Sugar & Spice Unit Studies by Martha Greene Copyright 2006-2013, TheHomemakersMentor.com, all rights reserved This is not a free ebook, and it is licensed for our customers' personal use only. Please do not re-distribute these files in any way, as to do so constitutes theft. Thank you for your consideration of our rights in this matter.
Sugar and Spice Unit #4 ~ Nutmeg Double Spice Double nice! Gathered from the nutmeg tree! When we eat fruit we usually discard the seeds. Do you love peaches? I bet you don t eat the seed in the middle of the juicy peach! The spice nutmeg is found right in the middle of the fruit from the nutmeg tree. That tree grows to a gigantic height of 30 feet tall. This seed actually gives us two spices, mace and nutmeg. We will learn more about them later in the study. The world produces over 10,000 tons of nutmeg per year! Some folks are really spicing up their food! You will learn that nutmeg is not only used in foods. It is commonly used in toothpaste, perfumes, medicines, and other spice blends like curry powder. Nutmeg butter is expelled from the nut and used in industry and cosmetics. Nutmeg oil is extracted and used widely in commercial baked goods and as a natural food flavoring in soft drinks and cough syrup. Research continues to find more ways to use nutmeg. Studies are being done to see if it will keep bugs away from granaries (places that store cereal grains). Enjoy your study as you learn things you never knew about nutmeg. Nutmeg BOTANICAL NAME: Myristica fragans POPULAR USES: Sweet baked goods, cough syrup flavoring, and spice blends. SOURCES: Indonesia and Grenada dominate the world s production. WHO IS FOOLING YOU? Old-timey peddlers and traders were known to whittle wooden ovals that looked so similar to a nutmeg that they would trick housewives by selling them the wooden nutmeg as a spice. The stories about being tricked by these peddlers became commonplace and the term wooden nutmeg became known as anything that was a fake or fraud. The state of Connecticut abounded in these slick peddlers of fake, wooden nutmegs and so has been nicknamed the Nutmeg State. MAP ACTIVITY On page 2 find the state of Connecticut on the United States map and color it brown. Find the state where you live and color it red. Locate every state you have traveled to and color them green. Now find each state that is colored and write the nickname given to the state in the colored area. You will find the nicknames on the last page of this UNIT # 4. page 1 of Unit # 4
United States Map ~ Use this map for the MAP ACTIVITY ~ = GREAT LAKES page 2 of Unit # 4
Like the cloves, nutmeg grows on an evergreen tree. The term evergreen means it is green ever - all year. You have probably never seen the fruit from the nutmeg tree. Next time your momma goes to the grocery store, ask her to bring home an apricot or peach. This is similar to what the fruit borne on the nutmeg tree looks like. A soft, fleshy fruit, pale amber, with a hard seed in the middle. These large trees are grown from seeds or propagated from grafting. The trees are male and female and the female trees only bear fruits after pollination from the male trees. Trees propagated from seeds must be planted heavily in the groves as they cannot be labeled male or female until they have flowered. The planted groves are searched for signs of too many male trees and they are removed. It is preferred to have 8-10 male trees per acre with the rest being the female trees that bear the fruit. After 8-9 years, the trees begin to bear some fruit. Only small amounts at first, then increasing their yield each year. At 30+ years old, the trees may bear up to 4000-8000 nuts per year. The trees produce 2-3 crops of nuts per year. Some nutmeg trees have been are known to be 90 years old and still bearing heavy crops. When planting groves with grafted trees, one can be assured of planting proper proportions of male trees to female trees for good yields. The fruit and flowers are borne on this leafy, green tree and when the fruit is ripe it is hand picked. We will find out more about how we get two spices, nutmeg and mace, from these fruits. Old Wive s Tales An old wive s tale is a tale told and passed down through communities and families told over and over again, generation after generation. Many times the story is all hearsay and not fact. Here are two old wive s tale passed down about nutmeg: If you have rheumatism, carry a nutmeg around in your pocket to ward off the aches and pains. Tuck a nutmeg into your left armpit before attending a social event and you will attract admirers. Ask your momma or poppa if they have heard an Old Wive s Tale and have them write it for you here: page 3 of Unit # 4
The fruit of the nutmeg tree ripens and splits open the inner seed is covered with a lacy-like membrane this is gathered very carefully and flattened and dried. The lacy membranes are sprinkled with salt water to aid in preserving them. The membranes are then ground fine and made mace that is delicate and light compared to a heartier, pungent flavor of the nutmeg. After the mace (which is similar to a netting around the seed) is gathered, the shiny brown nuts are collected and left to dry in the sun or exposed to smoke until the nutmeg (the seed) inside its brittle shell rattles. Some nutmeg growers powder their nuts with lime or steep them in a lime and water mixture to prevent the worms and bugs from destroying their harvest. Sorted nutmegs are then cleaned and packed for exporting to the spice markets of the world. VOCABULARY ~ Learn to use these words and know their meanings. ~ export increase destroy prevent community peddler commercial fraud nickname market A suffix is an ending added to a root word to change the meaning. Add ing to the first 4 words (from the list above) to make new words and use them in a complete sentence. Write your sentences with topics about spices. Use the lined paper in the back of this Unit. SPELLING Make a list below of the states you have labeled with their nicknames. Some may have tricky spellings. Learn to spell them and remember to use a capital letter to spell a state s name. Use a separate piece of paper if you have traveled to many states in the USA. page 4 of Unit # 4
