🍅How to Make Your Kids Want to Eat Vegetables - 100% Guaranteed!

🌱I couldn't sleep last night when I realized I had to show this to all of you. This is hands down the best thing that has come out of my many years of gardening!

Oct 05, 2025

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This photo pretty much says it all:

a young girl holding a tomato — Mio and her Akers West Virginia tomato

And here it is, the irrefutable proof. And it’s so simple, it’s ridiculous. If you show your kids the wonder of planting a seed, let them water and tend the plants that come up, and pick the fruits of their labor, this will generate a lifetime of deep appreciation for food. And they will LOVE it! How could they not? Growing food is still magical to me, even decades later.

And they will absolutely want to eat their very own homegrown vegetables that they planted and grew themselves! Here’s a gratuitous glut of photographic proof. The kids are grown today, and because of their formative years in the garden, they’ll try any vegetable with a totally open mind, in cuisines from around the world, and they’ll enjoy it!

There’s no deeper gratitude I could have than this. It’s simple gustatory gold.

First, here’s how old they are now. This will help you put into perspective why I’ve yelled at them again today for growing up when you see the rest of the photos.

young adults posing with 2 dogs and a sign that says "Brothers 4 Sale" — Brothers 4 Sale these days: Camille (Mio), Remy (Ray), Pascal (Pinty), Leo (Corn), and Sophie (Heen)

Why did they have to keep growing up??? I’m so mad. Once they give me grandkids, and only then, can I possibly be appeased.

kids with a dog and a wagon, and a sign saying "Brothers 4 Sale" — Brothers 4 Sale back in the day

Okay, here’s the absolute botanical magic. There was nothing I had to do other than show them the way. If you want your kids to love food, this is the way to do it. The garden does all of the work for you. And wham! Suddenly you have full-grown, open-minded and food-curious kids.

I’m just going to let the photos tell the story. And then I’ll go and yell at them again for growing up.

It’s so, so important for them to know where food comes from. And that you don’t need chemicals to help it grow. And that sprinkling on some love goes a long way to help it thrive.

Ok, here we go, in random order of veggie-tending joy:

kids posing with just-picked beets — The kids with their just-picked beets

a kid and mom and a large tomato — Pinty and me with his Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter tomato

a young girl sitting in a plant pot — Mio growing in a pot

a young boy watering poppies — Leo watering the poppies

a young girl planting seeds — Mio planting seeds

a girl eating carrots next to a garden — Sophie and her just-picked carrots

a boy holding a tomato — Pascal and his Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato

a young girl holding 2 heirloom tomatoes — Mio and her heirloom tomatoes

a boy holding cucumbers and peppers — Remy and his cucumbers and Jimmy Nardello peppers

a young girl and a variety of carrots lying on the grass — Mio and her carrots

kids posing in front of sunflowers and nasturtiums — Having fun by the sunflowers and nasturtiums

a girl in front of a veggie garden — Mio checking out the towering height of her veggies

a boy holding a bowl of just-picked beans — Leo and his beans

a young girl trimming mint plants — Mio trimming the mint

a boy holding a bowl of peppers — Pinty and his just-picked peppers

a young girl holding hardy geranium flowers — Mio and her hardy geraniums

some kids and their just-picked fall veggies — The kids and their fantastic fall veggies

a young girl tasting some freshly-picked veggies — Mio tasting her tomato, pepper, and ground cherry harvest

some kid hands holding freshly-picked carrots — Tiny hands checking out the carrot harvest

a girl holding just-picked tomatoes — Mio and her heirloom tomatoes

a boy and some planters in a parking lot — Pinty and his planters to bring home

a young girl holding eggplants — Mio and her eggplants

a girl with eggplants and a boy with cucumbers from the garden — Sophie with her eggplants and Pinty with his cucumbers

a young boy eating a carrot — Leo tasting one of his carrots

a girl tending some nasturtium flowers — Mio and her nasturtiums

two girls holding a giant zucchini — Sophie and Mio with a zucchini almost as big as Mio!

a girl with a just-picked pea pod — Mio and her pea pod

a boy and girl in a garden with fall leaves — Mio and Leo tending the garden in fall

a girl eating a just-picked carrot — Mio tasting one of her carrots

a woman standing in front of a raised bed garden — Shell working the garden glam

And to close it out with me all soiled and happy in the garden back in the day.

I hope this made you smile. I just treasure these photos. I’m so very grateful to the garden for giving the kids this precious gift of food love and appreciation.

As always, I’m so very grateful to have you here with me. Please check out my heirloom gardening and vegan cooking blog Shovel and Crunch, and follow my social media pages. And sharing with others is most welcome. Thanks!❤️

And you can check out my gardening newsletter adventures on my Substack page. Thanks for being part of the garden. 🌿

🌱Shell at Shovel and Crunch

🍅How to Make Your Kids Want to Eat Vegetables - 100% Guaranteed!

🌱I couldn't sleep last night when I realized I had to show this to all of you. This is hands down the best thing that has come out of my many years of gardening!

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