Kids in the Kitchen Wednesday: Life on the Farm

Ok, you're right: we don't actually live on a farm. But recently the Arkansas Test kitchen took a trip to a local blackberry farm. Lil' Dude has never tried or picked blackberries before, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to take care of both!

On the way to the farm, Lil' Dude and I heard a fantastic kids song: Japanese Bananas by Alvin and the Chipmunks. 

 This was the song that we sang while we picked blackberries. Even though it was crazy hot, we had a great time on the farm, and it felt good to support our local farmers. 

After picking a gallon of blackberries, we tried making blackberry cobbler for the first time! 

Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients
2 Cups blackberries
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla


1. Place blackberries and 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl and let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
3. In a mixing bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and mix thoroughly.
4. Mix the milk, melted butter, and vanilla in a seperate bowl, and add to the dry ingredients, stirring until there are only a few lumps
5. Grease an 8"x8" baking dish
6. Spoon mixture into the greased dish, and pour the blackberries on top.
7. Place cobbler in the oven and bake for 45 minutes
8. Allow to sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Since we titled this post Life on the Farm, we thought we'd give you an update on our container garden. To date, we have 5 tomato plants, 1 mini eggplant, 1 crook neck squash plant, 6 sweet banana pepper plants, 2 bell pepper plants, 1 mini bell pepper plant, 2 lunchbox sweet snacking pepper plants, and 1 cucumber plant planted. 

So far, we have harvested a handful of cherry tomatoes, 8 banana peppers, 2 mini eggplants, and a squash. The one thing we've learned is to stagger the planting of the vegetables, and not plant everything all at once. This way, our harvest will last all summer and into the fall. We hope to have enough produce soon to start trying out some new recipes!

We hope you're enjoying summers bounty as much as we are!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew