The POP! Club returns for a fifth season of playing with your food and learning about the nutritional powers of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Below are the dates on which we will offer themed programs for market-goers aged a3 to 12. Each program will include a tasting, a mission into the Market and a hands-on activity. Do all three, and your reward is a $3 voucher to spend at a farmer’s stand.

Scroll down for information from each POP! meeting.


September 23 NEW DATE! – FRUIT OR VEGETABLE? We’ll show you how to tell the difference. Even parents will be surprised.

October 28 – THE SHOEBOXES OF DOOM!. Join us for fun and freebies ... if you dare.

 

August 12 – POP! Corn
 

The Kids’ POP! Club did its usual job on corn Saturday, August 12, to the delight of scores of curious participants, young and old.

By “usual job” we mean: 

• Tasted kernels cut from very fresh sweet corn that was picked the day before by one of our farmers. Also sampled small pieceso of polenta, an Italian favorite that is a paste or dough made from cornmeal and often herbs that is boiled and then typically fried or baked.
• ​Offered a recipe with nutritional breakdown
• Shared info about corn – is it a fruit, a grain or a vegetable? – as well as different products made from it, many edible, many not! (See posters below.)
• Offered a recipe with nutritional breakdown and posters with other nutritional info
• Learned that corn was developed  10,000 years ago in what is now Mexico by farmers who were looking for food and discovered a wild grass that made fruit with small, scattered kernels. They mixed pollen from different kinds of these grass plants and created a new, bigger one with tasty, healthy kernels – corn!
• Learned many fun facts about corn: Did you know that every cob has an even number of rows? And that each strand of silk from the top of the corn attaches to one kernel? That's how corn is pollinated! Corn gets its pollen from other corn that is transported by the wind. The grains of pollen then enter each cob through the silk strands and reach each kernel, which is then pollinated! 
• Finally, because it was National Famers Maket Week AND the Elks' annual corn roast, we celebrated by giving each Popster a "corny joke" and sending them to find Farmer Theresa, who then laughed at each one!

Our next get-together is September 23 when we will solve one of the great mysteries of produce: Is it a fruit or a vegetable? You won't want to miss the big reveal!

July 8 – The Power of Pollinators

June 17 – Healthy Herbs

Thank you, FFH Foundation for Youth & Families!

The Farmington Farmers Market’s Kids POP! Club opens its fifth season Saturday, June 17, with another in its series of introducing kids to the fresh produce and nutrition available at the Market, thanks to a grant from the Farmington & Farmington Hills Foundation for Youth & Families.

The program, which began in 2018 but was not offered in 2020 due to covid, takes a fun approach in teaching kids ages 3 to 12 about the high-quality nutrition found at the market. Each monthly meeting involves three challenges: taste a fresh fruit or veggie from our farms, explore the farm stands to find more information on that item and do a hands-on activity that ranges from planting their own veggies with a take-home planting kit to identifying the queen bee in a portable hive.

The goal is to make children of all backgrounds more informed on how to eat and stay healthy with the fresh offerings from the Farmers Market.

None of this would be possible without a grant from the Farmington & Farmington Hills Foundation for Youth & Families, which has been a primary sponsor of the program since 2018. Thank you!

The Farmington & Farmington Hills Foundation for Youth & Families supports programs and provides funds to enrich the lives of youth and families in the communities of Farmington and Farmington Hills.