Green Science Adventure Camp: Week 2, Day 3

Hello peppers!

It was ruminant animal day, which means the peppers spent time with the ruminant animals on the farm. Ruminant animals have a stomach that is very different from us. Ruminants don’t have to completely chew all their food because instead of one compartment to the stomach, they have four. They are known as ruminant animals because of their first compartment to the stomach, the rumen.

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To see and “feel” the different stomachs, we made buckets to simulate the inside walls. Before we put our hands in the buckets we felt a rubber model of a sheep stomach to know what they would feel like then, each person put their hands in the bucket filled with animal food and water to represent real stomach contents, as they guessed which stomach they were feeling.

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The paneer cheese draining.

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In garden kitchen we made sushi using carrots, rice, and seaweed paper. At first everyone was a little nervous about eating seaweed but as soon as they wrapped up their rice and carrots, it tasted delicious! We opened up our yogurt that we made yesterday and saw how thick it became overnight. We smelled the difference of what milk smells like and our yogurt that we made. We started our paneer cheese in the morning because it needs a little time to drain and flatten to be just right!

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We went on a hike with our ruminant friends by the woods. Everyone took a turn walking one of the goats or Rita, the llama.

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In our corn biscuits, we used our corn meal that we ground up. We pretended to eat like cows by eating the corn. Along with our corn biscuits, we shook up cream to make butter. We then found out where buttermilk came from. It was just the liquid left over from the butter! We tried our cheese that we made in the morning along with our biscuits and butter that we made in the afternoon.

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We had a ruminant relay today! In the rumen, it can hold up to 50 gallons so we took water to a bucket and then ran back to the group to represent the cud that is chewed for up to 8 hours a day. Then we went to the reticulum, where hardware can build up and the magnets that the cows can hold to catch metal stays, we carried an egg to another hula hoop. The like the omasum filters, we sorted a stick and a rock from a bucket to hula hoops. The abomasum is the true stomach, because it is like the human stomach, and we ran around cones to burn energy. To show the end process, we hopped on one foot, to represent “plop, plop, plop”.

Our skits will start at 3:00 on Friday afternoon.

See you all tomorrow!

Garden Kitchen Recipes

Corn Biscuits

  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 2/3 cup corn meal
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • 1 tbs baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees. Make sure butter is well broken down by using hands to mix with dry ingredients before adding buttermilk. Mix well then make biscuits about the size of your palm. When done, biscuits will be slightly golden brown on the top. Makes about 12 biscuits.

Paneer Cheese

  • 3 quarts whole milk

  • 3 cups buttermilk

  • 1 tablespoon salt

 

1. FOR THE CHEESE: Line colander with triple layer of cheesecloth and set in sink. Bring milk to boil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Whisk in buttermilk and salt, turn off heat, and let stand for 1 minute. Pour milk mixture through cheesecloth and let curds drain for 15 minutes.

2. Pull edges of cheesecloth together to form pouch. Twist edges of cheesecloth together, firmly squeezing out as much liquid as possible from cheese curds. Place taut, twisted cheese pouch between 2 large plates and weigh down top plate with heavy Dutch oven. Set aside at room temperature until cheese is firm and set, at least 45 minutes. Remove cheesecloth and cut cheese into ½-inch pieces. (Left uncut, cheese can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

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