How do you reprimand!!!!

[phil the shed]

a five year old
you catch in your greenhouse eating cherry plum tomatoes and crystal apple cucumbers like they are going out of fashion.

anyway as the parent of this said five year old he just lifted my spirits even further by asking for more courgette stir fry "why i asked" cos me friends don't even know what a courgette is and i'm eating the ones i grew.
(see phil sneak into kitchen and sob with glee) just a 10 & 12 year old to work on now.
though the 12 yo has a taste for all thing sprouts

[shirlthegirl43]

Well done! Our boys love veggies though there are a few that they won't eat.

[piskieinboots]

send 'em up the chimney I say

[ailsasyl]

Happybunny didnt eat much veg from the supermarket but after seeing how much she ate at my aunties when on hols there getting excited about picking it herself this year we have started to grow our own, she's eaten strawberries, caulis, peas cabbage tatties spring onions lettuce and spinnach not just her though the neighbours two kids and their cousin have tried our veg as well, the cousins asks to see whats grown every time he visits at least once a week!!

[lynda66]

you don't, you just plant 4 times as many next year

[quark1]

Funny how certain childhood memories stick around - we had a very large garden when I was little - enough to split into lawn, flowers and fruit and veg - a sizeable bit for each!

There was a gap inthe hedge at the bottom of the garden and the litttle boy behind our house used to use this to play in each other's gardens. I still remember his name - Johnny.

One day we decided to try some of the onions my Dad had planted. They were only wee little things and I don't think they were meant to be spring onions. We chomped away and soon enough we were called in for tea to our own houses.

Clearly my Mum had the nose for the onion breath I was blowing upon her like a hurricane! I can to this day remember her asking if I had been eating onions and steadfastly denying the charge - blowing even more 2nd hand onions on her!

Difficult to stop what will become good eating habits in the future - but perhaps move along the sharing aspect?

Meanwhile get the older ones into veggy pilfering mood - only from your own souces of course!

[Pootle]

When Middle Daughter was a toddler we had to wash all fruit and veg in the fridge and veggie basket because she was often found eating raw broccoli/sprouts etc. Her nappies were really nice

[di]

Quark,you've reminded me of when I was little,we had raspberries under a net & I would frequently sneak under & steal a few,always denying that I had!!Even when my mum & dad produced photographic evidence of me under said net I still insisted it wasn't me!!
The photo has recently been rediscovered & under very close inspection I still say it was someone else!!(sorry mum!!)
Our 2 have various veggie likes & dislikes.Most of the time they're prepared to try stuff & having the lottie has deffo helped encourage them to try new thingsMy attitude is that I know they're having a fairly balanced diet,they don't get to fill up on rubbish,but if they really don't like something I won't try to push it on them~just try again further down the line!As a "grown up"I'd be mortified if someone constantly nagged at me to eat something I didn't like!Actually I think I'd be physically sick if rhubarb were to be forced upon me!!
That said Good Luck with the 10 & 12 yr old!!

[Hilary B]

"Oi, leave a few for the rest of us!" is probably the best approach.

[phil the shed]

here are the threesome den making @ Eden Project
the one in the middle is the tomato and cuke nibbler

[trebellangeminired]

When my daughter was little, little enough to still be in the trolley on trips round Tescos, she was accustomed to following her dad round the garden sampling on the way. So when we were in Tescos, she thought she would do the same Usually I managed to catch her but one day she got the better of me and I turned round in time to see her teeth sink into a tomato. I tried to pay for it at the checkout but the cashier just laughed and told me not to worry.

At about he same time, she scared us half to death by sampling honeysuckle berries, fortunately she hadn't eaten enough to harm her.

You gotta love'em

[Newbie]

My dog has learned to harvest her own runner beans when they are low enough down on the plants. And if they are not low enough for her to reach she just pinches them from my basket as i'm picking them when she thinks i'm not looking - how do i reprimand that!!??

[Winged one]

Our toddler also loves doing the munching as we go around the supermarket. Luckily, we still get to weigh our own goods in the F&Veg section in the one I usually use (and scan the barcode in ourselves too). So I weigh first and then let her at it.

In the other supermarket, I get a box of cherry tomatoes and she can munch on those. I have been known to have to go back and get a second box to have any for the week ourselves!

But I'd much prefer to see her nibbling a plain bread roll, a handful of cherry toms or strawberries, or a pepper (yes - we went through a phase of those too!), or a stick of cheese, than the sweets, crisps and biscuits a lot of other kids get given. And lots of other shoppers have commented on it, thinking that it's "so cute" and "isn't she great for eating".

I keep the tomatoes in a hanging basket up high at home so she has to be lifted up to get them. And we didn't grow peas at home this year (for other reasons) but at the end of the season last summer she had figured out not only how to pod them, but also where to find them and pull them off the plant. (Apparently, she is just like her mother in that regard!!).

[jackie j]

My sons used to pinch the cucumber from the fridge always had teeth marks in it, Eldest son used to ask for carrot when I was in the fruit and veg shop and they used to peel it for him.
Daughter has always liked most veg but not fruit, The dentist always says she has good teeth, she doesnt like fizzy drinks neither.

[rustylady]

a five year old
you catch in your greenhouse eating cherry plum tomatoes and crystal apple cucumbers like they are going out of fashion.

Do you mean how do you tell them off whilst trying very hard to keep a straight face?? I love it when my grandchildren want to eat fresh veg and fruit (specially homegrown), but it can be a bit inconvenient if they decide to scoff what you had earmarked for your own dinner.