Laurea tells us about Pickling

Our second session of EBs recently wrapped up, and kids are still excited about them. Today, Laurea tells us about In a Pickle, the pickling EB. 

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Laurea, checking her wingspan.

We do EBs on Fridays. 

EBs are where we chose a topic from four or five choices. I am writing about the pickles EB. There were five EBs this season; Pickles, Flashmob, Comics, Guitar, and Horseback Riding. Mr. Chris Swinko taught this EB. We call him Chris. I hope you like my blog. :)

Session 1: 

We tried a lot of pickles. We learned about different types of pickles. There are salt pickles and vinegar pickles. With salt pickles, good bacteria thrives. It kills all of the other bacteria and the good bacteria pickles the cucumbers. With vinegar brine, it kills ALL of the bacteria. (Brine is what pickles the cucumbers.)  

Salt pickles

Vinegar pickles                         

Session 2: 

We made some vinegar pickles. Find a vinegar pickle recipe here. We also pickled some unusual things like carrots and cauliflower. The cauliflower was really good. We tried a little of the store-bought vinegar pickles. They were spicy, but good. You can buy the pickles we tried at Whole Foods. Their website is here.

Session 3:  

We started making salt pickles. We got our vinegar pickles from the last class. We started making salt pickles. Find how to make salt pickles here. We are going to interview people from various local pickle companies, one of them is The Brinery . We got to eat a lot of the ingredients, including fennel. We got to try our vinegar pickles from last class.

Session 4: 

We went to the Brinery and we got to see things. The Brinery’s website is here. We got to see how they do things and see how they make things. The surprising thing is they make everything by hand. They have a machine for shredding, but the majority of the process is without machines. We learned that pickle brine is being given as a drink to many major athletes. Pickle juice can replace many nutrients that gatorade cannot. We got to try some pickle brine and some pickles. They were good. Be sure to check out the link I gave you!

Lemon pickles