Are you looking for fun, educational and outdoorsy ways to spend time with your grandkids? Although you might have grown up on or around a farm and have your own garden, there are a surprising number of children who don’t know where their food comes from.

My wife, Christine, and I began taking our grandchildren on farm tours around Butler County a few years back. We even had t-shirts made that read, “McNary Cousins Farm and Ranch Tour.”

Below are ten tips you can use to show your grandchildren how their food is grown.

1. Take them on a farm tour – There are many farms and ranches within driving distance that are happy to have you stop in for a visit. You can find a farm near you on the website of Shop Kansas Farms: www.shopkansasfarms.com. Another way is to contact your local County Farm Bureau Coordinator. A County Farm Bureau (one in all 105 Kansas counties) is separate from Farm Bureau Financial Services (insurance) and is comprised for farmers and ranchers in that county. You can find that information here: http://www.kfb.org/contact .

2. Take them to the county and/or state fair – County fairs are exciting opportunities to engage your grandchildren in fun and educational forays into agriculture. You can make it more enjoyable by doing a little pre-work with them by coming up with a list of questions in a scavenger hunt format. For example:

• What’s the biggest animal there?

• What’s the smallest animal?

• How many kinds of animals can we find?

•What was your favorite 4-H project? Woodworking? Sewing? Photography?

3. Sign them up in 4-H – Young parents are busy and often don’t have time for yet another evening activity with their kids. Step in and help them out and take your grandchild to 4-H. There are all kinds of projects and leadership training that will interest your grandchild and you can help them with it.

4. Encourage them to join FFA if it’s available in their school.

5. Take them to a farmers’ market and see if they know what the different items are or have them try something new. It’s a good time to talk about how much food is wasted because people won’t buy imperfect produce in the grocery store. Talk to them, or even engage them, in the idea of gleaning, such as After the Harvest.

6. Buy them books – Kansas Farm Bureau has excellent resources for you to help your grandkids learn.

7. Visit a county extension office and agent – Kansas State University is a Land-Grant college, which began with President Lincoln’s idea to have a college in each state that was dedicated to agriculture. KSU makes all their wonderful research and knowledge available to the public through County Extension offices and agents. These people are a wealth of knowledge and love sharing their information with you – that’s why they are there.

8. Start a garden – Kids love playing in dirt and a garden gives you an opportunity to teach a variety of life lessons interwoven with the joy of watching a seed bear fruit.

9. Talk to a local butcher – This is a great opportunity to teach your grandchildren about the importance of meat and nutrition in our diets. Talk to your local grocery store butcher, or better yet, take them to a local meat processor near you.

10. If you’re a teacher or know of one, the Kansas Foundation for Ag in the Classroom has tremendous resources. They love to talk to people, especially kids through their Ag in the Classroom series, about how food is grown.

As a grandparent, we just assume our grandkids know how their food is grown. However, a recent survey found that 16 million people in America believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Children are more and more removed from the land and you have an excellent opportunity to do something fun, educational and outdoorsy with your grandkids to teach them where their food comes from.

Rick McNary is a leader in bringing people together to build community and reduce hunger in sustainable ways. This article first appeared in the Kansas Living Magazine.