Veggie fun: Tops or Bottoms
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Read the book Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens. Find vegetables where we eat the roots (potatoes, turnip, carrots) or the stems (celery, asparagus, rhubarb) and leaves (spinach, lettuce, parsley) for your child to examine. Play a guessing game where you offer a vegetable and see if your child wants the top or the bottom. As you think about plants that we eat, discuss at dinner when you eat the stems, the leaves, or the flowering part of the plant. Provide a sample of each to savor: carrots for roots, celery for stems, lettuce for leaves, squash blossoms or cauliflower for flowers, and strawberries or peaches for fruit. Buy organic, if you can, or make sure you scrub fruits and veggies well before serving to remove fertilizers and pesticides.
To make your own root view growing set, place pea gravel up to the top in a clear mason jar or glass bowl, and fill with water. Cut the ends off a carrot (the end where the greens grow from), beet or radish. Place on top of the rocks with water just touching the bottom of the plant. Keep the water level up and check it daily to see what takes root.
