Farm Week basically became Where Food Comes From Week and since it involved food, I was happy.
Monday
I was not super on-the-ball with my planning this week, so we started off slow, with a trip to the library. I wish I had spent more time researching kids' books, because there are SO MANY KICK ASS children's books out there and I feel like we mostly got mediocre ones.
Anyhoo, we came home with
Field Trip Day by Lynn Plourde
Can Hens Give Milk? by Joan Betty Stuchner
We're Going to the Farmers' Market by Stefan Page (loved this one; to the point, nice graphics)
A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Stoeke (loved this one, too; girls thought it was funny)
Dora's Eggs by Julie Sykes
Barn Storm by Charles Ghigna
Chester, the Worldly Pig by Bill Peet (a classic, that I had never read, with a cute twist at the end)
Tuesday
Milking a cow… sort of: this was hilarious… for me.
You take a rubber glove, fill the glove with water, tie it off like a balloon, prick a needle into one of the fingers, and try to milk it. (Thanks to The Inspired Treehouse for the idea.)
I mean, we've all seeeeeeeeen a cow being milked. It's in movies… like Heidi… and there was that time at the state fair… and… it looks easy.
It is NOT easy. And this wasn't even a cow.
I tried it first, to gauge how difficult it was going to be. My 14-year-old young friends coached me in the obvious technique, "You just squeeze and pull," while the smaller ladies looked on.
Well, yes, but no. A) There's definitely some hand strength involved. B) There is definitely some hand-finger coordination involved.
After a good 20 tries, I got a system worked out. The twinsies (the teenagers involved in the story) each had a hack at it, totally backing me up on the perceived ease versus actual difficulty. They were rock stars about helping the little ladies get a squeeze or two out.
Total time: 10 minutes.
Lesson learned: farmers are awesome, especially old school, possibly Amish ones who still do this by hand.
Wednesday
Making pigs: thanks to Serendipitous Discovery for a cute, not lame farm craft.
Along the lines of the amazing Craft a Day book, I drew some easy shapes for the girls to cut out and assemble to make cute little pigs.
Total time: 12 minutes.
Lesson learned: let it go. My perfectionist tendencies are hard at work RELAXING and letting the girls do it themselves. GOOD TIMES.
Thursday
Farm songs and cookies: I found this promising looking site called Let's Play Kids' Music with a handful of farm songs listed.
I was a little too excited, as the short songs are played once on a xylophone in a video and the lyrics are a little too far away from the play button to process lyrics and music at the same time.
[scroll]
[scroll and read]
[scroll and click]
[gah, what are the words again?]
[dammit, the song's over and still don't know the words!]
[scroll]
With no vocals along with the xylophone, ye of non-singing talent were a bit lost.
Meh.
We made cookies and talked about where all the ingredients came from.
WINNING.
Sunday
Usually it's Field Trip Friday, but I wanted to hit up the St. Paul Farmers' Market, so we headed out Sunday morning.
It was awesome and I highly recommend bringing small, adorable creatures with you. One darling lady kept giving them grape tomatoes, we got thirds on apple samples, and the maple syrup guys tried to get them sugared up with syrup shots before we left.
The highlight? Brussel sprouts. I think it's the stalk gimmick, but since it will involve bacon and beer in preparation, I don't care. If the toddlers claim it was their favorite thing, I'll take it.
How was your week? Where do you do food shopping? What's your favorite farmers' market? If you say Minneapolis, we are going to have a discussion.
Riot and Frolic 
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