07/17/2023
Let’s rewind the clock 75 years…
Most girls knew how to kill and dress a chicken for dinner by the time they were 8 years old. Spring mornings were spent planting seeds in the garden and pulling weeds, so that the sprouts got first access to sunlight. Cool evenings in the fall were spent in the kitchen, jarring and canning the growing season’s bounty in preparation for winter.
Back then, we taught our children how to grow, find, and preserve food, in hopes they would teach the next generation to do the same.
Today it’s a bit different. We teach our children to which aisle they can find the pre-sliced watermelon, and how to scan the barcodes at the self checkout. Thanks to various government subsidies and modern technological infrastructure, most food items are available 365 days a year, a few miles from our homes. We teach them that if they carry this piece of plastic, they can go grab what they want, when they want it, and someone can even prepare it for you.
What’s most interesting is the way kids react when they step foot on the farm for the first time. They’ve got more questions than any other guests, mostly about how the animals become the food on the table. The only wincing or cringing at our honest replies comes from adults - the kids get it. By en large, children can embrace the farm to table concept better than any other demographic, and they want to get involved immediately. Perhaps children have some level of instinctual draw towards agriculture and creation, and we unwillingly or unknowingly keep them from it.
