Can there be anything more appealing to a 10-year-old than playing with fire or messing with knives?
Not to the students at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's recent day camp.
"I can make my own pizza and put only the things I like on it, like a whole lot of cheese," said Grace Hering, a sprightly 11-year-old, back for her second camp.
Cooking instills a sense of mastery and independence -- and it offers an education with lessons in reading and following directions, in math (think division and multiplication), in patience and precision. But beyond any of that, cooking with kids is just plain fun.
Whipping cream, chopping herbs and kneading bread can be touchstones to our own childhoods, conjuring memories of those aunts, friends or grandparents who took the time to show us what they knew. Cooking is learned through doing. No book or printed recipe, no matter how inspiring, can replace the hand placed gently over another's to guide a knife or to feel the texture of well-kneaded bread dough.
Jenny Breen, resident cooking school instructor at the arboretum, plans all of its cooking programs, for students from age 5 to adults. Her class for children this summer drew on the vegetables and herbs that grew prolifically right outside the kitchen door of the Arboretum Learning Center. She crafted a curriculum that embraced the world's cuisines with a variety of unfamiliar flavors for students to explore. She knew that when kids make food from scratch, it's easier to persuade them to taste something new.
Breen is working toward a master's degree in public health and nutrition at the University of Minnesota and is an owner of Good Life Catering. With two young daughters at home -- Solana, 7, and Frances, 5, -- she understands how to cook good-tasting, nutritious food with a child. Her classes embrace a fresh, whole-food ethic, and throughout the kids' program, she discussed where food comes from, how it grows and why we need to be mindful of the water, air and earth that nourish this planet and, of course, us.
"It's sometimes astonishing to see how much these young cooks learn once they become involved in the kitchen. They are able to make these kinds of connections spontaneously. It is active education as they learn not just about cooking, but appreciating our food and where it comes from. They quickly become advocates for being responsible cooks and eaters," said Breen.
To this end, the students learned about the wheat in our area, and how it is harvested and milled into flour. Then they ground their own flour to make the pizza and bread they ate for lunch. They talked about corn, its history and importance to our economy today, the many forms in which we eat it -- fresh, dried and ground into flour. And they made corn and black bean salsa and corn tortillas.
They left the camp with their own recipe books fashioned from the meals they made in camp as well as those they contributed from their own families. Perhaps the most important lesson Breen instilled was an awareness of where food comes from, how to use it respectfully and appreciate the good things close to home.
"Several parents have told me that, on leaving class, they were urged by their kids to stop at the co-op or farm stand to pick up ingredients so that they could make dinner for their families. One mom told me that her younger children were now excited about eating vegetables because their sister was making dinner," Breen said.
More children's programs
The arboretum offers a variety of classes for families and children throughout the year. For more information, call 952-443-1400 or check out the calendar online at www.arboretum.umn.edu.
Beth Dooley is a Minneapolis author and cooking instructor.