My fourth book – Growing with kids
I'm so happy that my new book is out! If you have been following me for a while, you might know that I try to get my kids outside as much as I can while I do my work in the garden. This book is about just that – Growing with kids.
This is what the cover of my book Growing with kids looks like. The spine is green and I used the same font I chose for the header on my blog. The kids are so happy to be on the cover!
I'm launching my fourth book in a few weeks! It's in Swedish but I wanted to write a bit about it here on my English blog too. The book is called Growing with kids in Sara's Kitchen Garden.
My goal was to write about how I manage to do my gardening even in the most hectic years when the kids are small. It's not easy of course, but it's always worth it. Sharing the garden with my wonderful kids means everything to me! I have four children between the ages 2-10 and they usually come with me into the garden.
I see us as a very outdoorsy family, and it's something that feels completely natural to me. I realize that a lot of kids don't actually have this type of lifestyle that we do though. They have a lot of activities going on all the time instead. It almost seems like the entire family gets really stressed out when they have nothing planned for the day. There seems to be a constant need to DO something. My vision was instead to have my kids play and simply enjoy life in the garden. But I was worried it would be difficult to realize that dream and that the kids would fight and bicker instead.
So, when people ask me where I find the time to grow my own food while also taking care of four kids, my answer is simple. It works because the kids love being outside!
Translated from the chapter Being outside together
Loa found an unripe little melon he smuggled from the greenhouse. Photo: Maria Fors Östberg.
It was difficult to write about how I grow with my kids sometimes:
This subject is hard to write about at times. I write about strategies, rules and everything I don't have time to do. How can I make it fun when there are so many things to think about?
Taking care of a productive garden together with my kids is a puzzle. Finding the time, getting good results, feeling happy with what we produce and keeping a positive attitude in every season. But the smallest thing can change everything too. Even a tiny blueberry can turn the day around.
Growing with kids is illustrated with a beautiful green color I just love. Kristin Lindström designed the book!
The kids take the center stage in the photos of this book. My very talented friend Maria Fors Östberg took the pictures.The beautiful photo on the cover was taken in late summer when my kids were playing in the garden. I just love the colors and how my kids look. It's very important for me that the kids look like themselves whenever they show up in any of my work. No styling! They are very happy about the picture and excited to be in another book.
The book is in Swedish, but I hope to translate all of my books to English in the future. Fingers crossed!
/Sara Bäckmo
05. February 2019
