What's in season? Peaches!

With my kitchen counter looking like this:

It must be peach season!

Learn all about peaches:

• Georgia is known as the Peach State, but most peaches in the US are grown in California
• Peaches grow on a tree and have a fuzzy outer skin
• Peaches are a good source of fiber and Vitamin C
• Learn more at the United States Department of Agriculture

 Read James and the Giant Peach and then have a peach party.

How to eat peaches:

• Just wash the peach and take a bite!
• Cut the peach into slices or bite size portions 
• If the fuzzy skin is too much texture, you can peel the peach before eating

Let’s expand to other foods and textures:

• Use peaches as a topping for yogurt, ice cream or oatmeal
• Make Peach Melba
• Drink a peach smoothie
• Eat peach flavored yogurt
• For dessert, try baked peaches
• Make a peach popsicle
• Make peach muffins
• Chew on some dried peaches
• Crunch on some peach crisps
• Taste canned peaches and compare to the flavor and texture of fresh peaches

Not ready to eat peaches? Here are some other ways to explore peaches:

• Tear up pieces of orange tissue paper and decorate a paper plate to look like a peach
• Make a peach pit pendant
• Touch the outside of a peach. Compare how the skin feels to other fruits.

What are your favorite peach activities and recipes?

What's in season? Blueberries!

I just recently discovered blueberries. They had somehow ended up on my list of foods that I don’t eat (along with coconut, tapioca, and anything with a custard-like consistency). I’m always hearing about how blueberries are a super food, filled with antioxidants, so I picked some up at Trader Joe’s and decided to give them a try. What a great decision that was! Juicy and sweet, I can’t get enough!

Learn all about blueberries at The Blueberry Council.

Read about blueberries in this classic children’s book, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.

How to eat blueberries:

• With your fingers, of course!
• Use toothpicks or fun appetizer sticks to pick up the blueberries (and work on fine motor skills, too!)

Let’s expand to other foods and textures:

• Top your plain or vanilla yogurt with a handful of blueberries

• Blueberry flavored yogurt
• Make some blueberry muffins – measure, pour, and stir for a sensory and strengthening experience!
• Add some blueberries to your pancakes – create a design or smiley face in your pancake
• Drink a blueberry smoothie
• Make a blueberry popsicle
• Spread some blueberry jam on a piece of toast, an English muffin, or a rice cake
• Crunch on some freeze dried blueberries

Not ready to eat blueberries? Here are some fun ways to explore:

• Build with blueberries

• Paint with blueberries
• Color with blueberries

• Count your blueberries
• Last, but not least, I love this one…go fishing for blueberries!

What is your favorite blueberry activity or favorite way to eat blueberries?

Welcome to "What's in season?"

Today I'm introducing a new, hopefully semi-regular post called What's in season? In this post I will highlight a food that is currently in season (i.e. affordable and tasty!) and ideas for exploring that food.

When expanding a child's food repertoire, it is so important to teach the child about the food and to provide opportunities to explore the multisensory aspects of the new food. I love food and I believe that trying new foods should always be fun!

Here we go...first up, blueberries!