Visit to a Farm Market

The children have really enjoyed playing in our centre’s Farmer’s Market so today we went and visited a real one.
 
We started out in the field admiring the pumpkins and climbing on a tractor.  Then we met the owner, Charlene, and she pointed out that some of the corn had been eaten right on the stalk.  We took a closer look and tried to guess what might have eaten it.  Was it a bird? A mouse?  She told us to look at the marks on the ground and we saw hoof prints, it was a deer.  Pretty clever that they can husk the cob to get to the kernels.
               
We walked over to the market stand and I handed each child a clipboard for a fruit and vegetable hunt. 
  
             
This gave the children with their grown ups a chance to explore all the produce that is still available.
         
Charlene showed us some vegetables that she had pulled straight from the field that morning.  Did we know what they were?  The beet, yes but the parsnip was difficult for the children to recognize.
We smelled the leek with it’s hairy root.
    
The brussel sprout plant is fascinating.  We each tried one and most liked them.

Part of our visit was to buy ingredients for Stone Soup.  The children collected the ingredients and we learned about the scale.


              From the scale to the bag to take back to school.
            
      We’ll take a closer at the tops and bottoms that we brought home.