“Just one bite” is a common plea almost every parent has made. When you’ve got a child who refuses to eat anything healthy, the urge to give in to less healthy choices can be strong. The reasons children give for refusing to eat certain foods are endless — they aren’t hungry, it doesn’t taste good, they aren’t interested, they don’t like the texture or the color isn’t right.

If the goal is to help kids discover a life-long love of fruits and vegetables, encourage them to try a variety of flavors to help them develop healthy eating habits. Start off easy with a container garden to show them where food comes from.  You can plant compact blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes right outside your door. Berries are especially kid-friendly given their small size and sweet flavors. Plus, caring for berry bushes and plants encourages outdoor activity and helps to reduce stress levels.

The easy-to-grow Bushel and Berry™ collection includes compact-sized, thornless plants that offer exquisite beauty and lots of flavor that even the pickiest eater will have a hard time refusing.

Plant berry bushes with your little one.  Everything tastes better when you grow it yourself! You can work on teaching responsibility by creating a watering schedule and when harvest time comes around – let them pick the berries themselves.

Giving kids the opportunity to “make” their own meal can get them excited to dig in. Give them options as to how they’d like to see the berries on the table. Is it in a smoothie? Or mixed in with a salad?  Let kids create their own culinary masterpieces. Try switching things up — picky eating could be the result of a texture or temperature issue for your child.

Top Berry Bushes to Plant for Picky Eaters

Baby Cakes®, a thornless and easy-to-grow blackberry bush, grows to be about 3-4 feet tall. In most regions, Baby Cakes produces sweet berries twice in one season. Grow in full sun in zones 4-9.

Raspberry Shortcake® is a revolutionary thornless dwarf raspberry that grows to be 2-3 feet tall. It produces mid-summer fruit that has a sweet, traditional raspberry flavor. Raspberry Shortcake is compact, with a rounded growth habit and thrives in a patio pot or in the landscape. Grow in full sun in zones 3-9.

Perpetua, a true double-cropping blueberry, will set one crop of fruit in mid-summer and then flowers and fruits a second time to provide ripe fruit in the fall. The leaves are dark green, somewhat shiny, and curly or twisted in the spring and summer, turning to deep reds and greens in the winter. Perpetua has smallish berries that are mild and sweet. It will grow 4-5 feet tall in full sun with an upright, vase shaped habit in zones 4-8.

About Bushel and Berry

Bushel and Berry™ is a collection of easy to grow, exceptionally beautiful and delicious berry plants for the home garden. With 9 stunning and easy-to-care-for varieties to choose from, Bushel and Berry™ is revolutionizing the way we bring food to the table. Learn more by visiting www.BushelAndBerry.com.