Food for Thought
just for kids
It’s that time of year again: harvest and thanksgiving. Farmers are harvesting or have already harvested their crops. Gardeners have picked their produce. Let’s all celebrate! People have held food festivals as long as crops have been grown. They know that they’ll have enough to eat
through the long winter, so they celebrate. Some people call it Harvest Festival. We call it Thanksgiving because we thank God for making the food grow. Many of us sit down to a big feast with family and friends. We thank the cook and enjoy turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.
But we don’t always think about the wonderful miracle of growth that God makes happen. So this year, let’s take a closer look at some of the plants our food comes from and hold our own real thanksgiving.
et Feet Cranberries HavetsW that like to get their
plan Cranberry bushes are low, scrubby of water, so they grow in ty plen feet wet. Their roots need bogs and swampy areas. ripe cranberries You’d think that finding and picking that’s not the case. would be a soggy, wet, dirty job. But s an air pocket As a cranberry ripens, it develop a ripe cranberry inside. So when it’s ripe, it floats. If berry floatfalls from the bush, you can see a red ing on top of the water. fairly easy. That makes finding ripe cranberries yet: they flood Cranberry farmers make it easier cranberry bogs at harvest time. Even without the flooding, red ripe cranberries floating in a bog can be spotted by people and other creatures. Wild cranberries feed wild animals. Maybe that’s why God made them red!
Life The Kernel othfat’s been cut off the cob, take au’clllosseere
eat corn of the kernel, yo Next time you at the bottom n ow D . yellow. That el rn rnel is darker ke look at one ke e th it d un s it most of part. Aro corn. That give e a light yellow th of f uf st is the food darker yellow corn. It’s the the nutrition. d the life of the is t the flavor an ar p el rn rious stuff llow ke at’s the myste That lighter ye Th . nt la p rn co uts into a part that spro od for life. can’t make. e d can make fo o G of life that w ly n O e. lif make God for life. Only God can est. And thank rv ha r fo s er Thank farm
30 THE BANNER | November 2015 | thebanner.org
Illustration by Scott Holladay
Food for Thought
Queen Anne’s . . . Carrot,s? don’t
s Lace looks like You know what Queen Anne’ r. After the plant dies, you? It blooms in late summe like lace. it simply dries. It still looks y flower—you may Look around for that big lac Anne’s Lace nearby. be able to find some Queen or along roadsides. If Keep your eyes open in fields m the earth. Pull from you find one, pull it gently fro need to pull the root the bottom of the plant. You out of the earth. r hand, smell it. What Once you have the root in you ybe only slightly? Smell it vegetable can you smell, ma Anne’s Lace is the original again. Yes, it’s a carrot! Queen call carrot today. source of the vegetable we h e developed carrot plants wit Over the years, scientists hav : rot car t firs t. But God gave us the a bigger, more tender roo Queen Anne’s Lace!
Flavors, Spices, and More
hake flavor— What’s your favorite milks ocolate? Whatstrawberry, vanilla, or ch e from a plant. ever it is, that flavor cam s from strawStrawberry flavor come berry plants, of course. m the cacao Chocolate flavor comes fro in Central and tree. These trees grow d pods of cacao South America. The see The chocolate trees taste like chocolate. m mashed or syrup you love comes fro e seeds. ground or processed tre nilla orchids. va m fro s Vanilla come is flavored with Your vanilla ice cream . processed vanilla seeds m the bark of fro s me co Cinnamon rally in Southa tree that grows natu east Asia. m Southeast Pepper also comes fro orn is one seed Asia. One black pepperc ws best in hot, of a woody vine that gro lly it was found humid places. Origina equator. in rainforests near the ginally from Medicines also came ori ed to take an plants. Next time you ne fever or chase aspirin to bring down a thanks for the away a headache, give tree that gave bark of a certain willow us our original aspirin. look at your This Thanksgiving Day, all the things table and thank God for that help us live well.
Plant a Potato If you’ve ever had to peel potatoes for supper, you know what potato eyes are. If you don’t know what eyes are, go to your kitchen and find an unpeeled potato. Look closely at it. See those little dents and hard spots? Those are potato eyes. The eyes are where the sprouts come out. The sprouts look like little white roots growing from the potatoes. That’s exactly what they are . . . roots! Gardeners plant a potato patch by cutting up potato es with eyes. They leave an eye (or a sprouted eye) in each part. Then they plant the parts into loose soil. Each potato section sprouts into a new potato plant. You can grow your own potatoes. In many parts of North America, it’s too cold outside to do that now. But you can plant a potato inside and watch it grow. Here’s how. 1. Find a tall clear 2-liter plastic bottle. Clean it well. 2. Cut off the upper third of the bottle. You should have a tall, straight clear bottle. 3. Using a nail, poke a few small holes into the bottom of the bottle. 4. Fill the bottle about ¾ full with loose soil. 5. Find a small potato with eyes in it. If you can find a small potato with sprouts, that’s better yet. This is your seed potato. 6. Push the seed potato gently into the soil inside the bottle. 7. Cover it with a little more soil, keep the soil damp, and watch it grow.
