Fall Activities:
From Field to Table

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Did you have breakfast this morning?

What did you eat?

Cereal? Toast? Eggs? Rice? Fruit?

How did that food get to your table?

Sure, maybe your mom or dad fixed the meal. They got the food from the cupboard or from the refrigerator. Those things probably came from the grocery store.

How did it get to the store? Where did it begin?

What are you eating anyway?

All our food comes from the soil, directly or indirectly. It either comes from plants or animals. (Animals grow by eating plants.) Plants and animals have changed over time, due to the mixing of cultures, and also because of scientific manipulation of seeds. Most of the plants we eat today are not the same as those eaten hundreds of years ago. There are more varieties of each plant, and in some cases, the colors of the fruits have even changed! The corn we eat in summer, for example, would not look or taste as it does without manipulation by human beings. Carrot roots that were eaten long ago were purple and yellow, not orange!

Over thousands of years, through a series of manipulations including gathering, domestication, cultivation, and hybridization, people created the plants and animals that are produced today.

Every society has had to figure out how to transform plants to edible foods since not all foods are eaten raw. There are only so many ways to process food. They include: drying, smoking, freezing, salting, and cooking. Many foods require more than one process.

The idea of cuisine , the intentional preparation of food in a particular style by a particular culture, has also been developed over time. Traditional recipes and festive rituals developed and were passed from one generation to the next. Food became a social factor. Food preferences and customs reinforced a culture's identity while distinguishing it from another culture.

• After having a discussion with your class about the parts of a plant, begin to chart the parts of a plant you are eating. Keep track of how many times a fruit or vegetable has been used in a different way. (For example, a tomato: juice, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, sliced fresh on a sandwich or in a salad, sun-dried in a casserole, etc.) Notice that there are several ways that different cultures use the same food item. Also take note of the different ways people store or prepare their food.

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Books to Read:
The First Book of Food. Ida Scheib, revised by Carole E. Welker, Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data, 1974
Corn is Maize. Aliki, Crowell, 1976.

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