We’re usually an eat-the-whole-fruit type household, but recently Bee had been asking about juice, and how it is made. We had some regular and blood oranges in our fruit bowl, so we made some freshly squeezed orange juice for a little afternoon fun in the kitchen.
Bee, who had just turned three, is fiercely independent. She loved taking charge of the juicing process, almost as much as she enjoyed drinking the juice afterwards. She’d squeeze a little bit, and then pour and drink it, and then squeeze some more.
We also added some of the orange pulp back into our drink – it’s tasty and high in fibre!
Then we tried the blood oranges. They’re in season for such a short time, we always grab some whenever we can.
It was fun to directly compare the size, colour, texture and flavour of the two types of oranges, side by side. Such striking colour!
We’re all about trying a wide variety of delicious food in our house. We have a little rule about new foods or “foods that the kids are still learning to like” – they don’t have to like it, and don’t have to finish it, but they do have to taste it, every single time it is served. Otherwise, how will they know if their tastebuds have learned to like it yet? (This rule has really helped the kids to “learn” how to like lots of veggies that they initially rejected. That, and serving as a starter before their main meal, when their appetite is at its best!)
So, whilst Bee initially baulked at actually drinking the blood orange juice, she did give it a try, and discovered that the actually rather liked it! Not as much as the regular orange juice, mind you, but enough that she went back for a second and third sip. Win!
Once Bee was finished with her orange juicing fun, I went back and rejuiced them, extracting a lot more juice that I got to drink afterwards. Double win!
Don’t throw the orange peel away afterwards – did you know you can use it to make an orange skin bird feeder to encourage some wild birds into your backyard?
And, here are some of our other fresh fruit ideas:
- explore how much we taste with our eyes with regular and champagne watermelon
- draw Orange Faces!
- or, at Halloween time, you could try some Spooky Orange Faces!
- make an orange slice sun, like we did for our incy wincy spider and humpty dumpty snacks.
- use temporary tattoos to theme your fruit bowl.
- work on fine motor and patterning skills with fruit skewers.
- confuse your taste buds into thinking that sour fruits taste sweet with these miracle berries.
xx Danya
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Cute kid
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🙂