Have You Had Your Vitamin SEE Today?: A COOL "CLASSROOM" IN THE KITCHEN

ABOUT THIS BLOG:  We’re going to talk about ordinary fruits and vegetables not as packets of vitamins but as containers of secrets and stories.  Each fruit and vegetable in the FRESH DISCOVERIES SERIES presents a visual clue to its history, coded in its structure and design.  Decoding these messages is not only fun but will instill the subjects of social studies, science and art with a quality of wizardry and magic.

FRESH DISCOVERIES asks you to take time to EXPERIENCE your fruits and vegetables.   In our era of fiber optics, microchips and instant data, this idea may sound strange.  But I assure you the practice will nourish your imagination.    Fruits and vegetables have names to identify them (for that matter, so do we!).  But, names and labels don’t offer different ways of seeing a subject.   When we allow ourselves to see beyond the obvious, a fresh, new world appears.   

ABOUT JUDITH ECKERT–THE AUTHOR:  I have a background as an educator, textbook editor, graphic designer, writer, mother and grandmother.  But these credentials were neither the key nor the impetus for my forty-year immersion in the world of FRESH DISCOVERIES.

The day I crossed the threshold from the domain of the ordinary into the realm of mystery and wonder, I allowed myself to follow the urging of a six-year-old sage.  Our “classroom” was the produce department of a neighborhood grocery.  “Look!” said my mentor excitedly, tugging at my hand.  “The webbing of the cantaloupe goes in and out and in and out.  Honeydew looks like silk, and watermelon looks like marble.”  His enthusiasm for these revelations was an eye-opener.  Just moments before, when I was checking my shopping list, all I thought about were the prices of produce.  Now I could see patterns, textures, designs and some of the very workings of life, itself.  That leap from looking to seeing has been price-less and continually adds a rich dimension to my life.

On my own and in schools and craft groups, I have tried out science experiments and art projects and validated my findings with scholars in appropriate fields of study and disciplines.

Today, decades and decades past my first “awakening,” I feel emotionally younger and more connected with the vitality and multi-dimensionality of the natural world and its amazing processes.   I hope this Blog and the FRESH DISCOVERIES SERIES will seed your curiosity so you can share with future generations the sense that reality/reality can be even more stimulating, mysterious and illuminating than virtual reality and may also help bring more life to life!