Children learn to love homegrown

Three-year-old Kaden Slater says he like tending to the veggie garden at Le Smileys Early Learning Centre along with the other children and teachers (inset).

Chris Ison Rokcgarden

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WHEN children at Le Smileys Early Learning Centre in Gracemere were asked what they wanted to grow in their vegetable garden, a few suggested sausages and chips.

Fortunately they've learned to live with the beetroot, tomatoes, baby pumpkin, corn and lettuce that they have tended to since February.

“They have loved the experience especially watching the corn and lettuce which have grown quickly. Every time the children come down they eat the lettuce leaves so we have got a bunch of rabbits,” group leader Donna Noorman said.

She said the children had learned about where food comes from.

“A lot of the kids did not know tomatoes grew on the vine,” she said.

They planned to make pumpkin soup with the baby pumpkin and tomato relish out of the tomatoes.

When summer comes around they'll plant a completely new garden including passionfruit.

Owner Michelle O'Rourke said as well as the vegetables, the children had also helped to incubate chickens over Easter and had learned to throw their food scraps into compost bins.