eat better live better!

7 Ways OUR Local Food Will Change Your Life

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By Duane Slyder, founder & head veggie fairy:

Can local food really change your life? It can… but only if it’s done right. Here are 7 ways our Seasonal Roots veggie fairies will change your life here in Virginia.

1. Convenient home delivery = a total time saver! All those perishables that have to be restocked the most often? We bring them right to your home or office. That equals fewer shopping trips.

2. Vetted farmers market fare = peace of mind. We know our family farmers and we know they use healthy, sustainable practices and treat their animals humanely. At a traditional market, you’re on your own, and it’s hard to know who to trust.

3. Guaranteed freshness = good taste and good health. We can guarantee it because everything is local or regional. It’s harvested and delivered in a short period of time, so it’s still packed with flavor and nutrients.

4. Dedicated customer service = more serenity, less aggravation. If there’s ever an issue, just email support@seasonalroots.com or call 757-351-4565 and we’ll make it right. At other markets, there’s no one to help you between market days.

5. More variety = less boredom, a more balanced diet, and a healthier eco-system. Whew! This is a big one. Unlike a CSA, we partner with dozens of small family farms and food artisans, all growing and making different things. Whether you customize your basket or opt for the default, you’ll experience 7 kinds of sweet potatoes, 4 kinds of kale – hey, have you ever tried creamline whole milk? The list goes on and on. And our farmers’ sustainable practices include growing a wide variety of crops. Much better for the soil and the local eco-system than monocropping.

6. Reliable staples = save your energy for the exotic stuff. Every week you can count on us for your fruit, veggies, bread, grass-fed milk, cheese, meats, eggs, and other basics, all of them fresh!

7. A team that loves what they do = more joy for everyone! Studies show that happiness and good health are closely connected. Smiles are contagious, so we pass ‘em on!

Eat Better Live Better / Jan 25-26

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RECIPES, FOOD TIPS, AND MORE!

First up — this is why we’re the best farmers market in Virginia:
7 WAYS OUR LOCAL FOOD WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Seven ways to eat better live better!

1. Convenient home delivery = a total time saver! All those perishables that have to be restocked the most often? We bring them right to your home or office. That equals fewer shopping trips.

2. Vetted farmers market fare = peace of mind. We know our family farmers, we know their produce and food items come from right here, and we know they rely on healthy, sustainable practices and treat their animals humanely. At a traditional market, you’re on your own, and it’s hard to know who to trust.

3. Guaranteed freshness = good taste and good health. We can guarantee it because everything is local or regional, harvested and delivered in a short period of time, and still packed with flavor and nutrients.

4. Dedicated customer service = more serenity, less aggravation. If there’s ever an issue, just email support@seasonalroots.com or call 757-351-4565 and we’ll make it right. Meanwhile, at other markets, there’s no one to help you between market days.

5. More variety = less boredom, a more balanced diet, and a healthier eco-system. Whew! This is a big one. We partner with dozens of small family farms and food artisans, all growing and making different things. Whether you customize your basket or opt for the default, you’ll experience 7 kinds of sweet potatoes, 4 kinds of kale – hey, have you ever tried creamline whole milk? The list goes on and on. And our farmers’ sustainable practices include growing a wide variety of crops. Much better for the soil and the local eco-system than monocropping.

6. Reliable staples = save your energy for the exotic stuff. Every week you can count on us for your fruit, veggies, bread, cheese, eggs, milk, meats, and other basics, all of them fresh!

7. A team that loves what they do = more joy for everyone! Studies show that happiness and good health are closely connected. Smiles are contagious, so we pass ‘em on!

Read the rest of the newsletter below or view as a PDF.

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