From Garden Dirt to Dinner Table Teaching Kids Eco-Conscious Living

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Ever found yourself washed in garden dirt, staring at your hard-earned kale, only to be met with your child's plea for store-bought greens? That's the kind of day I had, and it sparked an enlightening discussion about the values we pass down and the allure of convenience. Join me, Sheila, on Zero Waste Imperfectly, as I recount the trials and joys of raising eco-conscious kids amidst a plastic-packaged world. From the backyard to the kitchen, I share the challenges of maintaining a sustainable lifestyle and the humorous, yet poignant moments that unfold with my own family.

This episode isn't just about my personal musings; it's a call to all parents navigating the eco-friendly road with young ones in tow. I dive into how we can encourage our children to appreciate the journey from garden to table, despite the tempting ease of pre-packaged produce. No guests in this episode, just real talk and shared experiences from a community devoted to fostering a love for the environment in our children. So, whether you're wrestling with a homegrown vegetable rebellion or simply looking for solidarity in the zero waste parenting quest, tune in for some heartfelt stories and strategies that just might resonate with your own family's sustainable saga.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome to Zero
Waste Imperfectly, the show thattalks about all things zero
waste with kids.
I'm your host, sheila, and I'mthe owner of Life Essentials
Refillery.
We now have two locations, onein Westlake Chapel and one in
South Tampa.
So I want to tell you a littlestory because I don't know how
you guys have, if you've everfaced a situation like this.
But this is what happened.
We have a small backyard and weare trying to grow things back

(00:22):
there.
We have a small backyard and weare trying to grow things back
there, and so yesterday weplucked some leaves from our
kale plant and from our kale andwe got some peppers, we got an
eggplant and some basil, somelongevity spinach, and I had it
all in the kitchen and I waswashing it and my kid looks at
me and she says why don't wejust buy the stuff in the bag?

(00:45):
This is way too much work.
I'm thinking where have I gonewrong?
It's terrible.
You spend all this time growingfood organically, doing your
best to make sure you're notusing any chemicals that might
hurt at anybody or anything, andthen you have your pollinators
happy and everything's great andthat you have this
nutritionally dense food thatyou could support your family

(01:06):
with.
And then your kid looks at youand says can we have the garbage
that comes in the bag like, no,it's awful, it's terrible.
And I remember when my kids weremuch smaller and we had Aunt
Jemima syrup and at that pointit was time for change and I
started buying real maple syrup.
One of my kids said the samething.
I don't want the real maplesyrup.

(01:28):
What we did is we looked at thelabel and we started reading
through everything that was onthe Aunt Jemima syrup.
We said, if you can't say it,we shouldn't be eating it.
Finally they came around andthey now eat real maple syrup.
But now I'm stuck here.
What did we do about growingstuff in our backyard?
Now I'm stuck here.
What did we do about growingstuff in our backyard?
They loved it when they werelittle, but now that they're
older and they see it actuallytakes a little bit of effort to

(01:49):
prepare everything, to make sureeverything's washed and clean,
and then you massage your kale.
You know all those fun thingsthat you take so much pride in.
When you've grown your ownvegetables, you're like woohoo,
I did it, it's made it, there'sno bugs in it, I got it.
There's no wilt, there's noanything.
My tomato didn't explode, mypepper has no worm in it,
everyone's happy.
And then your kid says, uh-uh,it's too much work, can't we get

(02:12):
the stuff in bags?
It's awful.
So I would love to hear fromyou, I would love for you to
share your stories about howyour kids react to your
homegrown products or they'renot products, I guess you'd say
produce your homegrown produceand how that transition went
from buying stuff at the grocerystore to growing your stuff in
the backyard.
For instance, if you havechickens at home and they're

(02:34):
used to seeing the eggs nice andclean in the package and you
bring them in from outside andthey are not clean, what do your
kids say?
Do they look at you and go,uh-uh, that's not happening.
I would love to hear yourstories.
You can.