I really enjoy watching these girls grow and change from stage to stage. The oldest girl will be six years old later this month. This past summer she progressed from screaming and having a hissy fit whenever a bug flew by her to actually catching and holding bugs, caterpillars, and worms. She picked up a tent caterpillar and kept it in a jar for weeks. The accompanying picture shows her hands full of creepy crawly things she collected one afternoon.
At some point in the summer she learned about worm castings and ant holes. She and her sister watched little brown ants "harvesting" a dead grasshopper. I explained how each ant would take a little tiny bite of the grasshopper and carry down into their nest so that they would have food for winter.
As the summer progressed she counted the jars of tomatoes, pickles, and beans that we canned. I told her that we were storing food for the winter just like the ants. Since we weren't canning all of these vegetables at the same time, the idea of putting food by for use later was talked about several times.
Just a couple weeks ago during deer season, she asked, "Grandpa, are you going to shoot a deer for winter?" I'm not a hunter at this point but I sure am proud of how my granddaughter has learned about putting food by for winter. That is an important concept and a big part of why we live where we do rather than in a suburban neighborhood someplace.
I believe it is important now, and may become more important in the future, to know how to grow and preserve food at home. If you are not familiar with the processes involved, I encourage you to learn about them.
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