Joanne De Jonge is a freelance writer and a former U.S. National Park ranger. She attends West Valley Christian Fellowship in Phoenix, Ariz.
thebanner.org | November 2015 | THE BANNER 31
It’s that time of year again: harvest and thanksgiving. Farmers are harvesting or have already harvested their crops. Gardeners have picked their produce. Let’s all celebrate! People have held food festivals as long as crops have been grown. They know that they’ll have enough to eat
through the long winter, so they celebrate. Some people call it Harvest Festival. We call it Thanksgiving because we thank God for making the food grow. Many of us sit down to a big feast with family and friends. We thank the cook and enjoy turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.
But we don’t always think about the wonderful miracle of growth that God makes happen. So this year, let’s take a closer look at some of the plants our food comes from and hold our own real thanksgiving.
et Feet Cranberries HavetsW that like to get their
plan Cranberry bushes are low, scrubby of water, so they grow in ty plen feet wet. Their roots need bogs and swampy areas. ripe cranberries You’d think that finding and picking that’s not the case. would be a soggy, wet, dirty job. But s an air pocket As a cranberry ripens, it develop a ripe cranberry inside. So when it’s ripe, it floats. If berry floatfalls from the bush, you can see a red ing on top of the water. fairly easy. That makes finding ripe cranberries yet: they flood Cranberry farmers make it easier cranberry bogs at harvest time. Even without the flooding, red ripe cranberries floating in a bog can be spotted by people and other creatures. Wild cranberries feed wild animals. Maybe that’s why God made them red!
Life The Kernel othfat’s been cut off the cob, take au’clllosseere
eat corn of the kernel, yo Next time you at the bottom n ow D . yellow. That el rn rnel is darker ke look at one ke e th it d un s it most of part. Aro corn. That give e a light yellow th of f uf st is the food darker yellow corn. It’s the the nutrition. d the life of the is t the flavor an ar p el rn rious stuff llow ke at’s the myste That lighter ye Th . nt la p rn co uts into a part that spro od for life. can’t make. e d can make fo o G of life that w ly n O e. lif make God for life. Only God can est. And thank rv ha r fo s er Thank farm
30 THE BANNER | November 2015 | thebanner.org
Illustration by Scott Holladay
Food for Thought
Queen Anne’s . . . Carrot,s? don’t
s Lace looks like You know what Queen Anne’ r. After the plant dies, you? It blooms in late summe like lace. it simply dries. It still looks y flower—you may Look around for that big lac Anne’s Lace nearby. be able to find some Queen or along roadsides. If Keep your eyes open in fields m the earth. Pull from you find one, pull it gently fro need to pull the root the bottom of the plant. You out of the earth. r hand, smell it. What Once you have the root in you ybe only slightly? Smell it vegetable can you smell, ma Anne’s Lace is the original again. Yes, it’s a carrot! Queen call carrot today. source of the vegetable we h e developed carrot plants wit Over the years, scientists hav : rot car t firs t. But God gave us the a bigger, more tender roo Queen Anne’s Lace!
Flavors, Spices, and More
hake flavor— What’s your favorite milks ocolate? Whatstrawberry, vanilla, or ch e from a plant. ever it is, that flavor cam s from strawStrawberry flavor come berry plants, of course. m the cacao Chocolate flavor comes fro in Central and tree. These trees grow d pods of cacao South America. The see The chocolate trees taste like chocolate. m mashed or syrup you love comes fro e seeds. ground or processed tre nilla orchids. va m fro s Vanilla come is flavored with Your vanilla ice cream . processed vanilla seeds m the bark of fro s me co Cinnamon rally in Southa tree that grows natu east Asia. m Southeast Pepper also comes fro orn is one seed Asia. One black pepperc ws best in hot, of a woody vine that gro lly it was found humid places. Origina equator. in rainforests near the ginally from Medicines also came ori ed to take an plants. Next time you ne fever or chase aspirin to bring down a thanks for the away a headache, give tree that gave bark of a certain willow us our original aspirin. look at your This Thanksgiving Day, all the things table and thank God for that help us live well.
Plant a Potato If you’ve ever had to peel potatoes for supper, you know what potato eyes are. If you don’t know what eyes are, go to your kitchen and find an unpeeled potato. Look closely at it. See those little dents and hard spots? Those are potato eyes. The eyes are where the sprouts come out. The sprouts look like little white roots growing from the potatoes. That’s exactly what they are . . . roots! Gardeners plant a potato patch by cutting up potato es with eyes. They leave an eye (or a sprouted eye) in each part. Then they plant the parts into loose soil. Each potato section sprouts into a new potato plant. You can grow your own potatoes. In many parts of North America, it’s too cold outside to do that now. But you can plant a potato inside and watch it grow. Here’s how. 1. Find a tall clear 2-liter plastic bottle. Clean it well. 2. Cut off the upper third of the bottle. You should have a tall, straight clear bottle. 3. Using a nail, poke a few small holes into the bottom of the bottle. 4. Fill the bottle about ¾ full with loose soil. 5. Find a small potato with eyes in it. If you can find a small potato with sprouts, that’s better yet. This is your seed potato. 6. Push the seed potato gently into the soil inside the bottle. 7. Cover it with a little more soil, keep the soil damp, and watch it grow.
Joanne De Jonge is a freelance writer and a former U.S. National Park ranger. She attends West Valley Christian Fellowship in Phoenix, Ariz.
thebanner.org | November 2015 | THE BANNER 31
