![\"Vegetable](\"http:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Sisson-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Vegetable tasting participants sample heirloom tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, and Sungold cherry tomatoes at the West Sacramento Family Resource Center.<\/p><\/div>\n
Throughout this growing season, I have partnered with the Yolo County Children’s Alliance West Sacramento Family Resource Center (FRC) to increase access to fruits and vegetables and expose both young and old to growing and eating fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n
In early August, I hosted a veggie tasting at the FRC during the Center\u2019s weekly food distribution.\u00a0 Aiming to expand vegetable horizons, I offered free samples of Sungold cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, and lemon cucumbers to adventurous participants.\u00a0 I chose these vegetables because their unusual appearances may cause some to shy away from purchasing and eating them.\u00a0 Sungold cherry tomatoes are very sweet, but their orange color when ripe makes those accustomed to red cherry tomatoes think they are underripe.\u00a0 Heirloom tomatoes, with their unique shapes and colors, strike those used to red slicing tomatoes as strange.\u00a0 Lemon cucumbers, which look like a lemon but taste like a standard cucumber minus the bitter skin, may similarly frighten marketgoers who are unfamiliar with them.\u00a0 However, once provided with explanations of each vegetable, most participants in the vegetable tasting were willing to try something new and several walked away with a new favorite vegetable.<\/p>\n
In September, the FRC\u2019s Play School Experience class visited my farm on a field trip.\u00a0 The trip began with a tour of the farm, during which the preschool-age children and their parents had the opportunity to learn how vegetables grow and what each type of vegetable plant looks like.\u00a0 After the tour, the kids got their hands dirty with a planting activity, carefully transplanting basil seedlings into a pot to take home and grow themselves.\u00a0 According to their teacher, Nancy Ledesma, \u201cThe parents and our children loved the experience.\u201d Similarly, I really enjoyed interacting with the energetic youngsters, whose genuine curiosity about the farm was refreshing.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Preschoolers eagerly await their turn to pot up a basil seedling.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The Play School Experience class shows off their basil seedlings while visiting Root Cause Farm.<\/p><\/div>\n