Some vegetables seem pretty ordinary until you slow down and look at them a little differently. Tomatoes are a good example. From the outside, a tomato doesn't tell us much about what's happening inside. But cut one open and suddenly there are seeds, chambers, juicy spaces, and patterns to explore. This week, our tomatoes gave us a simple question: What's happening inside a tomato? As with many of our CSA explorations, this isn't about turning a vegetable into a complicated l

Some vegetables are easy to overlook because we see them so often. Celery was one of those vegetables in our CSA box this week. It's familiar, simple, and usually something we chop up without thinking much about it, but when we slowed down and looked closely, celery gave us a surprisingly good opportunity to explore plant structure, water movement, and how plants transport water from one place to another. That's one of the things I love about seasonal learning. The vegetables

CSA pickup day has become one of my favorite weekly routines. We head to the farm, see what is growing, choose our vegetables, and then decide which one will give us something interesting to explore. What started as a simple weekly pickup has become an anchor for seasonal learning. Each box gives us a chance to slow down, notice what is growing around us, explore a little STEM, and cook something together. In this series, I'll share what we received, one simple STEM explorati

This week brought a few unexpected treats for our CSA pickup, purple onions, golden beets and bell peppers! Even though the pick‑up looks a lot like last week’s, the produce itself has shifted in tiny ways: color, texture, size, and patterns that show how midsummer growth is progressing. These little changes make for easy, kid‑friendly STEM observations as we unpack and cook. The bell peppers were especially fun to explore. Cut one open and you suddenly have a natural little

Midsummer boxes have a certain momentum to them, the kind where plants start showing the results of long, warm days and cool high‑desert nights. This week’s produce isn’t about big surprises; it’s about watching vegetables settle into their seasonal stride. Roots firm up, herbs hit peak fragrance, and the compact patterns inside things like cauliflower become more defined. It’s a great moment to slow down and notice how each plant responds to the steady rhythm of August, turn

Some CSA weeks bring big surprises, and others offer steady consistency, which is actually great for noticing small details. Even though this week’s pick up looks a lot like last week’s, the produce itself has shifted in tiny ways: color, texture, size, and patterns that show how midsummer growth is progressing. These little changes make for easy, kid‑friendly STEM observations as we unpack and cook. In this series, I'll share what we received, one simple STEM exploration, an

Family trail guide for Indian Ford Meadow in Sisters, Oregon.

In this blog post, you will see an overview of what we received, one simple STEM activity with one of the vegetables we picked up, and an easy recipe we cooked.