Spring Into The Season With These Tips For Gardening With Kids

There is nothing more rewarding than a once-bare patch of dirt brimming with zucchini and tomatoes, basil and dill, or flowers. That patch of dirt can be as small as a window box or pot, or a patch by your back door.

Kids love to garden—give them their own plot to tend and award prizes to the biggest tomatoes or pumpkins. There is nothing more fascinating to a child than an edible plant coming out of packet of seeds. Not only is gardening good fun, it teaches:

• Observation: watching the changes and growth.
• Responsibility: watering and weeding.
• Patience: waiting for the fruit or vegetable or flower to mature.

Some easy projects for kids include:

• Pluck dead blooms from flower beds or containers.
• Make leaf rubbings using thin paper and a peeled crayon or soft pencil to do various leaf and bark.
• Grow broccoli sprouts for your family dinner, using 1-T of broccoli seeds and a jar covered with some nylon, secured by a rubber band. Each day allow the seeds to soak in warm water for three minutes, then drain. Directions for how to grow your own sprouts.
  
• Put vegetable tops in glasses of water and gravel and watch them sprout! Try onion, radish, sweet potato, beet, parsnip, or turnip. Have older children note the progress in a book or draw what they see.

For more great gardening tips and information about composting, download the ACHS Wellness Guide here.

Alfalfa Sprouts Recalled: Grow Your Own

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration website has listed a recall of alfalfa sprouts, which have been linked to a recent Salmonella outbreak.

Salmonella, the website explains, "is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Consumers with the above symptoms should consult their physician"

But there's no need to cut sprouts from your diet ... just grow your own! In about a week, you can grown your own fresh alfalfa sprouts to cut and use in salads, on sandwiches, and however else you like them! Sprouts are rich source of nutrients, and have also been show to include concentrated amounts of phytochemicals, which support optimal health and wellness.

To grown your own alfalfa, follow these simple steps from the Happily Domestic blog:

1. Place 2 tablespoons of seeds in a 1/2-gallon sprouting jar with three times as much water as seed and soak overnight.
2. Drain the water from the jar (either through the lid or a piece of cheesecloth) and rinse the seeds in fresh, lukewarm water. Then, drain again.
3. Lay your jar at an angle in a warm, dark place (about 70 degrees F). (70 degrees F.)
4. Then, rise and drain your seeds twice a day for 4 or 5 days. On the last day, place your alfalfa sprouts in indirect sunlight to help them develop chlorophyll. (The tiny leaves will turn green in a few hours.)
5. Remove the alfalfa sprouts from the jar and place them in a bowl; rinse well. When the sprout hulls float to the surface of the water, skim them off. Remove your sprouts from the water and shake out any excess water.
6. Alfalfa sprouts will keep for about a week. Be sure to store them in the fridge.

For more tips about how to eat sprouts and fun, family-friendly growing projects (like broccoli sprouts) download your free copy of the ACHS Wellness Guide here: http://www.achs.edu/news/news-detail.aspx?nid=225