Pickled Beets

I adapted this recipe from one I found my Ball Blue Book of Preserving (p85) "Spicy Pickled Beets"

Ingredients:
4 lbs Beets 1-1 1/2 inches in diameter (or you can cut them down to size in slices or chunks)
3 cups thinly sliced onions (optional)
2 cups sugar (or less if you like)
3 sticks cinnamon, broken
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole allspice (1/2 teaspoon ground)
1 teaspoon whole cloves (1/2 teaspoon ground)
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups water

Wash beets, leave 2 inches of stem and the tap root intact. Put beets in a large sauce pot and cover with water or roasting pan. Cook in pan until tender (either boiling or roasting at 350F). Drain (if boiling). Remove peel; trim ends. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add beets and cook until hot throughout. Remove cinnamon sticks (or leave in if you like). Pack hot beets into hot jars (that have been steralized) leaving 1/4 inch headspace (space between top of contents and top of jar). Ladle hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbls (slide a knife down along the sides of the jar to let the air out). Adjust lids (if processing use canning jars with 2 piece lids, otherwise you can use any jars you have collected). Either process 30 minutes in a boiling water canner or refridgerate for up to 8 weeks. Will be ready to eat in a few days.

Caution--this juice will stain so if making it with students make sure they are wearing aprons or some other covering.

Dill Pickle recipe

Ingredients:
4 lbs cucumbers (makes about 7 pints)
3 cups white or cider vinegar
3 cups water
1/3 cup pickling salt (must be pickling salt or bad things happen to your pickles)
12 peeled, sliced garlic cloves
21 peppercorns
7 dill heads or 14 tablespoons dill seed

Directions:

1. Wash cucumbers and cut into spears.
2. Combine vinegar, water and pickling salt and heat to boiling. Add garlic
3. Pack cucumbers into steralized jars.
4. Add 3 peppercorns and 2 tablespoons dill seed or 1 dill head to each jar.
5. Fill jars with the hot pickling mixture. Leaving 1/2 inch headroom (space between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar)
6. Adjust lids. If processing, place in boiling waterbath for 20 minutes for quarts. complete seals if necessary If not processing place in refridgerator, will keep for up to 8 weeks.

Fruit Salad Upset Game

Game set-up
1.Choose five fruits (for a class of about 25 you can use more or less depending on the number of students you have).
2. Have the students sit in a circle in chairs preferably but you can use differnt locations if you are doing this game outside with a set number of students per location.
3. Assign each student a fruit --they must remember the fruit they are assigned.

Game play
1. Call out one of the fruits. All students assigned that fruit must get up and find a new spot to sit or move from their location to another that has space. (no one is ever out this game is just about learning terms, observation and movement)
2. After calling individual fruits for a little while call out "Fruit Salad" when the students hear this they all need to get up and find a new spot or location. This WILL result in mass chaos don't be alarmed that should happen. Continue calling individual fruits with the occassional salad thrown in until you can't take it any more or it is time to move on to another activity. Be warned this will make the students a bit wound up but given enough space to run it may tire them out too.

Variations:

• Erosion: Use Soil terms-(Sand, clay, silt, humus, rocks, pebbles, etc). Call "Erosion" to make all students move.
• Stir-fry-Use veggies (carrot, turnip, bok choy, etc). Call "Stir-fry" to make everyone move.
• Storm-Use plant parts (seed, roots, stem, etc or weather terms-rain, flood, snow, sleet, wind, thunder, cirrus cloud, etc). Call "Storm" to make everyone move
• Bug Zapper or Insectory-use insect terms (head, abdomen, thorax, compound eye or insect names-stink bug, ladybug, lacewing, cucumber beetle, etc). Call "Bug Zapper" or "Insectory" to make everyone move.
• Potpourri-use herb or edible flower names (rosemary, lavender, parsley, nasturtium, calendula, etc). Call "potpourri" to make everyone move

I am sure there are more variations that can be done. Let me know if you think of one.