From the category archives:

Brainy

Food literacy, culture and history

Smart kids with video cameras

October 30, 2010

OK, so ignore the fact that I said I was taking a video hiatus. As we enter Halloween weekend, having thoroughly discussed the candy onslaught, I leave you with three (yes, three) videos from Elysian Charter School in Hoboken, N.J. The first one shows kids hip-hopping their way through a junk-food exchange that trades Halloween candy for [...]

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Stealth veggies: Yes or no?

October 12, 2010

Last week, out with friends at a new restaurant (a place I wrote about here), my 6-year-old ordered chocolate mousse for dessert. Actually, chocolate avocado mousse. But my daughter didn’t know that. She’s a beginning reader and “avocado” is not yet in her repertoire (though “chocolate” is), so I let her order the mousse without mentioning its secret green [...]

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Bees, kids and the power of tiny beings

October 7, 2010

Because I’m a writer, I tend to look for opportunities that can only be described as “experiences I can share with my daughter, but also write about.” Part education, part entertainment, part social and journalistic experiment. That sort of thing.  Searching for the queen So it was with the “Vanishing of the Bees” movie trailer during [...]

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Jamie Oliver shows Spoonfed some love

September 30, 2010

As if things weren’t exciting enough around here, what with Spoonfed’s six-month anniversary and the nearly 1,000 pageviews for 11-year-old Birke Baehr’s inspiring video. (Oh, and some spirited commenting on the state fair post.) Now I learn that Jamie Oliver has named Spoonfed one of his blogs of the month. Well, OK, maybe it wasn’t JO himself. But, you know, [...]

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An 11-year-old dissects the food system in 5 minutes

September 28, 2010

You know those people who think children are too young to understand the consequences of food choices? Or, worse, those businesses, lobbyists and marketers that treat kids like they’re too dumb to appreciate or deserve real food? This is for them. And for the rest of us? Well, 11-year-old Birke Baehr is our kind of kid. His [...]

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Giveaways:
“Omnivore’s Dilemma” for kids. And veggie jammies.

September 22, 2010

Spoonfed reached a milestone last week: six months of blogging and building community around the idea of raising kids to be thinking eaters. And what a community it is. I’ve been blown away by the response to this blog. The many (many) visits, comments and wide-ranging conversations tell me Spoonfed has struck a nerve, and that’s [...]

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Food (and propaganda) at the state fair

September 17, 2010

I realize that state-fair food is a category unto itself, a passionately defended paean to Americana and summertime. And to criticize it could cause a distracting uproar. Some might even offer me their fried-fave-on-a-stick with instructions to make it disappear right up my behind.      So I’ll just say that we did not partake of the many fried delicacies [...]

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School food: Beyond swapping white for wheat

August 26, 2010

We all know Jamie Olivers in the making. A parent, a teacher, a student. Someone who’s making noise. School-food reform is big news these days, the stuff of TV shows, government campaigns and blog crusades. And even before all the hoopla, plenty of parents and others were working below the radar to get better food in their kids’ schools. But what about [...]

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Blackberries unplugged

July 31, 2010

It’s the height of summer. Berry season. We’ve been picking and freezing great quantities of strawberries and blueberries. Raspberries are next, if we can catch them before they’re gone. Then the blackberries begin.  And that’s got me thinking.  About Block Island, RI, one of our favorite places on the planet, about the blackberries that grow wild there, and also [...]

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Send me your children’s menus!
(Because it’s one step forward, 25 steps back.)

July 23, 2010

Just when I was feeling good about children’s menus, this depressing round-up crossed my desk. In it, the Daily Beast names the 25 worst meals from kids’ menus at chain restaurants, analyzed for calorie count, saturated fat, carbohydrates and sodium. I’m not into counting calories for kids. And I think standard dietary guidelines like the USDA food [...]

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