“Mr. Churilla! How come we don’t pickle pickles? I love pickles!” Ja’lynn asked (one morning at the start of Science class).
“Well Ja’lynn, I’m not sure we have enough time to make pickles in Science.”
“Sure, we do!” she exclaimed. “We can reuse the leftover pickle juice like I do at home.”
“Tell me more.”
“When I go to Giant Eagle with my mom, I ask her to buy me some small cucumbers. When I get home, I wash and peel them.”
“Wait! Why do you peel them? Don’t you like the skin?”
“Yes,” she replied, “but the skin is too tough to chew and they must put some kind of wax on them. I just like the inside part.”
“Ok. Then what do you do?”
“I cut them up into circles, plop them into the pickle juice, put the lid on the jar and put it in the back of the fridge for about a week so the cucumbers can soak up the juice.”
“Sounds delicious Ja’lynn, but wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy them instead”
“They’re expensive and I like making them because I know what I put in them. You’ll see, Mr. Churilla. I’ll bring some in for you to taste and you can judge yourself.”
This conversation was the start of the unit I am writing on Food Preservation: From Edible School Garden to Science Table.
Introduction
Preservation of food has a long history among cultures that saved large quantities of food, that could not be consumed within a few days. I see my students as the junk food generation. Consuming mass amounts of processed foods, chips, and the little powdered donuts served at school for breakfast. These will play a not-so important role in their growing bodies. I have always supported fresh vegetables and fruits grown in the school garden. Introducing them to the preservation of foods may spark a taste for dried apples from the school tree or cucumbers from the garden, fermented in a tasty spicy brine. In this unit students, will be able to disseminate the practice of preserving foods.
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