Cooking with Your Grandchildren: A Grandmother Power Post

Down the road there will be many more posts about cooking with my grandchildren, but today's post comes from the Grandmother Power Blogging Campaign.  I consider this a public service announcement.  Sort of an NPR post. 

First, I have some information to share with you about grandmother's in Ireland, trying to combat childhood obesity.  After that, there is a link to find out more!

International Grandmothers’ Day was the brainchild of two friends, both famous chefs: Darina Allen of the Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California.

Darina and Alice worry about child obesity. “It’s not the children’s fault,“ Darina says. “It’s how food is produced now: high yield, nutrient deficient. Plus, cooking skills have been lost.” Few people cook with fresh, locally grown ingredients.

Allen and Waters believe grandmothers are the guardians of inherited wisdom. They imagined a special holiday when grandmothers would teach their grandchildren about growing, foraging, fishing---and cooking---fresh, local food.

Today, Slow Food Movement members in 150 countries celebrate International Grandmothers’ Day every April.

In Ireland, grandmothers and their grandchildren run farmers’ markets, plant edible gardens, and cook everything from scones, butter, chocolate, cookies, cupcakes and coconut macaroon tarts---to quiche with ham, salad, sausage and smoothies.

Darina, a grandmother of eight, says: ”It’s wonderful cooking with my grandchildren. They absolutely love to peel, mix, grate, chop---anything from pancakes to apple pies….and they’ll eat everything they grow, even if they shivered at the thought before. Amelia (age 2) eats raspberries off the bushes in her bare feet and breaks bits of broccoli right off the plant.”

From Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon by Paola Gianturco, published by powerHouse Books.

 

The Grandmother Power Blogging Campaign is all about sharing.  Sharing and educating.  As a blogger, you too can participate. As a reader you can become a part by sharing what you read.  "It's all good," as the saying goes.

For me, my plan/thought/hope is to share the natural world with my grandsons.  We live in an area with plenty of places to play outside and explore.  This summer, for the first time in MANY years, we're having a garden.  The boys helped me plant the marigolds that will protect our tomatoes (or so I am told... that'll be another post) and transplant the larger seedlings.  They know we are doing a garden and growing "salad" this year.  I am looking forward to sharing the love of the land that has been passed down to me.  My thought: Let's get dirty!!

Later this summer you'll be seeing the results of our labor with posts about harvesting and cooking what we've grown.  Of course that's assuming the deer don't get it all...  I have my Irish Spring soap ready to go!

Hope you enjoyed today's post, till tomorrow...happy eating!

Carrie