Twin Acres Homestead

My WordPress Blog

  • Blog
  • Gardening
    • Why Start A Container Garden?
    • Freezing Beans
    • How To Save Time In The Garden
    • Watercolours from the Garden
  • Animals
    • Goats
      • 10 Things You Need to Know Before You Get A Goat
      • How We Trained Our Goats
    • Ducks
      • 7 Reasons Why You Should Have Ducks In Your Backyard
      • Pekin Ducks
    • Chickens
      • DIY Poultry Watering System
      • DIY PVC Poultry Feeder
      • Letting Broody Hens Sit – A Guide to Hatching Chicks
      • Saving Money on Chicken Feed
  • DIY Homestead
    • Frugal DIY Organic Cloth Diaper Inserts
    • DIY Cloth Wipes
    • DIY Barbed Wire Dragonfly
    • Making Hay Without a Tractor
    • Simple Hard Lotion Bars
  • Family
    • 6 Ways to Start Homesteading Today
    • Keeping Kids Busy – For Free
    • Babywearing for the Modern Homesteader
    • Fluff Laundry – Different Brands of Cloth Diapers
    • Baby Essentials on the Homestead
  • About / Contact Us
    • Contact Us

Watercolours from the Garden

August 4, 2016 By Twin Acres Homestead Leave a Comment

image

The boys love to paint, inside, outside…..anywhere.  It’s one of their favorite things to do during quiet times.  While we were in the garden picking beets and getting stains all over our hands, I thought how fun it would be if we could make our own paint.  Finding non-toxic edible paint for infants and toddlers can be expensive, and I want to include our little man in our art experiences without the worry of what might end up in his mouth.  Combining the process of making paint with the painting experience is a definite recipe for success.  Mixing three of the boys favorite activities, paint, science experiments and gardening.  We set up our work station in the garden, the boys were a part of every step.




Here’s how we did it in 5 easy steps,

One – pick your veggies of choice.  Obviously vegetables with a darker pigment will yield a darker more vibrant color.  We chose beets, carrots and swiss chard (just the leaves of the chard).  The beets and chard worked wonderfully, the carrots needed more time to soak or would have benefited from being blended in a juicer.

image

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two – cut the veggies into small pieces, R used a peeler to slice thin pieces (adult supervision required).  For a quicker process you could use a juicer or a food processor, but because I wanted to keep the experience outside we added a bit of water and started smashing, squeezing and mashing our veggies in small bowls.  It worked well to rub the vegetables in our hands while adding small amounts of water.

image

image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three – add water as needed until a desired consistency is made.  We found not a lot of water was needed.

image

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four – remove any large chunks of vegetables, (eat if hungry 🙂 ).

Five (optional) – add corn starch if a thicker paint is desired.  Add small amounts (1 tsp) until the paint reaches a consistency you like.  We tried adding corn starch to the carrot juice and found it lightened the color, so much that it was hard to see on the canvas.  We chose not to add corn starch to the other colors and used just the vegetable juice.

image

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both the boys enjoyed this art experience.  R loved being able to help cut the vegetables, A drifted in and out of the making process as he was interested, but when it came time to paint he was all in.  Be sure to keep the cut vegetables, both the boys enjoyed using the beets and carrots to paint with and cover their canvases.  They also snacked on the vegetables as they were painting.  🙂

image

image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An overall success in making paints for the first time and we will do it again!

image

 

Filed Under: DIY, Family, Gardening, Kids on the Homestead Tagged With: DIY paint, gardening, homestead, kids, vegetable paint, watercolours

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

About Me

Hello and welcome, I'm Lindsey, together with my husband and young children we are working to live a simpler and more sustainable life, one small step at a time. Join us as we start to live a more natural life, sharing tips and tricks along the way.

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,239 other subscribers

Like Us On Facebook

Like Us On Facebook
Visit Twin Acres Homestead's profile on Pinterest.

Homestead Bloggers Network

Contributor at the Homestead Bloggers Network

Archives

  • January 2020
  • March 2019
  • November 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • February 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015

Disclosure

Twin Acres Homestead is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Copyright © 2021 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in