After growing a HUGE amount of wheatgrass a couple weeks ago, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Move it into our garden? Eat it? Share it with friends? Carissa, one of our readers, suggested folding some of this vitamin-packed juice into a toddler-friendly smoothie, so I did what any sane person would do and bought a wheatgrass juicer. I also want my children to understand the process of growing a plant from seeds to, ahem, eating said plant. But have you tried wheatgrass juice? I wasn’t even sure how much I could handle!
We harvested the grass by cutting it about 1″ above the soil line, and then we fed it into the little hand-cranked machine. My daughter has been a devoted and obsessed fan of cutting things with scissors, and welcomed the opportunity to cut the plants. She tired of it after five minutes (did I mention there was A LOT of grass?!), and then she wanted to man the machine. That was the fun job, after all. She got very good at telling me just how much grass to feed into it for the perfect spin, and admired the juice as it dripped into the collection bowl.
Despite my effort to mix the dark green juice into orange juice (she’s not a big fan of smoothies), it never made it into the toddler’s mouth. If she hadn’t been part of the juicing process, casinos not on gamstop I may have been able to sneak it in, but she saw my not-so-sneaky plan coming from a mile away.
The plants produced three hefty shots of wheatgrass that her dad and I devoured. Not really, but we did get a huge vitamin hit that day! Yum. I learned that you can get two batches of wheatgrass out of a set of seeds, so we’ll harvest more in a couple days. And maybe after drinking wheatgrass becomes the norm around here, my daughter will join the revolution and enjoy a glass with us. Cheers.
We’re vacationing at a lake house in the mountains right now and my 2 year old “helped” us make dinner last night by washing vegetables in the sink. It kept him occupied for an entire hour and he loved it!
P.S. Lovin’ the look of your site!
A whole hour! My daughter also adores spending time at the sink, and will often make up reasons to clean things just so she can get wet 🙂 And thanks for noticing the changes…I’ve been working on it, trying to obtain a cleaner look. The feedback is helpful. Enjoy the rest of your vacation!
I’m assuming wheat grass isn’t something I can just throw into my smoothie machine, eh? What about into my Cuisinart? I’d hate to buy another kitchen appliance…unless that crank doubles as a grain mill. Do tell!
I know, I felt the same way. We live in a tiny house, and I’m actually in the middle of a huge purge, so buying more appliances pretty much violates my new philosophy. But, after trying to determine if my juicer or blender could fill in, it appears that nothing else does the trick like a wheatgrass juicer. The wheatgrass juicer is a masticating juicer, meaning that it crushes the vegetable instead of shredding it, as a centrifugal juicer would. When it crushes it, is squeezes all of the juice out. As an aside, I did see a grain mill attachment for an expensive masticating juicer, but I’m not in that market. I’d love to know what you’d do with a grain mill?!
I have the same question as Regina! Our wheat grass is beautiful and getting taller now, and I was wondering if there was a way I could use it without investing in another appliance?
The other thing you can do with the grass to get the juice out is chew it!! If not, this is juicer I got, in case you’re interested: ttp://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Juicer-Manual-Powered-Wheatgrass/dp/B0002LY8PA
Participate, oh, that’s funny. 😉 I haven’t baked by myself in seven years or so. And with toddlers, if you can find a way for them to help make dinner, dinner gets made, y’know? Tonight G “helped” me cut the onions for sauce. She went and got the big cans of tomatoes (the cans are on a shelf she can reach) and brought them over with two hands. They’re heavy! She felt so helpful and proud. Earlier this week we made cheddar fish crackers–always there’s at least one kid helping roll out dough, cut out fishies, salt the crackers. My challenge now is when all three kids want to be involved. It makes for a crowded kitchen sometimes and I have to be creative to make sure everybody has a job to do!
I also second washing vegetables. For Small Hands has a nice child-sized potato scrubber: http://www.forsmallhands.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_2_12
I love those drinking glasses, where are they from?
aren’t they cute? not too practical, but we found them at crate and barrel.