Kids' Share FAQ
Q: This is such a fun idea! What’s included in the Kids’ Share?
A: Your kids will receive their very own third-bushel Small Share sized box of veggies each week -- about half the size & volume of our Classic Farm Share box.
Each week’s Kids' Share is themed around a vegetable or cooking technique (for example one week the theme might be “broccoli and cauliflower” and another week might be “cooking vegetables for breakfast”). Along with the veggies comes a weekly e-newsletter with kid-friendly recipes (plus fun tips and activities), and a surprise gift (such as a cooking utensil or a seeding kit). And, of course, there are our tasty vegetables, enough to make two or three of the week’s recipes.
Q: What is the difference between the Spring Kids’ Share and the Autumn Kids’ Share?
A: While our Autumn Kids’ Share focuses on cooking peak-season crops during the bountiful fall harvest, the Spring Kids’ Share is gardening themed while also enjoying delicious spring greens and early-season vegetables which start popping as the weather warms and the daylight lengthens.
Like in our Spring Pantry Share for grown-ups, Spring Kids’ Share members will also enjoy a selection of our favorite local pantry items like pickling spices, maple syrup, and honey during the course of the season. And, they’ll receive weekly seeding kits along with their vegetables to encourage gardening at home. Meantime, Autumn Kids’ Share members will receive a complimentary year-long subscription to ChopChop Magazine (published quarterly) just in time for the school year.
Q: Why do you offer a Kids’ Share?
A: We believe that healthy eating is a habit best started in childhood — that getting kids into the kitchen and cooking with farm-fresh veggies can be a building block toward life-long, joyful relationships to healthy food. Chef Ana, Farmer Chris, and their daughter, Siena, are pleased to offer a CSA share that makes it fun for kids to cook with, and for, their families.
Plus, we believe that getting kids cooking is a great, all-round, real-world learning lab: cooking builds confidence and creativity, uses and develops reading, processing, logic, math, and art skills. And, kids learn what a pleasure it is to create food, and to share it with others.
Q: Is the Kids’ Share Siena‘s idea, perhaps?
A: About a decade ago, when Siena was about eight years old, ChopChop Family‘s Sally Sampson and Chef Ana brainstormed the Siena Farms’ Kids’ Share — a farm share JUST for kids — during a conversation about how wonderful, and important, it is to get kids into the kitchen. When Ana mentioned it to Siena, she was “all-in” and left a note on her dad’s desk, reading “Kids’ Share is a MUST!” Farmer Chris fully agreed, and Siena decided to draw her own version of the Siena Farms’ logo (pictured above) just for the Kids’ Share. And, that’s how we started offering what we believe to be the first kid-focused farm share in the country!
Q: Who/what is ChopChop Family, and why the partnership with Siena Farms?
A: Sally Sampson, the founder of ChopChop Family, is an award-winning cookbook author, and, in our opinion, an unusually creative thinker. ChopChop Family publishes the Watertown-based ChopChop Magazine, which is distributed by subscription and through thousands of pediatrician’s practices, nationwide.
Sally’s work has garnered kudos and support from major kids’ health initiatives and advocates, including Michelle Obama. ChopChop Magazine received a well-deserved James Beard Foundation’s award for Publication of the Year in 2013.
ChopChop’s mission statement is simple and persuasive: “Our mission is to inspire and teach families to cook and eat real food together.”
We feel so lucky to have the opportunity to work with Sally and the ChopChop team to bring the Siena Farms’ Kids’ Share from our fields to your kitchen.
Q: Awesome, this all sounds so fun… But what if my kid is a picky eater?
A: Sally tells us that she’s seen picky eaters, time after time, become more open and adventuresome when they are engaged with making food for themselves. We couldn't agree more!
Q: What age group is the Kids’ Share suited for?
A: We compile the recipes in each week’s share with 6- to 12-year-olds in mind. But, we’ve heard from parents that both teens and younger kids, even toddlers, have really enjoyed the share over the years.
Q: If I have more than one kid, should I be thinking about one Kids’ Share for each of them?
A: We think that each kid in your family might enjoy having their own Kids’ Share, but of course, Sharing is great fun as well!
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