Snacks for kids

Last night, my boys were with me when we stopped for toilet paper- an obvious necessity.  However, you can still buy within a tri-state radius just read the labels, and you can find one that does not come from hundreds of miles away.  So, as we were headed to the check-out my boys, as like most children, were wondering what they could have for school snacks/after school snacks.  After, looking at several regular snack boxes/packages and seeing predominantly mid-western origins, we came to the conclusion that snack time was going to get creative.  Of course, my boys took a little convincing on this part. As you know, those snack food companies do a wonderful job of seducing your young ones' eyes and mind.  But, they are so very detrimental to their health.  When we got home, we sat down to brainstorm over snacks.  Yes, I know it is winter and our choices are limited in the fruit department, but there are some easy veggies:  carrots (grown in backyard or local farm), sweet potato french fries/chips (local farm/farmer's market), pecans (ask around or farmer's market), home-cooked bread (much easier than you think, more to come on that) dipped in olive oil.  As far as fruit, we were pleasantly surprised to find grapefruit grown right on James Island at the local market- yeah, some vitamin C.  Also, we are hoping to find ingredients for granola.  For dinner last night, we still had beans and rice but we added coleslaw made from cabbage grown right on Johns Island- very tasty!  As I said above, more to come this week on baking bread from scratch!  Also, we are going to attempt to make homemade butter- apparently shake a jar with a marble in it for a few minutes.  Sounds like a good project for very energetic boys, assuming they do not try to throw the jars!