#TWKatHome Monthly Content
May is National Salad Month
Welcome to TWKatHome, our fun, free online content that helps kids and families explore food and build positive, healthy eating habits. Each month, we will provide activities and ideas for ways to engage children as they learn about food and where it comes from.
If you want to receive this monthly content directly to your email, please fill out this quick form.
What is Salad?
Definition:
- A dish of raw leafy green vegetables, often tossed with pieces of other raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, cheese, or other ingredients and served with a dressing.
- A cold dish of chopped vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs, or other food, usually prepared with a dressing.
- Small pieces of food usually mixed with a dressing.
- A green vegetable or herb used in salad, especially lettuce.
- A varied mixture.
Fun Facts About Ginger
From cookies and cakes, to soups, dressings, teas, and ale, a little ginger brings something special to savory and sweet recipes across the globe.
- Ginger is actually a rhizome, not a root. A rhizome is an underground stem.
- The ginger plant is an herb.
- Ginger is a part of the Zingiberaceae family, which also includes turmeric and cardamom.
- Ginger is native to southeastern Asia.
- A ginger plant can grow up to 4 ft. tall.
- Ginger has many health benefits, including ant-inflammatory properties.
Check out some awesome recipes for using ginger from Spruce Eats, including an awesome nutrient rich salad dressing perfect for National Salad Month.
STEM in the Kitchen
Salad dressings have been used for thousands of years. More than 5,000 years ago soy sauce was used as a dressing in China. Oil and vinegar was used in Babylonia. 200 years ago mayonnaise began to dress salads in France.
Explore building your own salad at home!
Activities
- Grow an Indoor or Outdoor Salad Garden. Add edible flowers to dress up your salad and garden. You can download activity instructions here.
- Did you know that you can regrow vegetables like lettuce, celery, and carrots? Learn how by downloading this activity from Our Time Kitchen.
- May begins Farmers Market season! Take a family field trip to your local Farmers Market. Your local farmer’s market is a great place to find a variety of fresh fruits and veggies along with starter plants for your garden that are best suited for your region. Visit TWK at the Waverly Farmers Market on May 13th!
Writing Prompts & Conversation Starters
- What kind of salad do you like?
- How do you think dressing was invented?
- If you were making your own salad, what ingredients would you include?
- What are your favorite taste combinations? For example, sweet and sour, bitter and sweet, salty and sour?
- What are your favorite food textures? Why?
Celebrate National Salad Month with us by visiting one of our restaurant partners around Baltimore and ordering their special TWK menu item.
Book Recommendations
Here are a few book suggestions for young learners.
- Anywhere Farm by Phyllis Root is story that creatively explores the possibility of growing food anywhere as long as you have 4 components-seeds, soil, sun, and water.
- Harlem Grown by Tony Hillery is an urban garden story of a group of children who transform an empty lot across from their school into a beautiful garden for the community to enjoy.
- The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons as a beautifully illustrated and informative book packed with fun facts about vegetables.
- Oliver’s Fruit Salad by Vivian French tells the story of a boy who has fond memories of helping his grandfather on the farm, but thinks he does not like fruit, until he tries a fruit salad!
