Children toured the Slow Food Earth Market Maitland in The Levee

In fact, some parents have to go to extraordinary lengths to make it happen - like cutting them into shapes that resemble animals to make vegetables fun.

But there was no need to get creative - or even entice, when 20 children toured Maitland's Slow Food Earth Market in The Levee last week.

They willingly ate a wide range of vegetables they had never encountered before - and they ate them raw before they tried the cooked version.

"They enjoyed kohlrabi and they found it crunchy and sweet and tasty. They tasted purple cauliflower and said how beautiful it smelt," Earth Market chairwoman Amorelle Dempster said.

"The children commented on how colourful all of the vegetables were and how they smelt very nice. When the vegetables have just been picked and delivered to the market they have that beautiful sweet smell.

The children met the farmers and sampled their produce before gathering at the Slow Food stand where they watched on as secretary Helen Hughes cooked the vegetables.

It was then time for another round of tasting.

"It was a chance for the children to meet the farmers - the people who are actually producing the food and make the connection between the farmer and the food to the market and the plate," Ms Dempster said.

"The experience will live with them and they will hopefully always search for fresh seasonal food."

The tour was also an opportunity to highlight some environmental lessons.

"We told them that food doesn't have to be wrapped in plastic and that vegetables already have their own natural skin," Ms Dempster said.

"For example, the cauliflower is covered with its natural leaves and the kohlrabi has a skin on it."

"If we buy it fresh we don't have to wrap it because it doesn't have to be taken anywhere and stored in a fridge."

The tours are a key ingredient in using the market as an educational platform about real food.

Slow Food Hunter Valley leader Anne Kelly lead two tours on July 18 and the group hopes to eventually expand the program.

"We'd like to bring more primary schools and day care centres through the market," Ms Dempster said.

"The market is connecting farmers and shoppers but it is also there to show children some of the other growers in the area.

"Maybe that will encourage some of them to become farmers of the future. We need farmers for the future as much as we need eaters of the future."