Way back in March, we planted four little seed potatoes in the garden.  Yesterday was harvest day.  As potato harvests go, this was not our best year.

It wasn’t a total loss either.  We finished with a half-full sack of potatoes, enough for dinner and leftovers.  The kids are always amazed at the way the product of our efforts changes from year to year.  One year the harvest is great, and the next year… nothing.  It’s just the way of the garden!

The Fingerling potatoes seemed to do the best this year.  As my daughter was finding our little potato treasures she said, “I’m glad we have a garden.”

When I asked her why she was glad, she told me that she loved planting and growing our own food.  She loved digging in the dirt and she was glad we didn’t have to go to the store to buy the food we wanted to eat for dinner.

Roasted potatoes have never tasted so good!  I have made this same recipe dozens of times, and most often the kids turn their noses up at roasted potatoes.  Somehow, when the kids plant, water, grow, dig, clean, and prepare their own food it just seems to taste better.

I recently ran across a local publishing company called Readers to Eaters.  Their philosophy is based on using literacy to promote healthy eating, food awareness, food appreciation, and respect for foods in other cultures.  How cool is that!!!  It reminded me a lot of my own philosophy in literacy.  I’ve said many times, here on this blog, that our experiences provide the foundation of our literacy lives.  Isn’t the garden the perfect place to start?  Food literacy from the ground up…. brilliant.

Here’s a link to a few of my favorite gardening books for children that I have compiled on Pinterest.

Happy gardening!