My Child and Food, an Interview

March is National Nutrition Month and it is celebrated in our school with a Friday “tasting” at lunchtime in the cafeteria each week. The first week was freaky fruits. I had some insider information and knew that star fruit was on the menu. I also knew that my son would probably not partake; he just isn’t a risk taker when it comes to trying new food. That is actually an understatement. When he came home on this Lenten Friday (he knew it was a no meat day), I asked him about the food tasting. As I expected, he did not try anything new and he told me he thought they were serving roasted starfish. I laughed. I asked, are you sure it wasn’t star fruit? “Yea, it was probably star fruit,” he replied.

A day in my life.

This month, for my blog, I made a quick list of non-scientific questions about his favorite foods. I thought it would be interesting to see what he said.

First, I made a list of some of his favorite foods and asked him to tell me where they come from. The list, probably fairly typical, yogurt, eggs, milk, cheese – he knew all of these, as I expected. For rice, he said “a field.” Not bad. I’m not sure we’ve talked much about rice paddies and we’ve certainly never been to one. For pasta and bread, I was pleasantly surprised that he said “wheat.” He has helped me make bread many times, so he put it together that flour comes from wheat. Not bad. Happy mom.

The next question, what are your three favorite vegetables and what kind of plant do they come from? He doesn’t love vegetables and his response was cucumbers, pickles, and corn. I know, please don't judge me. Corn he had no trouble with. Cucumbers he thought grew on trees. The record screeched in my mind. Mother’s guilt. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to grow them in our garden. Someday, maybe we should try again to grow a vine – he’d surely love a homegrown cucumber if he thinks he likes the store-bought ones! Pickles had him stumped. He was surprised to find out pickles are made from cucumbers. More mother's guilt. He needs to spend some time pickling with his grandma mid-summer!

The third question, what are your three favorite fruits was easy. He loves pineapple, thought it grew on a tree, but knew it comes from Hawaii. Of course, grapes are a favorite and they come from grandpa’s farm (close enough). And apples, which every kindergartner knows, grow “in America on farms and stuff like that.”

I had to ask, how many fruits and vegetables should you eat in a day? His response: a very serious, 50. Okay, my dear child, if you think you should eat 50, why do you NOT?!? Maybe someday this will sink in. I also asked how many cups of milk should you drink in a day? His response was 5. Some days he comes close to that! If being in school didn’t get in his way, he’d probably drink more!

The next question I asked because I wanted to see if he knew what a “grain” was. Can you name 3 types of grains you like to eat? I was hopeful, but he said, “rice, corn, soybeans.” I was hoping to hear a couple other grains, like oats and wheat. Well, now I know we need to talk more about grains.

I’m a little embarrassed by the next question/answer because I learned so much this year as part of the Illinois Farm Familes Field Mom program. Clearly, I haven’t talked enough about it, yet. I asked what do cows eat and drink to be healthy in order to give us milk and beef? His response was, “calves drink their mama’s milk, the mama cow drinks milk, and cows eat grass and dandelions. Oh, mom, do you think that we can get a cow? And put it outside so that it can manure our garden?” I’m just going to let that one lie.

A day in my life.

Next question, same as above, except what do pigs eat to be healthy and give us ham, bacon, and pork chops? His answer: “grain, wheat, water.” Grain pleased me because in the previous question about grain, he considered corn and soybeans grains. Not sure where wheat came from. We’ll have to work on that more this summer.

We were almost done. I asked him to name one healthy food and one unhealthy food. Healthy: “rice.” Unhealthy: “lots and lots and lots and lots of sugar.” Score one in mom’s column and a pat on the back. I confess, I’ve drilled him about sugary foods. I asked him what is his favorite food to cook with me? Answer: “chocolate chip pancakes.” And the final food question, what is in (French) salad dressing? He said, “I know there is some kind of flavoring because how do they get the flavor in there?” Good question.

After we finished, we talked a minute about farms. I asked him are farms large or small? He said “some farms are large, like Grandpa’s. Grandpa owns two.” Grandpa’s two, combined, are 40 acres. Then he went on, “Do you think we could give our house away and move to the country where there’s not as much stinky air that can hurt your lungs?”

Sigh.

Maybe someday.