Week of March 1--More Food Preservation

[nlupo]

This week found us continuing our unit on food preservation and delving into another method. We took a little closer look at the 'why' of preserving fresh food--to keep it out of the 'mouths' of the microorganisms we share this world with--and explored the sensory delights of a fresh carrot versus a pickled one.

The students started by sharing some of the whole foods they found at their homes that had been preserved by drying. Some were super creative, including, but not limited to, dried mushrooms, dried seaweed, various and sundry dried fruits, and dried chilies. From there, we used all of our senses to compare and contrast a fresh carrot, straight off of Love is Love Farm, and a preserved carrot (the preserved carrot was pickled, but we didn't let the kids in on that just yet). They described in depth the differences in color--the carrots were red on the outside and orange inside when fresh, but the preserved one was all one color. You could really hear the crunch of the fresh carrot when biting into it, but the preserved one was way less audible. And the taste.....well, that sort of speaks for itself, as you would imagine. The fresh carrot was quite sweet, all the students agreed, while the reactions to the pickled carrot ranged from slightly bitter to somewhat savory to MOST DEFINITELY SOUR. I believe this is what gave away the preservation method used. That and the vinegary smell.

We then ask the students to come up with as many food preservation techniques as possible. We brainstormed a list on the board, and had a lively discussion of how these variety of approaches likely developed. They were pretty well versed in salting and canning, and of course, the requisite cooking, refrigerating, and freezing. Pickling, however, can be a tough one to explain, so we entered through the lens of our frenemies, the microorganisms, and how when we pickle fresh foods, we are creating the acidic environment that harmful microbes don't dig. And we talked about all the different pickles we've ever eaten--too many to list here, but suffice it to say, kids dig pickles! We also watched a great video on pickle-making filmed at a shop in Berkeley, California dedicated solely to the production and love of pickled vegetables.

All in all, I would say the kids walked away with the understanding that microorganisms and humans like to eat the same things, food preservation aims to create an inhospitable environment for them, and pickles are fun and tasty. All in a day's work!