WRITING NAMES AND DESIGNS ON FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
Scratching your children’s name into growing pumpkins, zucchinis or melons is such a fun and simple activity, but it gives the children months’ worth of enjoyment as they watch their creations grow!
Here are 3 tried and tested edibles that work really well for this activity:

• Pumpkins, zucchinis (and any other members of the squash family)
• Watermelon
• Passion fruit (scratch your design while they’re still green)

Use a nail or bent paper clip to carefully scratch your name onto the outer layer of the developing fruit (fist size is a good guide for pumpkins and watermelon). The plant will then create a scar over the damage which will expand as the fruit grows.  If your children are bit too small to be wielding a sharp nail, a great alternative is to let them draw their design on to the fruit with a marker, and then scratch over their design for them.
Top tips:

• Get creative! A well as their names and initials, your child might enjoy drawing a picture, a whole sentence, the date, a special message or even a silly face!
• The deeper the cut/scratch, the wider the scar, so if you’re trying to include fine detail in your picture, don’t scratch to deeply
• Have fun recording the growth of your child’s plant by taking regular photographs of them with their design (don’t forget to capture the final harvest and them eating or cooking their special treat!)
• Create some special designs for an up-and-coming celebration or festival (or maybe just a personalised birthday message for someone special)
• If you’d like your pumpkin or melon to grow really big, you might want to consider removing the other fruits from the vine so your chosen one gets more nutrients

While we’re discussing writing on fruit and vegies, your kids may also enjoy writing a secret message on a banana skin with a tooth pick or the end of a pointy chopstick – the writing will show up very clearly in brown an hour or so later – magic! This is a really fun way to include a little message in your children’s lunch box, and the perfect way to encourage them to consume their 5+ a day.
Have you had any success with scratching designs on other garden produce? Let us know!