The mission at Farm to Table Kids is to help children find what lights their heart in nature through organic farming, farm to table cooking, and nature crafting. Not everyone will grow up to be organic farmers, but if we can teach children to go to nature to find peace and wonder, that is a gift they will cherish their whole lives. I’ve been farming with kids by my side and on my back for over a decade. Here are some of my most loved veggies to grow to open children’s minds and senses and to make a gorgeous, playful garden! All these seeds can be found in "Johnny's Selected Seeds" catalog or online here. They are a Maine employee-owned company and offer a tremendous selection of organic varieties. Always read the back of your seed packets, they give you all the information you need. Checkout Farm to Table Kids on Youtube for growing videos with kids. Farmer Steph’s Favorite Vegetables to Grow with KIDS: Rainbow carrots = SMILES! Have you ever seen the look on a child’s face when they pull a carrot out of the ground and all big eyed and ambitious they ask you if they can eat it? ...it is one of the sweetest sites at farm camp and it fills my heart every time! Pulling rainbow carrots with kids is must-have summer fun! With rainbow carrots, you can often find a "rainbow carrot mix" of different colored carrots, but I've planted several mixes and varieties and prefer the following blend for FTTK Rainbow Carrots:
- Rainbow Carrot Mix. Has a blend of yellow and orange tones. Excellent 7”-9” tapered roots. I like to add Purple Haze carrot seed to this mix for a pop of purple with yellow.
- Sweet Ann Snap Pea
- Lunchbox Peppers
- They are mini - about 4-5”
- 2. They are colorful: red, yellow, orange, green
- 3. They are seedless - which means awesome for fresh off the plant snacking or stuffing!
- Trilogy Beans
- H-19 Little Leaf Cucumber
- Tasty Bites Melon. These are really really fun and the kids LOVE eating them! They are personal sized cantaloupe-like melons (about the size of a softball). They are super sweet, juicy and basically taste like sunshine. They also have a long harvest period so they produce enough to eat right away and share with friends. These melons are on average about 2 pounds each.
- Pole Bean - Fortex. This bean is a dinosaur...at least that's what the kids call them! They are so giant and so unusual and everyone snacks on them for those reasons. This bean is what we use for our pole bean tee-pees. They are incredible climbers, climbing over 12' and the beans themselves grow 11" (or you can harvest them around 7" for filet beans). They are fun and unusual and our pole bean teepees are always a favorite kids hangout! If you want your kid to eat beans, just make a pole bean teepee with these guys!
- Easter Egg Radish. This radish grows wonderfully fast so you can keep eager farm kids at bay by planting these every 2 weeks for continuous harvest. I rarely have a problem with them splitting or cracking. They are often one of the first things to harvest - great cool weather crop. These radishes are hot pink, purple, white and red and when you pickle them the brine turns hot pink and guess what..kids wanted to eat them! I'm pretty sure they only ate them because the pickling juice turned everything hot pink, but hey, a win is a win! They grow in a great mix of colors: white, pinks, purples.