Where Does a Harvest Grove Story Begin?
People sometimes imagine that a children’s story begins with a character.
Maybe an adventurous little fairy. A mischievous puppy. A garden where something has gone terribly wrong.
Mine usually begin somewhere quite different.
They begin with a phytonutrient.
Before there is a fairy, a problem to solve, or even a title, I start looking at one of the naturally occurring compounds found in plants. I want to know what it does for the plant, where it is found, what researchers have discovered about it, and-most importantly-what makes it interesting.
That last question is where Harvest Grove begins to appear.
From Science to Story
Phytonutrients do far more than give us something interesting to talk about at the dinner table. In plants, these compounds can contribute to color, aroma, flavor, defense, growth, and protection from environmental stresses.
That gives a storyteller plenty to work with.
A pigment can become part of a mystery. A plant’s unusual characteristic can inspire a problem in a garden. Something scientists have discovered about a phytonutrient can eventually become a fairy’s special gift.
But I don’t want a child opening a Harvest Grove book and feeling as though someone disguised a nutrition lesson as a story.
The adventure has to work first.
That means the science may inspire the story without controlling every page of it. There can still be muddy shoes, runaway vegetables, confused animals, unexpected visitors, and plans that go completely wrong.
Actually, things going completely wrong is often where the fun begins.
Finding the Fairy
Once I know which plant or phytonutrient I want to explore, I begin thinking about the fairy who belongs with it.
What would this fairy look like?
What colors belong in this part of Harvest Grove?
What personality would make the story more interesting?
And what kind of trouble could happen that would allow the science to appear naturally rather than being dropped into the story as a lecture?
Sometimes the answer comes quickly.
Sometimes it most definitely does not.
Characters change. Stories get rewritten. An idea that sounded wonderful in my head turns out to be completely wrong once it reaches the page.
That is part of creating Harvest Grove too.
The “Ah” Moment
Eventually, everything has to come together.
The beginning of each Harvest Grove story takes place in the modern world. Then Grandma’s story carries us into the fairy world, where the adventure unfolds.
By the time we return to the children and Grandma at the end, I want there to be a little “ah” moment—a point when something from the adventure suddenly connects with something real.
Not a moral.
Not a lesson announced in bold letters.
Just that satisfying little moment when a child realizes that the strange fruit, colorful vegetable, or mysterious plant in the story exists outside Harvest Grove too.
And perhaps the next time they see it, they’ll remember the fairy who lives there.
That is how a Harvest Grove story grows.
It may eventually contain fairies, gardens, animals, magic, and plenty of trouble.
But somewhere underneath all of it is something real.
And very often, it started with a phytonutrient.
