Blueberries for days

There is something nostalgic about picking berries in the summer. Whenever I take my kids to a blueberry patch, I am transported to my own childhood and I can picture my grandmother in her wide brim straw hat picking berries from a wild blueberry bush in rural Choctaw County, Alabama. Even as a child, I found the repetitive task of picking berries to be soothing. It gave me a sense of accomplishment to watch my bucket fill to the brim as a result of my labors.

As a parent, I have tried to be intentional about taking my kids on blueberry picking adventures. A few years ago we discovered Grabuck Farms, a nondescript berry batch that was only about 10 minutes from our home in Riverchase, right outside of Oak Mountain State Park. The beautiful pasture was filled with berry bushes and plenty of space for the kids to run around once they tired of berry picking.

Payments at Grabuck were made on the honor system, another gentle nod to the nostalgia of my childhood. Occasionally, we would see the owners outside and we enjoyed chatting with them as well.

I recently learned that the Grabuck family sold their farm and the new owners do not plan to open the farm to the public for u-pick. While my heart sank a little when I heard the news, it was a reminder to me that sometimes change is the only constant. Thank you, Grabuck Farms, for the memories and the bounty of berries as well.

There are several other farms in the Birmingham area that offer u-pick options during June’s blueberry season. Be sure to call ahead to confirm hours of operation, or check out each location’s Facebook pages before venturing out. I have listed a few options below, but for a more complete listing, check out www.pickyourown.org.

Petals from the Past - Jemison, AL

K&D Farm - Woodstock, AL

Judy Bee’s Honey and Berry Farm - Mt. Olive, AL

Lyon Blueberry Farm - Wilsonville, AL

Mountain Meadows - Columbiana, AL

Once you have finished picking, the next question is often, what will I do with all of these berries?

Here is one of my favorite fruit recipes, and it is perfect for summertime:

Blueberry Crunch

2 lb. can crushed pineapple (include juice)

3 cups fresh blueberries

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 package yellow cake mix

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13” baking dish, and layer all ingredients in the pan in the order listed above. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, until golden and bubbly. To cut the sweetness, serve with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Merging play and food - a new strategy for today's parents

Many of you have children who eat both raw and cooked vegetables with ease. As a Registered Dietitian, I'd like to say I am one of you. But my child has been on the slow train to Veggieland and it has required a lot of time and patience just to get to the outskirts of town.

One strategy I've employed is allowing my son to play with vegetables. If that implies a free-for-all with them that is not the case, though I'm sure he'd love to drop kick a head of lettuce like a soccer ball across the yard. I'm referring to playing with vegetables in the same way that I would let him sit at a table with a puzzle or Play-doh. With civility.

One idea I've used is to fill a muffin pan with a variety of edible colors, smells, textures, and flavors that all complement what any human has to undeniably love: pizza.

I present a cookie sheet with a marinara-covered 6" pizza crust on it and tell him to have fun making something creative. I encourage him to use at least one of everything in the pan and suggest things like faces, patterns, shapes, flowers, rainbows - anything he wants.

If needed, he can wipe the slate clean, I'll dump some more marinara on, and he can make something else. There's no time limit or end goal. If he wants to bake and eat it, great. If not, that's ok. ("We can bake it and give it to daddy for dinner," I may or may not say.)

Why do all this?

Touching the vegetables and playing with them in an imaginative way normalizes them. It's a desensitization process. In the world of psychology it's called behavior pairing and is often used to help adults with weight loss.

It's the idea of combining something not fun (such as exercise, for adults) with something fun (such as listening to music or talking with a friend). For a child that doesn't find vegetables "fun," playing with them makes them fun.

One warning, don't try this around the older generations in your family. Anyone born prior to 1965 is probably not going to like this idea. The generation that belonged to the Clean Your Plate Club and coined the phrase, "Don't play with your food," will probably find it very against the grain. It will probably be considered wasteful given that some of the food will end up on the floor, discarded, or — God forbid! — not even eaten. But as a new generation of parents who live in an era when antioxidants, phytochemicals, and probiotics are typical topics of conversation - we can handle it.

[Photos are from Itty Bitty Bakers teacher Melissa Carden who, with a lot of civility and a beautiful end product, did this exercise with kids at a baking class. These kids did, in fact, eat their pizzas.]

What kind of kid goes to baking classes?

I get asked quite often, "Who are your usual customers?" Or, said another way, "What types of kids go to your classes?" I love these questions because they allow me to expand on all the ways baking classes are beneficial to children.

My first response is usually that we have both boys and girls - about 25% boys and 75% girls, on average. I also quickly add that I would love to see more boys attend because when you look around Birmingham, men comprise most of the roles as top chefs and thinking of baking and cooking as a "girl thing" is very outdated. Boys LOVE our baking classes and we love our boy bakers, er, chefs.

Aside from gender, we usually get a lot of creative children. Those who like to make and create with their hands. I'll use my son as an example - he loves technology, his tablet in particular. One thing I find him doing on his tablet is building things, creating scenic lands, and believe it or not, making smoothies! Yes, there's an app for that.

Chef Jake and Chef Carter at baking class in 2019

What may simply seem like a kid who likes technology and gaming, is actually a kid who likes to work with his hands — to make, create, build, and bring structure and order to the world. Baking does just that. It is the process of taking raw ingredients - or even just icing and sprinkles in a decorating class - and putting them together into something both beautiful and enjoyable. So, if kids like technology, they often like baking as well.

Our business manager, Amy Jones, said a few years ago that she likes to put her daughter Mia into two types of classes: 1) classes for her mind and 2) classes for her body. Mia started baking classes for her mind and ballet for her body at age 3. Similar to Mia, kids coming to our baking classes are often kids who also play sports and whose parents have the goal of shaping well-rounded kids.

Here's Mia: Set up for success with a low table, accessible ingredients, and a "don't worry about the mess" policy.

Many children who come to our baking classes can't find "their thing." They can't find what they're good at or a hobby that will keep them interested. Our baking classes are fun, and part of that fun is being set up for success. Kids usually walk away with a sense of confidence, feeling like they found something they both like and are good at. And as parents we know it's a hobby and pastime that will serve them well throughout their lives.

The list of reasons why baking classes are beneficial to children is endless. Teamwork, motor skill development, personalized attention, emotional benefits - I could go on and on because it literally touches every part of life.

However, every child is different and their reasons for coming to class unique. Why does your child come? We'd love to hear in the comments below.