Spices - Sort of OT

[esgunn]

We are studying The Age of Exploration in History. Including the Portuguese explorers voyages around the continent of Africa. The Pope declaring the line of Demarcation and the Portuguese taking over the early spice trade. It has been fun.

Today we did an activity where we had a description of a spice and we learned about the spice, where it comes from, how it is used and did a lot of tasting. My book "The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices" by Lesley Bremness and Jill Norman has a lot of great information.

We studied and tasted: pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mustard and cinnamon. We added on our own, turmeric, saffron, vanilla bean, coriander seed and allspice.

[luvnit]

What fun, and how interesting!

[Gourmet_Mom]

How fun! That's the kind of thing that makes home schooling fun, I think!

[Mare749]

Erin, once again, I'm so impressed! You really are Supermom! It's nice that some of the children's lessons are so fun and interesting like that one. Thanks for sharing this with us.

This reminded me of a very special day that I shared with Alyssa when she was just 2 years old and still on oxygen. It was a warm and sunny day, just a week before her open heart surgery. I took her outside and set her down in the middle of my garden to "help" me pick basil. I showed her what to do and she caught on very quickly. But, the best part was the way she kept putting the pieces to her nose and taking in a big breath, then smile. To this day, she especially loves basil. What a great memory! You are going to have many of those with your children.

[HomeCulinarian]

That's a clever way to introduce many topics at once! Your triplets are lucky ducks to have you as their teacher, Erin.

[Harborwitch]

Erin that sounds like so much fun! What a great way for them to learn history, geography, and a love of flavors in food.

Lucky lucky kids

[cjs]

I also have one of Jill Norman's book "Herbs & Spices, the cook's reference" - it's a great one, also.

What a great thing to teach the kids, Erin.

[labradors]

I like that three of your additions are three of my favourites: turmeric, coriander and allspice. You hear people saying, "Oooh! Garlic!" all the time, but how often do you hear someone say, "Oooh! Turmeric!"? Well, that's what I would say! The coriander is especially wonderful right at the moment when I open up the spice grinder from having ground the whole seeds. Allspice - well, what can I say? Not only is that the heart of Jerk Chicken, but it is also a great ingredient to add to chili.

[esgunn]

So from what I read (don't know if it is 100% truth or not) Jamaica is the biggest producer of allspice. They have not had a lot of luck trying to get it to grow in other regions.

[DFen911]

I love how you are working culinary interest into lessons! Learn about the spice geographically, flavor profiles, you would even do economics as peppercorns and salt was used as currency.

Neat project!