One of the great things about winter is going to farm conferences. A few weeks ago we attended the MO Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher conference. Daddy and I learned lots from our seminars and speakers, but Brett probably had the most fun ;-). He was finally old enough to join the grade school kids at the children’s seminars, provided by the Promotion and Education committee, directed by Diane Olson, Barbra Wilson, and Terribeth Spargo. They came up with this fun farm lesson plan and Brett loved it.
The activities were based on the book, Who Grew My Soup, by Tom Darbyshire.
Its a silly story with hilarious illustrations that look like something you’d create with an app on your iPad. Basically this kid decides he’s not eating his healthy soup until he knows what’s in it. So, because isn’t this what happens every time you declare war on vegetables, a hot air balloon (actually tomato) swoops down and carries him off to the fields where the soup was grown.
Next they had the kids sort plastic food by plant part. For example, the tomatoes in the soup are the fruit of plant, but carrots are the roots and corn and peas are the seeds. This chart can get you started if you’re stuck with that one!
The kids also got to vote on their favorite kind of soup. This, of course, would be a great thing to graph. If we had more people (one hurdle for homeschooling!) I wanted to make a “live” graph where everyone used an actual can of soup to represent their vote and stack them on the floor as a bar graph. If you try it, send me a picture please :-).
They ended the seminar by making their own Who Grew My Soup Mix.
Ingredients
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/2 cup dried split peas (green and yellow if possible)
1/2 cup lentils (red and green for variety)
1/2 rice (white or brown but NOT instant)
1 cup tri-colored spiral pasta
Directions for Mix
Layer these ingredients in the order given into a 1 quart canning jar. Pack each layer in place before adding the next ingredient. Attach a gift tag with the following:
Soup Recipe
1 jar Who Grew My Soup mix
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
Remove pasta from mix and set aside. Place the remaining soup mix in a large soup pot. Add 12 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes. Add pasta and ground beef and simmer an additional 15 minutes.
Thanks so much to the P&E committee for such a fun seminar. Especially when it comes to farm lessons, Brett prefers to learn from someone other than mom :-). I mean really, what does she know about soup?!
Daddy's Tractor 