Teach Food

Children appreciate snacks that require work. Just look at that mighty arm!

Sometimes, it's just slicing bread or cutting apples, but last week we ground peanuts for peanut butter. The peanuts are grown in southern New Mexico, so they're local for us. And they're organic. Ha. We roast 'em and then grind them ourselves. Yeah!

But there's so much more to the lesson besides just good food. The kids get to feel the warmth from the friction of the mill (physics), watch whole dry peanuts become globs of cream (chemistry), and test their strength against steel (John Henry).

Even if they eat store-bought peanut butter for the rest of their lives, they will now be able to picture it in a way that even the mechanical grinders in the store are unable to replicate.

Food!