Worth the Itch

Our neighbor's grape vines are loaded right now and even though I'd love to wash my hands of food preservation at this point, I can't ignore free fruit.  I'm incapable.

For some of us, concord grapes can prove to be...well...itchy.  Just pulling them off the stems is fine, but when I start separating the pulp and skins, my hands start reacting.  I can usually make it through my task, but by the end of it, I'm about crawling out of my skin.  Washing my hands and lower arms doesn't provide relief, so I sit and itch my hands for a solid 15 minutes until the worst of it passes.

I learned about this reaction the hard way the first fall we lived here when Sam reacted to the grapes while helping me.  I felt so bad for the boy.  He seemed to grow out of it (and Sadie never reacted this way) which was great, but poor Miriam...she had peeled (by hand) and eaten about 20 of them before her little mouth, chin and hands started itching like crazy.  I plumb forgot what it can do to my little people.  Itching for her, lots of empathy and some cortisone cream ensued and about a half hour later it abated and she was fine.  And has steered clear of the grapes since.

So, go out and get yourself some grapes, but consider yourself warned (Note: None of us react to them once they're cooked).

The other week I made grape jam and this past week, I readied grape pie filling.  This past weekend, Jamey made juice.  I know of two juice-making methods that do not require a fancy juicer.  The first requires no special equipment and involves placing whole grapes, water and sugar into canning jars and processing them (recipe and instructions here).  The other method, which we used this past weekend, is fast becoming our favorite.  There is no sugar involved- only pure grape-y goodness.  This time, we just froze a handful of quarts of the concentrate, drinking a good portion of it fresh shortly after making it, but it can be canned (see below) and we'll do that next time.

Straight Grape Juice (inspired by Joy)

ripe concord grapes, removed from stems and rinsed

Place all grapes in a pot suited to hold the amount you have.  Bring them to a boil (don't add water- they make plenty of juice) while mashing them up a bit using a potato masher.  Simmer for 20 minutes until the grapes are very soft.  Transfer the cooked grapes in batches to a food mill.  Here you have two choices.  Turning the food mill the normal direction will give you a very thick grape juice that would compare to extra-pulp orange juice.  It can be diluted, but you will still have some "pulp-y" texture to your juice.  If you don't mind this, by all means, make the juice this way.  You'll use more of the grapes and end up with more juice.  Your second choice (the one we choose) is to run the food mill the opposite direction (as if you're trying to skim out the mill).  This scrapes the grapes through, giving you mostly juice with a little bit of "pulp".

Chill the juice (what comes through the mill) and drink or freeze.  You can add water to thin it if you like or use it in it's potent form.  It's delicious.

To Can Straight Juice (per The Ball Book of Complete Home Preserving) :   Cover and chill the juice for 24 to 48 hours to allow the sediment (a.k.a. pulp) to settle.  Ladle or pour the juice into a large saucepan, being careful not to disturb the pulp on the bottom or strain the juice through a sieve.   Bring the juice to an almost boil (190 degrees F, 88 degrees C) for 5 minutes.  Ladle the hot juice into hot jars, leaving adequate headspace.  Top with hot lids and screw rings on finger-tip tight.  Place jars in canner of boiling water (jars should be covered).  Process quart jars for 15 minutes.  Remove canner lid and boil an additional 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store. Pin It

Homeschool Highlights: January

January had some highs and some lows.

Let's talk about the highs first, shall we? We finished our science unit on bats. Such fascinating creatures they are. For example, bats usually have only one "pup" per year. They leave their pups in these HUGE bat nurseries while they go out to hunt and then have no problem finding their very own little pup when they return based on smell alone. Oh, and they bathe them daily with their little tongues. Very sweet. Did you know that bats live for an average of 30 years? I didn't. Thirty! They have such a bad reputation, those sweet little creatures. I have a new appreciation for them as does Sam. He decided they are now his favorite animal and spent a good part of a couple afternoons trying to figure out how he could invent wings so children can fly. We set lofty goals for ourselves in this house.

Going along with the flying creatures theme, we did our own mini unit on owls and dissected an owl pellet. Yep. I spent $6 for owl puke. I ordered the pellet from Copernicus Toys. I was pretty sure it would be fun. We were not disappointed. Here are a few pictures for you...

Those are vole bones.

