creating a garden for baby food?

I came across this blog post over at http://homegrown.org/.

It is called Planning a Baby Food Garden.

I don't have babies but I know people thought my mom was insane when she would blend up whatever her and my dad were eating for dinner and feed that to me when I was a baby. But I am sure as hell glad she did that instead of feed me that disgusting "baby food" that you get in grocery stores.

Anyway, I was curious if anyone had planned out a garden specifically for baby food before, like the woman who wrote this article, and if you have what'd you plant? Or what would you plant in one?

Just for good measure - here is me as a toddler in my mom and dad's garden. I couldn't help but share. Munchin' on veggies from the garden, as every lil kid should

In our household we are closer to just blending up whatever the adults are eating, though not exclusively. There are all these 'rules' about when babies are 'supposed' to try certain foods. I think there is some value in looking at that stuff for sure, but at the same time, I don't think our ancestors had those lists, and we came out okay...

I would suggest sweet potatoes, carrots, squash. Our babies have liked broccoli (I know!). Things you can get to a squishy consistency with steaming or boiling work well. Apple sauce (or any fruit sauce, or any fruit) is a perennial favourite. If you are blessed to live somewhere that you can grow them, avocado and banana are amazing baby foods.

With our third (at this moment about 10 months old) we find if she's not eating what we've offered, we usually just have to add more apple sauce or bananas. Having dessert at the same time as main course just doesn't seem to be a problem for her!

With both of my kids I dedicated about a 1/3 of the annual garden to stuff i wanted to grow specifically for them to eat.
For my first I just went thru the baby food section to get ideas of what to grow. When the second was ready to eat I tried to grow a few more types of veggies and a lot more of my fruits were starting to produce as well.
From what I could remember:
Veggies: carrots, peas, beans, kale, Swiss chard, beets, turnips, broccoli, sweet potatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, parsnip, pumpkin.
Fruits: Apple, pear, peach, cherry, blueberry, grape, strawberry, cantaloupe, watermelon, honey dew.
I found that both my kids would eat any combo of the above as long as it had a least one sweet ingredient, ie peas, kale, pear.
We have our third due this summer so I am going to try to go big with the root crops and storage stuff so I will have plenty to feed the baby over the winter.
My goal is to not have to buy any produce from the store to make baby food with. I know it's lofty and probably not obtainable given my northeastern climate but that's what I'm shooting for.

when i was pregnant with my daughter (who is now 2) i would daydream about what i would plant in a garden for her... not so much what would go into the kitchen and get processed, but rather, i was planning a Wild Edibles Baby Garden (maybe a circle, or mandala) where i could plop the baby down in the middle and she could explore, scratch, and eat anything she found. well, truth be told, we live in an apartment in the middle of town, so the reality of this fantasy garden was just that, fantasy, except that it got my brain spinning as to how I can introduce a newish born baby to the joys of nature, and allow them to use their natural learning tools, touch, feel, taste, to explore this new outside dirty beautiful world.

so we often found ourselves volunteering at the community garden not far from our house and from a very early age she learned how to crawl down paths (but not over plants!) pick at the strawberries, but not tear out the leaves or rootballs, munching on dandilion flowers, and even eating snails, crunch! She became quite a skilled gleaner (almost TOO skilled!) and now, at two, can feel confident when i tell her one type of berry is 'bleck' no good and another is 'yuuumm!' very good. she then remembers and moves on ...

raising young kids, babies, really, to respect the limitations of nature, but also allowing them to freely explore, touch, feel, EAT! is such an important tool to helping them become intimate with the world that awaits them.

My niece at two years old came to visit my garden, and I have a huge patch of alpine strawberries--tiny but sweet! She had been living in a crappy apartment with her mom and didn't get out to play enough. When I showed her the strawberries and gave her one to eat, she got this amazed look on her face. She kept smiling and saying, "FLOOR CANDY!" She focused on the patch for almost a half hour, which was the most attention span I have ever seen her exhibit--and she is now 6. It was awesome!

Erika Bailey wrote:My niece at two years old came to visit my garden, and I have a huge patch of alpine strawberries--tiny but sweet! She had been living in a crappy apartment with her mom and didn't get out to play enough. When I showed her the strawberries and gave her one to eat, she got this amazed look on her face. She kept smiling and saying, "FLOOR CANDY!" She focused on the patch for almost a half hour, which was the most attention span I have ever seen her exhibit--and she is now 6. It was awesome!

Both of my kids eat almost exclusively from the garden and surrounding wild places during the growing season. I have taught them what's good and what's not and we have rules about making sure that wild foods are checked (like Halloween candy) by an adult before mass consumption can begin. They will find a patch of blueberries and then ... silence. Peace in a berry patch.

So to the original post: I think you can't go wrong with planting perennial fruit canes, bushes trees and shrubs. Anything that can be made into a jam will keep through the winter to extend your harvest. Also a lot of fruit can be dehydrated and kept for long periods. Fruit chews are good for teething babies too. I plant a pretty diverse annual garden each year as well. My kids pretty much eat it all with a few exceptions for each of them. There's just some things a person doesn't like. Cilantro and arugula are banned from my garden as I'm highly repulsed by their odor. I had good luck with mixing new foods with ones my kids already liked to get them used to the new food. For example, you can add just about anything to mashed potato or rice and a baby will eat it. As the meal goes along just increase the ratio of the new food over the potato until the child is eating just the new food item with maybe a small amount of the potato for consistency.

