Children are more than willing to “roll up their sleeves” in the kitchen and garden, the food writer, educator and former restaurateur believes. July 16, 2024 You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more.
Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Kids hate eating greens, can’t handle spicy foods and won’t try new ingredients, right? Wrong, says Stephanie Alexander. In fact, the opposite is true, the food writer, educator and former restaurateur believes.
Freshly picked produce, tricky recipes and aromatic curries (yes, even chilli) – children can enjoy them all, with the right encouragement. In the 20 years since launching her Kitchen Garden Foundation, Alexander has found children are more than willing to “roll up their sleeves” in the kitchen and garden. Through the program, which runs across hundreds of Australian schools teaching students to plant, grow and harvest food, she has seen ample evidence of young people’s natural curiosity and willingness to try new foods, especially ones they’ve grown themselves.
“It makes a colossal difference to how kids respond to fresh food, particularly vegetables,” she says. “If they’ve actually dug the hole themselves and watched the bean or whatever it is grow, they do have a sort of proprietorial interest in its welfare. “They also learn to understand that you need to wait for things – not everything is .