Tu Bishvat is one of the four New Years noted and celebrated in the Jewish calendar, and it marks the start of the agricultural year. The Torah states that fruit from a tree that is less than 3 years old may not be eaten on Tu Bishvat. Of course, a farmer would know when their trees were planted, and how old they are. But another way to know a tree’s age is to count the rings of a fallen or cut tree. And guess what? Kids love to count tree rings.
While it wouldn’t be quite kosher to cut down a tree to celebrate Tu Bishvat (in fact, many people plant trees in honor of the holiday), it is fun and easy to create your own cut tree prints! Potato prints have been around for a long time, and this is a new spin that uses veggies. With cut vegetable stamp prints, kids can create and study something with rings, in the same way they could study a tree’s rings. Cabbage, onions, and Brussels sprouts make for great prints. Red beets work well too without using paint, but be careful–beet juice can stain!
Kids can count the rings they create, and even turn their picture into a timeline by writing down important things that have happened in their lives during the years. They can also see which prints have more than three rings, and decide if that “tree’s” fruit may be eaten on Tu Bishvat. They can try out each vegetable and fill a whole sheet of paper with multiple stamps and colors. Each time the veggie is painted, it can be used a few times to make multiple prints.
An adult will need to help with all of the vegetable cutting. And make sure hands are washed especially well after handling the cut onion.
Construction paper or card stock
Tempera or acrylic paint
Pencils, pens or markers
Vegetables (cabbage, onions, Brussels sprouts, beets)
1. Have an adult cut the vegetables in half crosswise.
2. Paint the cut side of each vegetable. It is fun to mix colors too.
3. Turn the vegetable half over on to a piece of paper, using it as a stamp.
4. Lift up the vegetable stamp.
5. Look at the rings that are created by the stamp. Count the rings.
6. Write down how old your “tree” must be. Make other notes about the rings or years, and label with things that happened at different ages in your life.
7. Let the paper dry. You can also wait to write on it until it is dry.