About a week ago Jack and I wrapped up a harvest block focusing on different methods of food preservation. A farming block is pretty typical in Waldorf third grade, but we are surrounded by many different kinds of farm, have our on garden and chickens, buy our milk from the farm, etc., so I decided he already had a pretty good understanding of where our food comes from and how it is grown. I shared my original plans for this block here. We
Jack really like this block because it was so hands on. He didn't' read any of the books I had originally planned. He has already heard both the Little House books, and in my preread of Caddie Woodlawn it seemed like a bit much for him yet. He did read quite a few books during this block, but now I'm drawing a blank on which ones. He read Sign of the Beaver and said it was even better than My Side of the Mountain. High praise indeed! I have a focus on books featuring youth who must be adventurous and independent for Jack this year. The theme is surely speaking to him! We also watched an interesting DVD from the library that showed how different types of food are packaged and preserved in factories.
We talked about the different ways we knew of to preserve food and that drying is the oldest method. So, first up, drying! We gathered wild mint down by the creek (how I euphemistically refer to the usually tiny trickle that runs through our property). Jack bundled it up and hung it to dry in the living room. We'll use it for tea during the winter.
Jack sliced and used our food dehydrator to make zucchini and apple chips. Both were yummy and we'll be making loads more of the apple chips.
On one of our hikes I packed a picnic full of different kinds of dried foods.
Oh, I forgot. We also dried up lots of tomatoes out of our garden. Any suggestion on what we should use them in? We don't really eat much pasta which is how I normally think of using them. Using the 3/4 booklets described in the link to my plan for this block above was a nice switch from main lesson books. We will definitely use them again. Also, notice that Jack's writing is super straight (for Jack at least!) I think have the narrower vertical space to work in really assisted him in finding his way on the page.
We have about 8 really overgrown apple trees and last year easily canned 30+ quarts of applesauce from windfall apples. My plan was to do at least double that this year and use the surplus to trade with other people. The unexpected hurricane got in my way and we lost basically all of our apples this year. So, off to the apple orchard we went to Jack could learn how to can applesauce.
Jack also helped me preserve raspberries and blueberries earlier in the summer.
Somehow I managed not to take any pictures of the fermenting/pickling week. Jack made lactofermented sauerkraut. It came out so good and we've been coming up with different meals just to have a reason to eat more of it. Last week I put a pork roast with apples, potatoes and onions in the crockpot and took it to my grandma's with the sauerkraut. She loved it and he was very proud! He also made up 3 quarts of refrigerator pickles with cucumbers and onions. We served them at the Harvest dinner that Jack helped plan.
The empty looking jar is meant to be yogurt. We didn't get around to making yogurt this week, but he has seen me do it many times. I'm sitting here wishing I could come up with a super inspired sounding way to wrap up this post, but it just isn't flowing from my tired Sunday brain. I love watching this kid grow in independence and competence. I'm thankful he can be such a help to me, maybe not always willing help every time and every day, but always there when it really matters. And I'm glad he'll be keeping me supplied with apple chips this winter. Yummy and fast.
