A Day at the Farm: Plant It Forward with Kashi Foods

This past weekend, I visited my family farm in Creemore, Ontario. Along with the usual things in my getaway bag, I tossed in five packets of seeds from the Kashi #PlantItForward program: radishes, lettuce, kale, carrots and tomatoes.

Kashi Foods has partnered with Evergreen Canada; together they are helping to build community food gardens across Canada. Beyond monetary support, Kashi has developed a series of short videos that encourage families to talk about where their food comes from. The sweet videos ask young children to identify vegetables, introducing them to new foods. They also encourage the kids talk about the farming industry, and are super cute and clever.

Further to talking, families can get busy digging, because Kashi has also hidden packets of vegetable seeds in specially marked boxes of Kashi cereal.

Between cups of tea, reading, playing with my son, cooking, washing dishes, and listening to CBC radio, we also got our hands dirty.

When you get on your knees, lean your face close to the ground, and submerge your hands in soil – smushing clumps of dirt, rubbing hard pebbles between your fingers, feeling grit beneath your nails, and occasionally thumbing a sticky wet worm- you undoubtedly form a deeper connection with the earth.

Even after just an hour of gardening, you begin to notice the intricacies and complexities of nature. I found myself studying the land a little closer, not just inside the planter, but everywhere. (I even made friends with several frogs, and nearly fell face first into the pond trying to document our friendship.)

Thanks Kashi for giving me an opportunity to have a serious bonding session with Mother Nature; we hung out from dawn to dusk, and at the end she tossed out this ^ to say goodbye. What a gal.

Enter to win a Kashi Foods gift pack & plant your own garden!

Enter for a chance to win a Kashi #PlantItForward gift pack, and get inspired to grow your own garden. Tweet, “Dear @Shedoesthecity, I want to get my hands dirty. Please send me a @KashiFoods #PlantItForward starter kit.”