The other day the kids were having a tough time staying outside during Edith's nap (okay fine, MANY days they have trouble with that when it's this hot), so I suggested they go into the woods and hunt for wild blueberries. I was fairly certain that there wouldn't be any left since it was too late in the season, but they were all incredibly excited and grabbed a little tin pail to put them in.
They were gone for quite a while, and returned to tell me that while they didn't find any blueberries, they did find plenty of hickory nuts, which they had carefully husked and were asking me to roast so they could shell them and eat them. Once I reminded them that those pignuts were really only good for pigs (duh!) to eat, I suggested they take them to the porch and smash them with bricks so they could taste how bitter the nutmeats were. Anything to keep them outside longer...
Well, this somehow turned into a very elaborate kitchen operation, and it was amazing. They shelled as many nuts as they could and baked "cakes" out of them on a warm brick. They found some dried gourds and made those into "dishes." They even had a dish washing station! And then... They ate the "cakes" with much grimacing. It made rather a mess, so next time I think there will also need to be a "sweeping" station afterwards, where they sweep all the shells, gourd seeds, and discarded nutmeats off the porch. We'll probably end up with volunteer spinning gourds growing in the front beds next year!
The best sort of childhood fun!!
ReplyDeleteI agree!
Delete