The past few weeks have been fun, but crazy! I'm glad I laid out this year's lesson blocks so that sometimes we have the super busy, "filled with field trips" kinds of blocks, but in between we have the more tame, home-bound ones. I'm ready to stay at home and do nothing but draw and write for a few weeks!
The past two weeks we've been focusing on farming with an emphasis on harvest. We'll be looking at farming periodically throughout the year, and this was the time to explore what happens on the farm in the autumn, which is harvesting and then preserving the harvest.
Here's my chalkboard drawing for this block, inspired by the one here.
We started out the block with a field trip to the downtown farmer's market in Salt Lake City to buy pickling cucumbers and dill. We had such a wonderful time, and I wish we lived closer so that we could go every weekend! The atmosphere is such fun, with street musicians stationed along the way amidst the booths. Many of the vendors offered free samples of their wares, everything from the most delicious peaches I'd ever tasted (of course we ended up buying some) to local specialty cheeses. Even the downtown bakeries all had booths with the most delectable-looking pastries. The kids were even able to buy small, cool-looking rocks from one man, and he gave them some free petrified wood samples.
Peaches, apples, cucumbers, and dill.
First we learned about grains. We talked about what they are (seeds from grasses), which are the most common types, and how they can be preserved and prepared.
We compared a lot of different types of grain I had around the house, including wheat, barley, oats (steel-cut and rolled), popcorn, Indian corn, and several kinds of rice.
The kids had fun grinding up all the different grains.
One afternoon we hopped in the car and headed down to the nearby Benson Gristmill for a short field trip. It is a restored gristmill from pioneer times, and the tour was free. Dallin even earned a Cub Scout patch by going there.
This is a quern, basically a hand version of a mill. The kids were able to turn the wheel and produce flour.
Dallin looking at a millstone.
Sariah exploring a metate, which is how ancient peoples ground their grain.
At the gristmill, they had a replica mill that actually ran so the children could see exactly how the process worked from the water wheel out in back to the grinding stone inside.
Our other main project for the first week was pickling. We talked about how in olden days, people just popped their cucumbers into a huge barrel of brine and let them sit for months, then simply grabbed a pickle out of the barrel when they wanted one. Nowaday we cook and can our pickles!
My kids love any project that involves chopping or cutting with knives!
These pickles are going to be the oddest shapes and sizes imagineable. But at least the children can say they made it themselves!
Filling the jars with the hot brine (vinegar, salt, sugar, dill, and pickling spices).
And, our finished project! The kids are mad that they have to cure for a few months before eating. I must say, pickles are almost the easiest thing ever to can, rivaled only by jam. If I would have known this, I'd have tried pickles years ago. James' dad canned pickles every year. One thing we've done throughout this block is tell or read farming stories from our ancestors. I started out telling stories from my own childhood and James's also. Later on we branched out to more distant ancestors. It was amazing to hear of ancestors as recently as the 1930's using pioneer methods to grow and preserve food!
For each discussion, field trip, and project we did, Dallin had to do some writing and illustrating to tell about the experience. I will detail some of that in a separate post. If I get to it! I am so completely swamped right now I hardly know which end is up. I am so tired at the end of the day, and there are always too many things still needing my attention and being left undone. I can't think about it too hard or I get totally overwhelmed. I can only take one day at a time and do the best I can and not worry about anything more.
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