James, my youngest, eats some vegetables. His favorite is cauliflower, followed by a bunch of green vegetables - green beans, broccoli and, reluctantly, spinach. I have made attempts to include other vegetables in his dinners … with little success. I did sneak some grated carrots into tomato sauce one night. Mostly the carrots from our farm share wound up as horse treats. At least the horses appreciate them.

One afternoon, James told me the fruit and vegetable people were coming to school. I asked him to describe what they did. Then I explained that the visitors are called nutritionists.

He came home from school with a chart. It had dates down the left side, and a lot of empty spaces. At the top, a vegetable name was written. For several weeks, he was to try a vegetable he didn’t normally prefer. His choice? Carrots!

The weekend was busy. The following Monday, I roasted vegetables, including carrots for dinner. James ate potatoes and requested more cauliflower, but protested the carrots. He said that according to the chart from school, he only needed to try carrots on Saturdays. After I finished rolling my eyes, I encouraged him to try the carrots anyway.

He declined.

The next week, I made soup for myself, with carrots and other vegetables. I offered some to James. I even offered to drain the veggies out of the broth. Nope.

Another night, I shaved some carrots and added them to other veggies. James was pointedly disinterested in trying them.

Finally, one night I made a stir fry. It was a hectic evening, and James had just finished a very long tantrum over a new video game that was not working. No one was in a good mood. I tossed the frozen stir fry veggie mix in a frying pan, combined it with pre-cooked chicken, and added a little honey, pepper, ginger and garlic. I made rice and stirred it into the chicken and veggies. I was fully expecting James to request chicken nuggets instead.

But when I set the bowl in front of him, he complained about the rice, but started eating. A few minutes later, he told me he liked the cooked carrots better than the little raw baby carrots the school serves. I thought “Wow,” and tried not to make too big a deal of it. Then he asked for more broccoli. But after three weeks of trying, he willingly ate carrots.

Sometimes the little successes are the greatest.