Didn’t your Mother ever tell you….

C’mon admit it! Didn’t your mom tell you to eat your veggies? Or that fruit was better for you than candy? Or that you should eat more greens and less bread? Or that maybe you shouldn’t eat quite as many sweets and cookies as you think you want? I know mine did! I also had a grandmother who would encourage me to chew on chickweed and dandelion while I was playing in the yard, and my dad taught me to snip off some peppermint to add it to my iced tea. My mom was always trying some new spice (usually hot!) in a dish, and my sister was likely to be including herbs in a new bread recipe.

My next door neighbor had quite a garden, and he would have me come over and try all kinds of vegetables and fruits (I have a gooseberry plant in his honor in my front yard, because it was Mr. George who showed me the lovely tartness of that fruit!). He also learned that, while I didn’t like beets, I liked spinach – so he brought two bags to our front door…one for my grandmother (that was the beets) and one for me (I got the beet tops!). Now, I’d never had a beet top, but because he brought them over especially for me, I begged my grandmother to fix them – and I’ve been eating them ever since!