COLORING PAGE Grenada has been so successful growing nutmeg, they are nicknamed the NUTMEG ISLAND. Their country s flag even has a nutmeg on it. You draw in the nutmeg shape in the proper section of the flag and color it, too. It is not a difficult shape to draw. Get help if you need it from an older brother or sister or your momma or poppa, but try it yourself first. You can do it! Here are the colors of the GRENADA FLAG do your best when you color. Flag of GRENADA ~~ The NUTMEG ISLAND Colored by: page 5 of Unit # 4
Color and Identify Lacy reddish net-like membrane MACE spice The fleshy, edible fruit The aromatic, shiny leaf The seed nutmeg page 6 of Unit # 4
Let s get cooking with some nutmeg! Have you ever tasted Sugardoodles? Oh, YUMMMM! They are soft cookies with a touch of spice and a topping of spiced sugar! Yummm! After you bake them up you can have a cookies and milk break with your brothers and sisters. Be sure to save a few for your Poppa to taste when he gets home. He will be so proud you are learning to bake up goodies in the kitchen. Sugardoodles Ingredients you will use: Unbleached all-purpose flour Salt Baking soda Cream of tartar Sugar Butter or margarine Eggs Nutmeg Cinnamon Utensils you will need: Mixing bowl Baking sheet Measuring spoons Measuring cups Heat your oven to 350 degrees This is the mark you will set the oven dial on. Mix together in a mixing bowl 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg In another mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until creamy Add in and beat until the mixture is smooth 1 cup soft butter or margarine 2 eggs Now add your flour mixture from your first mixing bowl into the butter and egg mixture. Stir until a smooth dough is formed. Add to a small bowl 1/2 cups sugar 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon Recipe is continued on next page... page 7 of Unit # 4
Make sure you have thoroughly washed your hands with soap and water. With clean, dry hands that you have dusted with some flour, make golf ball size balls from your dough. Roll each dough ball into the sugar/spice mixture in your smaller bowl. Place them on an ungreased baking sheet at least 3 inches apart. They will puff while baking and you don t want them to puff together! Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then carefully lift them with a cookie spatula to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Makes about 3 dozen cookies, depending on your cookie size. We want to have a party and make lots of Sugardoodles for the party. We will need to make at least 4 dozen cookies. So we must double the recipe. Here are the ingredients listed with the amounts in the original recipe. You fill in the blanks to double the recipe to twice the size so we can feed everyone at the party! This is a mathematical skill you will use over and over when you are grown up won t you be wise to learn how to do this now? This is preparing you for the life skills you will need when you are on your own. So let s try it! You can either use multiplication or addition. Either will get the answers you will need. SINGLE RECIPE DOUBLE RECIPE 2 3/4 cups flour cups flour 1/4 teaspoon salt teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon baking soda teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons cream of tartar teaspoons cream of tartar 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg teaspoon nutmeg 1 1/2 cups sugar cups sugar 1 cup butter or margarine cups butter or margarine 2 eggs eggs SUGAR & SPICE MIXTURE 1/2 cup sugar cups sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon Tablespoons cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg teaspoon nutmeg page8 of Unit # 4
US STATE NICKNAMES Every state has an official nickname and most states have at least 2 other nicknames but only one official one. The official nickname is listed first. Use this information to work on your map on page 2. Alabama (Heart of Dixie) Alaska (Last Frontier) Arizona (Grand Canyon State) Arkansas (Natural State) California (Golden State) Colorado (Centennial State) Connecticut (Constitution State or Nutmeg State) Delaware (First State) Florida (The Sunshine State or the Orange State) Georgia (Peach State) Hawaii (Aloha State) Idaho (Gem State) Illinois (Prairie State) Indiana (Hoosier State) Iowa (Hawkeye State or Tall Corn State) Kansas (Sunflower State) Kentucky (Bluegrass State) Louisiana (Pelican State or Bayou State) Maine (Pine Tree State) Maryland (Old Line State or Terrapin State) Massachusetts (Bay State) Michigan (Great Lakes State) Minnesota (North Star State) Mississippi (Magnolia State or Hospitality State) Missouri (Show Me State) Montana (Treasure State) Nebraska (Cornhusker State) Nevada (Silver State) New Hampshire (Granite State) New Jersey (Garden State) New Mexico (The Land of Enchantment) New York (Empire State) North Carolina (Tar Heel State) North Dakota (Peace Garden State) Ohio (Buckeye State) Oklahoma (Sooner State) Oregon (Beaver State) Pennsylvania (Keystone State or Quaker State) Rhode Island (Ocean State) South Carolina (Palmetto State) South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore State) Tennessee (Volunteer State) Texas (Lone Star State) Utah (Beehive State) Vermont (Green Mountain State) Virginia (Old Dominion) Washington (Evergreen State) West Virginia (Mountain State) Wisconsin (Badger State or Cheese State) Wyoming (Equality or Cowboy State) page 9 of Unit # 4
Use for writing projects assigned in this Unit. Page10 of Unit # 4