I didn't have a garden when my kids were babies - but we never went the mush way I fed my kids pretty much what we ate (you should see a baby with no teeth sucking away at Osso Buco) and then were careful not to oversalt or add allergens to the food. They are both more or less omnivores today... I don't know if that is why, but I have been told that giving them autonomy as early on as possible will make them less timid towards new food.

My kids loved: Avokado, Banana, Broccoli, Osso Buco , Potatoes (not sweeet potatoes), soft fruits, boiled carrots, olives (?), pickled garlic (again?),

Ah! This is such a great idea! and you are so cute there in the garden Cassie!

I wish I had thought of this when my daughter was younger but she's only 6 so while I don't need a baby food garden per se, I do still need a kid food garden! Last year when we moved I set my daughter up with her own garden since I was inspired reading about how Sepp Holzer was given a garden when he was a child and well, look at him now! She was hit or miss interested in it, but eventually once the food grew she was pumped, and got really into checking all the plants for things to either eat or bring into the kitchen to cook.

I had high hopes of doing this! I wanted to plant a fall garden, ready to harvest when my baby started solids. But the deer fencing wasn't fixed yet, and deer demolished the few things that I got around to planting.

For my 10 month old in my 7b gardening zone, I had hoped for carrots, beets, rutabaga, parsnips, and kohlrabi. This year, I'll also be planting sweet potatoes, winter squash, and tomatoes with her in mind. She devours *anything* with tomatoes -- salsa, soup, pasta sauce, etc. For perennial fruits, blueberries, strawberries, apples, pears, and peaches have been hits.

When my daughter was born, (40 something years ago), I didn’t start her on solids until 4 1/2 months because I was breastfeeding.  The is just puréed or mashed up whatever we were eating, things like sweet potato, rice, squash, even finely minced pecans as we had an orchard at that time.  So didn’t plant specifically for her, just integrated what we were already doing.  

It is a cute idea. I'm more in the camp of babies and parents should eat basically the same foods (though sometimes babies may need certain ingredients left out). So the baby food garden should be filled with foods the parents want to eat.

I never bought baby food or even blended/mashed adult food. My babies just ate food. If they need it pureed, they probably should not be eating solids yet. My babes ate scrambled eggs, peas, beans, potatoes, tofu, pasta, all by grasping with their fingers and putting foods into their mouths. They'd hold onto whole pieces of fruit and crusty bread and gnaw on them. Once they could start using utensils, they could feed themselves things like curry on rice or thick lentil soup. Babes were 6+ months old, and these foods were for learning more than nutrition - they had (and only needed) milk for that.

They were not picky eaters until they started going to preschool and developed a preference for things like white bread and American cheese (which, I mean, who doesn't love a trashy grilled cheese sandwich?). Now they're teenagers who enjoy cooking spicy foods with a lot of veggies. They also love candy and pizza. I feel like it all worked out.

Of course, kids love to eat food they grew (and love to grow food from seeds they picked out)!

I like the idea of planting a garden for babies and toddlers to learn about food that grows on plants.  A garden just for them to explore.

A garden where they can learn to plant things that they like to eat.

I love Cassie's picture of her munching on something from the garden.

There is another kind of food baby gets in the garden.  The food of life and deep connection to our earth, soil and ourselves.

My earliest memory is being a toddler alone in the garden. I was gently touching and admiring a little pea plant.   I remember thinking it was just like me.   Just getting started and soaking up the sun.  
My dad came silently up behind me.  He said "God is in the pea plant and the sun shine, God is in you and touches everything"     Then he walked away and left me with it.  
He was adding to my experience and guiding me.
  There is a fine balance of walking them to the light and making sure they find it on their own.

Mom groups on the internet are a very very special kind of crazy.  With my oldest two (twins) I blended up part of what the adults were eating. I've suggested this to many a parent and more often than not they respond that they want their baby to eat good/healthy/clean food. I usually say, I think you're baby wants their parents to eat good/healthy/clean food and why not take this opportunity to change their diet?  You can imagine how that usually goes.

With my youngest, I did a method called baby-led weaning. This also involves the baby eating what the adults eat, usually starting a little later 7-9 months old instead of 4-6 months for purees so that the baby can pick up the food and feed themselves. I highly recommend this method to everyone, parents of babies have enough stress in their lives without making special food for one member of the family, which can also lead to picky eaters as the children grow. Better to integrate them into family meals from the get-go.
Anyone interested in Baby Led Weaning it's highly googleable.

I did "baby led weaning" with both of my girls, so my focus has been on planting more of a snacking garden they can go graze in? They are now 5 and two, and for them I plant strawberries, mini cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and peas. Basically anything I like, but with a focus on items that can be eaten straight off the plant with minimal prep. They're both very very good at identifying what is food and what isn't! My youngest just turned two, and this last spring/summer I was astonished at how easily she could tell what was ripe and yummy, and what wasn't.

My son picked the oldest fruit or veggie he could find.  He liked everything soft.  Rotten tomatoes and strawberries with spittle bug bites out of them were some of his favorates.  I can remember my mother trying to tell him the red tomatoes were better while he was munching on a rotten one shaking his little head no.  They must be sweeter. I wonder if that is another difference between boys and girls.  I don't think he knew he had a face until he was about 5.  He would have stuff all over his face from eating outside and it didn't bother him one bit.  My niece on the other hand at the age of 2 couldn't stand it if she had a little dribble on her chin.

I sure wish I had pictures from back then like Jane and others.