Kids ‘Dig’ Windsor Farmers Market

For many kids, tagging along with Mom and Dad to the farmers market can be a total drag.

At the Windsor Certified Farmers Market, however, there’s a great way for children to experience the twice-weekly shindig in style: The “Kidz Dig It” club.

The club started in toward the end of last decade as a way to teach kids about local (and sustainable) produce and get them more involved in the process of purchasing homegrown food to eat.

Traditional kid-oriented draws, such as the Zucchini Races (part of the larger Zucchini Festival), have been subsumed by this program and are still mainstays of the market.

There are new programs, too. This year, for instance, Market Manager Glenda Castelli has expanded the program to include a monthly cooking class. During the class, kids will join “Market Chef” Mei Ibach (who, by the way, is a culinary arts instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College) and learn how to shop a market, talk to the farmer, and cook the produce they obtain.

Participating kids will receive special “market bucks,” good for purchase of fruits and veggies only. Those children who ride their bikes to the market will receive another $2 in market bucks.

Upcoming “Kidz Dig It” events include the aforementioned Zucchini Races on July 25, as well as classes on making Gravenstein apple pies (Aug. 8) and on making pesto (Sept. 26). For a complete schedule of club events, visit www.windsorfarmersmarket.com/KidzDigIt.html.