Fuel the Body
Just being a kid
7-12
A 9-year-old grows vegetables. His dad makes one rule: help plant, or no selling.
Photo and reporting by
Deseret News
Don, 9, grows tomatoes, herbs and flowers in his family's 50-by-60-foot garden in Heber City. His father set him up with a simple deal: if he helps plant in spring, he gets to keep the money from selling his harvest.
The parent said yes
His father, Duke Mossman, set a condition: Don can sell whatever he grows, but only if he puts in the work at planting time. Last year, this deal earned Don over $300.
Why we picked this one
This is what a vegetable garden looks like when a kid actually owns the deal. Not a project his dad made for him to learn from, but a real business with real skin in the game: your work gets you nothing, your work gets you paid. That's the whole lesson, and it takes about five minutes to set up.
Don's deal with his dad was 50 by 60 feet of tomatoes and herbs, plant it or don't sell it. Yours can be one seed in one pot on the windowsill, same rule: they plant it, they own whatever comes up.
Read the full story at
Deseret News
Where it happened:
Heber City, Utah
There's a garden in your neighborhood, or one you could make. The question isn't whether your kid could grow something. The question is whether they'd actually bother.