Patch visit prompts hobby

I think I might need to take up gardening.

But as every parent of a toddler – or multiple children – knows, there’s simply not enough time to take up another hobby.

Thankfully at this point in her young life, Baby Schanz isn’t too picky when it comes to food. She’ll eat just about anything.

When it comes to proteins, chicken, beef and pork are no problem.

She also eats and handles the allergens well. Eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts are no bother for her body. She does have a slight issue with cow’s milk protein, and we have been told by her allergist that she’ll eventually grow out of it.

She enjoys her vegetables. Peas especially. If we serve her a side of mixed veggies, she’ll pick out the peas one by one and eat them before getting to the rest of her side.

Dairy, especially cheese, is one of her favorite foods. When we serve her a meal that includes cheese it’s often the first thing she reaches for.

I need to be a gardener, though, if my wife and I want to keep up with our daughter’s favorite type of food.

Fruits.

Blackberries. Blueberries. Raspberries. Bananas. Strawberries. Grapes.

If her plate has fruit AND cheese on it, she’s reaching for the fruit.

If it’s a fruit, she’ll destroy it.

In large quantities, too.

She’s certainly not alone in her love of fruits. I eat at least one banana a day, and blueberries typically three days a week as part of the lunch I take to work.

Because we go through so many blueberries, Chrissy and I took Baby Schanz to a local blueberry patch to pick the fruit. It’s been a yearly tradition since we moved back to Saginaw in 2021.

The first time we went, Chrissy held our daughter while she picked the fruit to put in a bucket. The bucket happened to be within arm’s reach of our daughter, and Chrissy just couldn’t pick the berries fast enough. As soon as she put a handful into the bucket, they disappeared.

Our daughter was getting her fill.

Just this past weekend we went for the second time, and allowed Baby Schanz to walk around so her parents could use both of their hands to pick the berries.

Baby Schanz found a new way to get her fix: pick directly from the bush. Even when we picked her up so she wouldn’t wander, she still grabbed straight from the source and put them into her mouth.

On one occasion, she skipped the part where she used her hand and picked one right off the bunch with her mouth.

She is her father’s daughter.

When we were done, we had about six pounds of berries between my wife’s bucket and mine. There had to be another pound or so in our daughter’s belly.

A morning well spent. Just to fill the dietary needs of our daughter.

Certainly she won’t eat all six pounds because of how often I eat them. She’ll definitely get plenty.

With recent grocery prices rising, especially for produce, if she keeps up the trend of ravishing fruits at the rate she is now I’m not sure we’ll be able to afford to keep replenishing our refrigerator.

Growing our own seems like it might be a viable option to save some money.

So it looks like I’ll have to find time to start gardening.

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Chris Schanz is a former CR Sports Editor who’s looking for a secret stash of fruits to feed his daughter. Send leads to [email protected].