Where does soup come from?

When it starts to get chilly out and you come in from the cold, nothing hits the spot quite like soup. While we can go pick up a can of soup from our local grocery store, that’s not where it started!

Who Grew My Soup? by Tom Darbyshire tells the story of young Phineas Quinn and his questions about the vegetable soup his mom serves for lunch. Phin and magical Mr. Mattoo fly from farm to farm, learning about amazing vegetables and the farmers who grow them.

Let’s explore how some of these yummy foods got their start:

Carrots

If you walk by a field of carrots, you probably wouldn’t even know what was growing! This is because carrots are root vegetables- the edible part we eat grows undergrown. Most carrots we see are orange, but some carrots are red, purple, yellow or white.

Fun Fact: “Baby carrots” are not actually young carrots, but are made from full grown carrots. Carrots are cut and peeled to the desired size to become those baby carrots that are a lunchtime favorite.

Onions

Like carrots, onions are root vegetables because the onion bulb is grown underground. A bulb is a bud that grows below ground with overlapping leaves; small roots extend down into the soil and leaves sprout up above ground.

Worried about getting “onion breath”? Eating some fresh parsley can take care of that!

Tomatoes

Juicy tomatoes begin as a little seedling. They then grow into a bush or vine, flowers form, the flowers are pollinated and the tomato we know and love begins to grow. Tomatoes come in all different kinds of sizes, varieties and colors.

Did you know? Tomatoes are technically a fruit! This is because they have seeds and develop from a flower. People just think of tomatoes as a vegetable due to the food prep and recipes they are used in.

Celery

Celery is often found in bunches at the grocery store, but like these other veggies it originally started on the farm! Like the other vegetable plants the celery plant has roots that grow underground and while all parts of the celery plant are edible, the most common part of the plant we eat is the stalk.  The stalk is the bottom part of the leaf and grows above ground.  

None of these vegetables would be possible without the hard work of farmers across the country. The hardworking men and women make sure we have delicious and nutritious veggies for things like soup! 

Want to introduce agriculture in your classroom? Who Grew My Soup?  is a perfect way to start! To get the class excited, watch this video from author Tom Darbyshire who explains just some of the hats a farmer wears on a daily basis. Explore some more hats farmers wear in this blog.

After reading the book, check out the Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom curriculum that goes along with the book.