Spices

I think this is one of those subjects which is excellent for homeschooling, because spices relate to practically everything. At A's age you can just look at spices, smell them, possibly taste them (although A. generally won't). You can discuss how they're harvested, dried, and sometimes ground, and how curry and chili powder are actually mixtures. It's cool to see vanilla beans growing on the vine-- it's far removed from that bottle of extract in the cupboard. I hope to experiment soon with putting cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. into different cookies, and then have a taste test.

In our case we can get into the concepts of weight, volume, and density, since we just ordered a slew of spices -- by weight -- from Penzey's. A bag of cumin seeds and a bag of basil which are of equal weight are of vastly different sizes. (In our last order, my husband ordered 8 oz of mint. It became apparent when it arrived that 8 oz of mint would last us for approximately the next decade.)

The American Spice Trade Association website has a short introduction to the history of the spice trade, which could be used to learn about geography, the advent of colonialism, shipping and piracy, exploration and trade routes, etc. It even makes an interesting lesson in economics, in the concept of currency and the fact that the rarity of an item increases its price. From the ASTA site:

During the Middle Ages in Europe, a pound of ginger was worth the price of a sheep; a pound of mace would buy three sheep or half cow; cloves cost the equivalent of about $20 a pound. Pepper, always the greatest prize, was counted out peppercorn by peppercorn. The guards on London docks even down to Elizabethan times, had to have their pockets sewn up to make sure they didn't steal any spices. In the 11th Century, many towns kept their accounts in pepper; taxes and rents were assessed and paid in this spice, and a sack of pepper was worth a man's life.

The Economist also had a brief article on the spice trade.

One spice that particularly interests me is the ancient silphium or silphion, which once grew near Carthage and was highly prized. It was difficult to cultivate and could not be successfully grown elsewhere. When the Romans sacked Carthage, they sowed the earth with salt, and shortly thereafter silphium apparently went extinct. Possibly it's a stretch to call it a spice, however, as its main use appears to have been as an oral contraceptive.

Another food-related website called The Epicentre has a spice encyclopedia and some pages on the spice trade. UCLA has a great website on spices, including a detailed page on medicinal properties.

For someone like me, who has the opposite of a green thumb, a few little pots containing herbs will let A. learn about seeds, fertilizer, flowering, annuals vs. perennials, etc, without requiring much time or effort. Plus we get to eat the results.

Hope that inspires someone out there. And hey, if you think of anything else we can tie into spices, drop me a comment-- I hope to use spices as a "theme" for a long time to come.