I have found that the best method to get children to eat vegetables is to get them involved in growing them. This is an excellent method for young children as they love to get involved in everything and have an urge to learn new things. By encouraging children to grow their own food you will be promoting a healthy lifestyle and giving them the skills they need to continue growing and providing their own families with freshly grown vegetables when they are older.

Some children refuse to eat vegetables completely, I know that no matter how hard I try there will still be some that my children will not eat, and this normally includes Brussels sprouts! However, many children are put off eating vegetable simply by being made to eat poor quality vegetables.

Have you ever tasted the difference between frozen vegetables and fresh ones from the store? There is quite a difference, and often this is because the flavour is lost when the vegetables are frozen and stored for a long time. However, if you did the same taste test with fresh vegetables from the store and vegetables you had picked from your garden only a few minutes before, you would be amazed at the difference again. Having them that fresh makes them taste so much sweeter (which is what children prefer), and not only that, when the vegetables are so fresh that they were only growing a few minutes before, they provide many more nutrients than those that have been stored.

Some good things to plant in your garden to start with are runner beans and carrots. Most children get to germinate a runner bean at school, but very little happens with it, as it is never planted out. If you can get your children to do the same thing with a runner bead seed, by germinating it in a jar, and then letting them follow its progress when you have planted it, they will be fascinated. Let them get involved in the watering and picking of the beans too, if they’ve done a lot of the work they will be more likely to eat the produce.

As for carrots, most children love carrots and they grow pretty much anywhere, put a few carrot seeds in a flower bed or large pot and again get the children to help grow them, it will get them interested in growing their own produce.

Runner beans and carrots are very easy to grow and most children will eat them once they have tried them this fresh. Once you’ve got them eating these you can move on to the vegetables that they normally don’t like as much, such as cabbage and cauliflower.

With a little patience and some vegetables seeds, you will soon have a tribe of keen gardeners and your children will love their vegetables!