Cassie Pressley (left) and sister Deanna Pressley help tend the garden last week at Know Your Farms summer camp.

By JAMES WUDEL

Last week at the Know Your Farms kids’ camp, we spent a lot of time cooking and gardening (and playing in sprinklers) with a crew of 9 to 12 year olds from Charlotte, Davidson, and Cornelius. At a camp dedicated to food, our campers had a chance to eat things they may not otherwise have been interested in.

To start with, being involved in the garden appealed to most of the kids, and piqued their interest in the food they were eating. When the kids saw what cucumber plants look like, picked them, scraped the spines off, and cut them, they took new interest in cucumbers.

Cooking also helped us get the kids interested in vegetables. One of the biggest hits of the week was our “Iron Chef” style cook-off, where we handed the kids a Know Your Farms produce box and asked them to cook things from it.

Cassie Pressley helped bake zucchini bread at the camp.

We were blown away by the dishes the campers came up with, which ranged from fritata to pan-fried potato cubes and eggplant salad to grilled corn on the cob.

Far and away the favorite, however, was zucchini bread, which is most like a less-sweet banana bread. The bread was so popular it got a perfect score in our voting process. But you should try it yourself. See the recipe below.

The last way we got the kids eating their veggies was resorting to some old-fashioned sneaking vegetables in where they don’t normally belong. The simplest substitution we made was adding pumpkin puree to pancake mix along with the milk, eggs, and butter the mix told us to add. Adding the puree led to a not-too-sweet pancake that stayed delightfully moist even after a spell in the refrigerator. Even the camper who told us we were “breaking the law” by adding the pumpkin cleaned his plate.

We also pulled recipes from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious cookbook, which “offers a program that gets kids to eat their vegetables—without them knowing.” The biggest hit we had from the book was Brownies with Carrot and Spinach Puree. We subbed in lamb’s quarters for the spinach (like we did with this pesto) and replaced the carrot with pumpkin. We’re still munching on the leftovers three days after camp ended.

James Wudel is an intern and camp counselor this summer with Know Your Farms, a Davidson company that connects people with local food, through food buying clubs, community supported agriculture (CAS) groups, and educational programs. Details: www.knowyourfarms.com

Zucchini Bread

2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup chopped nuts

Sift dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and zucchini.

Add remaining ingredients, combining well, including dry ingredients.

Pour into 2 greased 9×5” loaf pans and bake for 350° for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes.

Brownies

(with Pumpkin and Lamb’s Quarters)

Adapted from “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” by Jessica Seinfield

3 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup lamb’s quarters puree
½ cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×8 baking pan.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.

In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, purees, sugar, cocoa powder, butter, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1-2 minutes.

Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

The “cool completely” step is important. They still taste a little like spinach if you eat them warm. Tragic but true.