Larriland Farm 2016

We went with our friends to Larriland Farm for some Fall festivities. We've been to the farm several times over the years (here, here, and here), so here's some highlights of new stuff we did and saw.

At the entrance is a big red barn where fresh fruits, vegetables, and other farm produce and products are sold. We enjoyed the bins of various pumpkins and squash. My daughter took a fancy to the apple squash and the goose gourds. We didn't buy any, though.

Apple squash

Goose gourds

We arrived early so we decided to wait for our friends by the entrance. Some of the pumpkins were so big that they made good seats. Unfortunately, the sun was so big that it made the day much warmer than the mid-60s temperature.

Trouble seeing; enjoying a honey stick

The grounds of the farm have all sorts of cutouts that make fun photo ops for the kids, as long as they are tall enough. My son is finally big enough to be a farmer with out a stool!

Fun with cutouts

The farm features a boo barn (a kid-friendly haunted house) and a hay bale maze, both of which were fun but not photographable. We also went on the hayride through the farm, which was fun for all.

Hayriding the day away

Farm fields

One happy rider

Showing off a stamp

View of the lake from the hay cart

We also ate apple fritters and kettle korn (which is disturbing to my son, he always asks why they misspell "korn"!). We went apple picking but the orchards were already thoroughly picked over (we were there on a Sunday afternoon), so we didn't find much. We did buy a carving pumpkin and a toddler pumpkin for the toddler who was napping at home.

Regular and toddler pumpkins

Small apple harvest

Dual/Duel Review: Cookies and Carrots

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Here's a tricky Dual/Duel Review--we decided to have two taste test challenges. The first challenge was opposing the sandwich cookie classic Oreos to the knock-off version called "Joe-Joe's" from one of our favorite grocers--Trader Joe's. The cookies look very similar, but do they taste the same?

Joe-Joe vs. Oreo

My son was the first to try. In order to maintain objectivity we blindfolded him. Not having a handkerchief handy we took one of my daughter's hairbands and used it to hide which cookie we were feeding him first.

Tasting a cookie...but which one?

Contemplating the great question

He claimed the ability to tell the cookies apart and he did. No matter what order we fed them to him, he could identify the authentic Oreo. He said Oreos were better but will still eat Joe-Joe's if we have them.

Our other taste test challenge was opposing store-bought carrots to ones grown in our backyard. Seems like a no-brainer, right?

Harvested produce (no picture of the store version, sorry)

Cute group photo

We needed more than a blindfold to ensure objective assessments of the carrots. Some careful cutting resulted in carrot pieces that looked and felt similar.

Garden carrot on top

Everyone tried this challenge, with my son claiming an ability to tell these apart as well. He chose the store-bought carrots as best tasting! He usually eats store-bought carrots for a snack, so he's probably used to the flavor. My daughter liked the garden carrots better.

So what's the results?

Winner:
Oreos

Tied:
Garden Carrots and Store-Bought Carrots

Loser:
Joe-Joes

Home Gardening

Inspired by the RHS book Growing Crops in Pots, my wife has begun a campaign to grow some herbs and vegetables at the house. The first objective was to get some indoor herbs. Our kitchen windowsill gets a bit of sunshine in the afternoon (on sunny days, which doesn't often happen here in Yorkshire) and is close enough to the cooking area so we won't forget to use them.

Chives flanking the thyme and parsley

Outside, other vegetables have been called to duty. J's school had him start a small pot of carrots; L's school gave her a beginning bean stalk. L and Mommy transferred both to a new and larger pot where they can be all that they can be.

Bean plant (tied to a pole) with carrots on the side

L, happy in her work

We also bought some seeds and plants from Harlow Carr Garden, including a garlic plant.

Garlic!

L chose that, though her inspiration was not for the flavor, it was for the protection. You may think she is worried about vampires, but in fact she wants to keep the zombies away. In Plants vs. Zombies (a game our whole family is addicted to--surprising, isn't it?) one of the plants for fighting zombies is garlic. The zombie takes one bite, goes "blech!", and then retreats to another row.

Cone Head Zombie doesn't like garlic!

As a side note, in the ahistorical and afactual The Protocols of the Spinsters of Wicca, garlic can be used by witches as "wolf's train." Unlike wolf's bane, which gets rid of werewolves, wolf's train enables users to corner a werewolf and/or punish it when behaves badly. We here at the Zombie Parent's Guide do not endorse or recommend such practices.

Recently added to the collection is our egg head, who seems to have watercress on the brain. It's not a disease, but a fun way to grow some crops in an unusual way.

Egg sans a bit of shell and all the insides...

...cotton and seeds inside...

A few day's later, a head of hair!

My wife got the idea from a display at Harlow Carr Garden (more on that in a later post). The egg is pretty cute as long as you have tactical support for the egg. So get out those Easter egg supplies you've put away and get cracking on your own little watercress chia pet!

Feeding Vegetables to the Children

One of the great challenges for parents is to get the children to eat their vegetables. I often refused vegetables as a child. Now payback has come in the form of my two adorable children/zombie controllers. Jacob is especially suspicious of any food that is colored green. Quite often he will declare the green item to be "spinach" and claim that he does not like it. We must show him some Popeye videos. But I digress. Unfortunately for them, the children's control over their parents is not absolute and we have discovered a few ways to feed them things they'd rather not eat.

Most effective is hiding vegetables in other food. Once we added diced yellow peppers to scrambled eggs--virtually invisible to Jacob, he ate them with gusto. He loves sweet potatoes, so we add in some finely chopped green beans and hope he doesn't notice the offending color. It's easy to hide some salsa (which is nothing but a Cuisinarted vegetables) wrapped in a tortilla or cooked in a quesadilla. I wonder if this is why they started putting lettuce and tomato on hamburgers and other sandwiches.

Things that are naturally vegetabled are also good to fool them. Like spaghetti sauce. As long as it isn't too chunky, the kids love it. Jacob won't usually take toppings off a pizza unless they have the offending color. Casseroles also can be loaded with vegetable goodness. Another favorite of Jacob's is a skillet dinner called Tamale Pie (from the The Best 30-Minute Recipe cookbook linked below too) that has onions and tomatoes in abundance but not in appearance. Cheese and beef are a good cover flavor for veggies.

Good luck and let us know if you have any suggestions on how to feed vegetables to children. Remember: Just because you're low on brains, that doesn't mean you have to be low on ideas.