We’re hooked on food haiku here at Skill It.
Ever since I read the post about Haiku Window art over at MamaScout, these elegant poems have been on my mind. Now when we go to the Farmers Market I am writing lines in my head for each fruit and vegetable I see!
Skill It has always linked cooking with reading and writing. From knowing how to read a recipe to writing down our observations of the cooking process, these skills are an important part of any chef’s work.
This link between the language in books and the language of food will be happening this Saturday when we teach a children’s cooking class at the Providence Athenaeum. Connecting books and cooks offers limitless possibilities for delicious creativity!
Reflecting on our experiences with words, especially through writing or journaling, creates a deep connection to our memories.
This absolutely applies to the experiences of cooking and eating. When we take a little time to describe a meal we’ve eaten, noting the colors, flavors, textures, and scents, it makes that memory vibrant and lasting.
Expanding our vocabulary to describe how things taste, smell, and feel is an important part of any food education. We learn basics early on – sweet, hot, sour, crunchy, smooth – to describe our experience of basic foods.
As we taste new foods, we expand our palate and our vocabulary, too.
Juicy, bright, zesty, toothsome, moist, dense, and sharp – these words evoke even more emotion, a more specific culinary experience.
Taking the time to talk about food in ways that are imaginative, colorful, and creative, can be fun for the whole family. I know that I prefer eating “zesty sweet potatoes topped with sauteed kale and toasted pumpkins seeds for pizazz” instead of “cooked sweet potatoes, greens, and seeds.”
Here are a few ideas from the Skill It kitchen on how to incorporate creative language at the dinner table or snack time:
2 – Family Culinary Thesaurus – create a notebook or chalkboard listing creative food adjectives
3 – Taste Around the Table – during dinner time, have each person at the table come up with 1 or 2 adjectives to describe what they’re tasting {keep it positive and no repeats!}
With food and nature as your subject, you and your family will never, ever run out of ideas to feed your culinary haikus!
How do you write a Haiku?
Haikus are made up of 3 lines.
Line 1 is 5 syllables
Line 2 is 7 syllables
Line 3 is 5 syllables again
The lines do not need to rhyme but you will likely notice yourself creating a rhythm that is pleasant to the ear. Haiku is an excellent way for children to become more aware of how to pronounce longer words as they sound out and count the syllables as they write.
Haikus look lovely when paired with art or photographs as we’ve done here!
Leave your haiku here in the comments below, or share with us on the Skill It Facebook page!
