By Sherri Smith Brown

You’ll find pumpkins of all sizes at pumpkin patches and corn mazes during the fall months. Most are operated by local farm families, who want to share the farm experience as well as a little farm fun with others.

When the leaves take on autumn hues, the air is a little crisper and pumpkins litter farm fields like orange confetti, it’s definitely time for a trip to a pumpkin patch. Pumpkin patches have seriously come into their own since my older children were young. In fact, I’m not sure where you went to visit one back then, but there sure weren’t any advertised in my vicinity. Not so now. Pumpkin patches and corn mazes are all the rage in the fall.

To run a farm these days, it takes a lot of hard work (sweat), patience, love and faith in the weather. You’ll find that a number of farm families want to share their farm experiences and their knowledge about animals and plants and let visitors, especially youngsters, have a good time doing it. Each September and October when the pumpkins are ripe on the vines, many farms open their gates, so to speak, to schoolchildren during the week and the public on the weekends. I’ve taken Brianna to Uncle Bob’s Pumpkin Patch in Coweta County a couple of times and to Ison’s Farm in Fayette County with a preschool group, but there are numerous ones around the state. (more…)

By Sherri Smith Brown

Cooking up something with apples just seems right in the fall. This apple crumble recipe is one that kids can enjoy getting their hands into, while everyone else can enjoy eating—right down to the very last crumb.

Cooking is something that Brianna likes to help us with. In fact, she says she might like to be a chef when she grows up! Here’s a recipe we especially enjoy in the fall. It’s from the Usborne Farmyard Tales Children’s Cookbook by Fiona Watt. This colorfully illustrated cookbook for children, full of step-by-step instructions, has simple and delicious recipes that are fun to cook and eat.

Apple Crumble
Serves 6

3-4 eating apples
6 tablespoons of water
ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon of sugar

For the Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 350˚F. (more…)

By Sherri Smith Brown

Learning to scoop, measure and mix ingredients is just part of the fun at the Young Chefs Academy. Kids make the recipes from scratch and then have the delight of eating their culinary creations, too.

Did you ever imagine that you might be raising the next Rachael Ray or Emeril Lagasse? Being a chef when they grow up or just cooking in the kitchen with mom or dad is many times a favorite with kids of all ages. From KinderCooks to Master Chefs, the Young Chefs Academy is one place where children can take classes to experience the joys of cooking and learn age-appropriate cooking skills.

The cooking school offers regular weekly classes as well as summer camps, scout merit badge programs and holiday workshops. You can even cook up a birthday party! We hosted a 5-year-old birthday party for Brianna and her pre-school class last spring. The children learned to measure, made their own dough, and decorated their own personal pizzas. The lively staff led them in fun activities and handled the details of the whole party—from mailing out invitations to opening birthday gifts to assembling party gift bags. (more…)

By Sherri Smith Brown

Exploring rows and rows of produce and other food products at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market can be a fun time for kids. It’s a colorful and busy place with an ethnicity that is interesting and exciting for everyone.

I think the best way for children to learn where their food comes from is a trip to the farm—but if you want to visit a fun and colorful place in the Atlanta area where they can see mounds of fruits and vegetables from all over the world and gaze at every type of fish and seafood imaginable, try the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.

It’s hectic with stockers maneuvering tall rolling shelves filled with produce to load rows and rows of bins with exotic and ethnic fruit and vegetables: eggplant, garlic, beans, peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, plantains, 25lb. bags of carrots, melons, mangoes, blueberries, oranges from Chili and Australia—all brought in several times a week direct from producers.

Kids might not be so interested in the imported cheeses, spices, nuts, sauces, the more than 30 varieties of coffee beans, the olive oils, vinegars, beers and wines—but the octopus and the squid tentacles, tubes and rings will definitely catch their eye. They can also check out fresh conch, crawfish, sardines, smelt, oysters, muscles, shark and marlin, as well as whole red snapper, bass grouper and catfish. There are tanks of live tilapia, Maine lobster and blue crab. Brianna was particularly curious to watch shoppers lift the live crab from the water with prongs. (more…)