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Before the Harvest: Where Do Fruits and Vegetables Grow?
Do you know where different fruits and vegetable grow? Make some guesses and then check your answers at the bottom of the page.
Some fruits and vegetables grow underground.
Name one that you can think of: _______________.
Some fruits and vegetables grow on a vine.
Name one that you can think of: _______________.
Some fruits and vegetables grow on a bush.
Name one that you can think of: _______________.
Some fruits and vegetables grow on a tree.
Name one that you can think of: _______________.
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What is Taste?
Take a look in the mirror and stick out your tongue. All those little bumps on your tongue are called taste buds. When you eat and drink, they help you to identify flavors by sending a message to your brain about what's in your mouth. Taste is one of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, and touch are the others). Taste helps us to pick and enjoy the foods we eat. There are four main tastes—bitter, sweet, sour, and salty.
Here are some examples of the tastes of different foods:
Sweet: apples, honey, carrots, pears
Sour: lemons, pickles, limes
Bitter: unsweetened chocolate, green pepper, orange peel, raw broccoli, onions, bitter greens
Salty: crackers, peanuts, celery
Can you think of any other foods to put in each of these categories?
There are other words that we use when describing the foods that we eat. Adjectives like creamy, crunchy, spicy, bland, juicy, dry, rich, silky, crisp, mild, and hot help people communicate their experience of eating to other people. Pretend you were telling a friend about some of your favorite foods—how would you describe them?
Smell is also an important sense when it comes to tasting food. Try holding your nose when you eat something. Does that make it easier or harder to taste the flavors?
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| From Seed to Table and Back to Seed Again |
| Many of the fruits and vegetables we eat contain seeds. You could have an outdoor watermelon seed-spitting contest and see who can spit the seeds the farthest. Better yet, why not experiment by sprouting the seeds of different fruits and vegetables, such as apples, oranges, pumpkins, pears, and peas? |  |
Here's how to do it:
- Put a seed between damp paper towels and keep it there until it sprouts.
- Fill a paper cup or other small container with soil and plant the sprout in the soil, about ½-inch below the surface.
- Put the cup in a sunny spot and water the soil every few days.
Which seeds do you think will grow well? Which won't? Which seeds will grow the fastest or get the tallest? Make some predictions and then see what happens!
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Food Routes
Draw or map the journey that your favorite food takes from the farm to the grocery store or farmers' market and then to your plate. How far did it travel? How did it get there? Write or tell a story about its journey. Include something funny or unusual that happened along the way. Draw a picture to go with the story.
Virtual Shopping
Play a fruit-and-vegetable version of "I packed my trunk to go to Grandma's."
The first person begins the game by saying, "I packed my basket as I shopped at the market and in it I put…" followed by a fruit or vegetable that begins with the letter "A" (such as "Apple").
The next person repeats, "I packed my basket as I shopped at the market and in it I put…" followed by the original item plus a new item beginning with the letter "B" (as in "Apple, Blueberries"). The game continues through the alphabet.
Looking for more of a challenge? Try adding an adjective (a descriptive word) that begins with the same letter as each item, like "Amazing Apples, Bursting Blueberries."
more fun! >>
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