We've read some really good books this month. We finished Indian Captive by Lois Lenski. Quote from Amazon:

In this classic frontier adventure, Lois Lenski reconstructs the real life story of Mary Jemison, who was captured in a raid as young girl and raised amongst the Seneca Indians. Meticulously researched and illustrated with many detailed drawings, this novel offers an exceptionally vivid and personal portrait of Native American life and customs. A 1942 Newbery Honor book.

A friend gave Sam the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen for Christmas. I read it first (as is our custom) and could not put it down. This is a story about a 13 year old boy who is flying over the Canadian wilderness in a small place. The pilot, the only other person aboard, has a heart attack and dies. The plane runs out of gas and crashes into a lake in the middle of nowhere. The rest of the book tells the story of how this boy survives. Full of adventure, courage and ingenuity, this book is a fun read-aloud.

One note of caution for some- the boy was taking the plane trip to visit his father for the summer. His parents are divorced. He knows the "secret" of the divorce- that his mother was seeing another man. In the entire book, there is probably only a few full pages that deal with this issue, but one memory is recounted where the boy sees his mother kissing the other man. I decided this was not appropriate for my 7 year old to read even though he was chomping at the bit to read the book by himself. Instead, I read it aloud to about the half way point (passed the discussion of the "secret") and then turned the book over to him to finish. He loved it.

Another wonderful read was The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz. This is the story of a girl whose family leaves their comfortable life in the east to settle in the wild west. She missed her friends, her school and her tea parties. Slowly Hamilton Hill, on which their cabin was built, grew on her as did her love for the vegetable patch she helped care for. This was a lovely read with a wonderful surprise at the end.

We've read several children's books on the Iditarod in the past month and are having so much fun learning about the race. A major highlight for the whole family was watching Iditarod: The Toughest Race on Earth, a Discovery documentary of the 2008 Iditarod race (Netflix carries it). What an entertaining way to learn about the race, the dogs, a number of the mushers and the huge event that the Iditarod is.

And, we made our Alaska map. Well, mostly Jamey and I made the map. Sam was out of sorts that day. You know, my-sister-had-a-birthday-and-I'm-insanely-jealous-and-out-of-sorts kind of day. He did help outline and label. Sometimes, you just have to take what you can get.

The not so fun parts of this month have been the times when Sam has decided that singing, making loud noises, dropping his pencil and, in general, being disagreeable is more fun than doing his school work. Then, there are the lovely moments when he's said things like,

"I hate school."

"I wish school was never invented."

And, my favorite,

"I would rather be at the dentist."

And Sam HATES the dentist.

So, to recap. A lot of fun stuff + A handful of not-so-fun stuff = 3 3/4 pencils (out of 5)

And, I'm sorry, but there are no pictures out there in internet land of 3 and 3/4 pencils, so you'll just have to use your imagination:-).

Pin It

Iditarod 2010

I couldn't wait all the way until my January homeschooling post to write about this because I'm too excited about it and because you might want to join in.

Jamey and I have been reading (Jamey's done, now I get the book back to finish) Gary Paulson's Woodsong. Paulson writes about his adventures with his sled dogs including their running of the Iditarod. It's a book that has sat on our shelf for awhile. It was given to Sam by a friend but I haven't had time to read it yet and therefore couldn't pass it on to him (I'm pretty picky). Parts would be fine for a read-aloud, but other parts are too intense (at least for Sam). Anyway, Jamey and I have really been enjoying it.

Then, just the other day, I read a post over at Blue House Academy reminding everyone about the eIditarod Project and how registration begins January 9th (Toward the end of her post, she provides a link to the other posts she's written on this subject).

The Iditarod is a 1,000+ mile dog sled race across Alaska. As a teacher or homeschooling parent, you can sign up for the eIditarod Project in which you learn about the race, make a course map, choose a musher to follow and then (during the actual race in March) track your musher through the checkpoints to the end (online).

Fascinating! Needless to say, we are all signed up for the project (it's free) and hope to start on our map soon. Here are the links you will need to get started if you're interested.

Recent Blue House Academy Iditarod Post (and link to her posts about participating in the project last year- very helpful)

The eIditarod Project

The Official Iditarod website (including teacher resources, etc.)

Thanks, Kellie, for cluing us in!! Pin It