Into the Mouths of Babes

By Joanne Giza

“What’s important is not what goes into your mouth,” my bubbe used to admonish me when I was a child, “but what comes out of it.” Undoubtedly, I must have said something less than respectful to my mother, in my grandmother's estimation anyway, to make her lecture me like that. Interestingly, I’ve always attributed that saying to her, but apparently it comes from Jesus in the New Testament (which would have been a surprise to her, I can tell you.)
All of that aside, however, the theme of this issue of Baltimore's Child is that, in fact, what goes into your mouth is important. (Sorry, Bubb.) In recent years we have all become increasingly conscious of that truth, in large part, perhaps, because of the rise in obesity rates and recognition of the large carbon footprint we leave when we consume foods from around the globe.
So, we decided to visit some local, healthy food sources. And, in this case, local can be as close as your backyard, as JoAnne Broadwater points out in her article about the growing trend of keeping backyard chickens, “The Buck-Buck Stops Here: Backyard Chickens Join the Family.”
In “How Now Brown Cow,” writer Joyce Heid takes us on a tour of South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, describing its milking operation along with the daily life of the farm’s other residents, including chickens and pigs. South Mountain offers a wonderful opportunity for kids to see a working farm up close and enjoy fresh cheese, eggs, chicken, and ice cream.
If beef is more to your and your family’s taste, then you’ll want to read Mike Strzelecki’s article “Where the Bison (Not the Buffalo) Roam,” which relates his visit to the Gunpowder Bison and Trading Company in Monkton, with a nod toward the health benefits of eating bison meat.
And we're also very pleased this month to debut a new regular column, Let's Eat, which will look at the issue of food from the perspective of local families. Kit Waskom Pollard, a young mother in Towson who writes a weekly restaurant review for The Baltimore Sun, introduces herself to you, our readers, in her inaugural column, “New Column Will Cover Food from Soup to Nuts (Literally).” She came up with that headline herself; we love her already.
Also, while we haven’t included local sources of produce in this issue, keep in mind that there are a slew of area farms that invite you to come pick your own fruits and vegetables, once again helping kids appreciate how those strawberries and tomatoes wind up in the refrigerator. You can find a list of those farms online, at www.pickyourown.org/MD.htm.
Of course, in lieu of a day trip to a farm, you could always just head to your local farmers’ market. Without the distractions of processed cereals in brightly colored boxes and snacks full of trans fat in snazzy bags, it can be just as eye-opening and much more nutritious an outing. BC

© Baltimore’s Child Inc. June 2012