Slow Food the County’s first taste education program for children was developed by focusing on the simple staples of life, bread and butter.  Challenged with little start up capital and the idea of linking a school program with learning expectations from the Ontario Curriculum, making bread and butter was an elementary solution.  The central aspect of the grade three heritage and citizenship curriculum is pioneer life.  By choosing to make bread and butter, the initiative combined the County’s rich settlement and agricultural history with a complimentary nod to a member of Canada’s Ark of Taste, Red Fife Wheat.

Slow Food objectives for the program were threefold.  Children would experience a link between where their food comes from, what it is made of and how the ingredients are grown.  Secondly, children would be encouraged to experience the sensations of taste, smell and touch when making bread and butter.  Lastly, the class would sit down together to eat the bread and butter and talk about what they had enjoyed about the process of making their own food.

The limitations of baking bread within school schedules led to developing what proved to be crucial for sharing the children’s experiences with their families as well.  Instead of baking bread in the class, children were sent home with bread dough  (equivalent to one small loaf that each child had kneaded themselves) in a plastic bag.  It was important to use a recipe robust enough to withstand some bashing on the way home in a backpack.  Pre-baked loaves of the same recipe were served to children in the classroom and eaten (enthusiastically) with the fresh butter they had made.  At home, parents helped to shape a loaf, let it rise and bake it. We are happy to report that most loaves were baked successfully.  Several children brought their bread in their lunches the following day.

In addition to mixing flour, yeast and water for the dough and shaking jars of cream to make butter, children were given the opportunity to grind wheat with a hand turned grinder.   The wheat, a hard red winter variety, was donated to the program from a farmer in Prince Edward County.  Unfortunately, the flour we ground could not be used for the bread as it had been given to me in a bucket directly from the combine harvester, still warm from the sun and full of chaff. The grinder too, rudimentary at best, ground inconsistent variations of “flour”, but it fit our modest budget.   Nonetheless, these limitations allowed us to explore the role of grain elevators and milling processes used to create refined white and whole wheat flours.  Of course we wanted the children to like the bread they helped to make and, so far, the whole wheat, honey bread recipe we use has yet to be rejected.

A lot of additional props were used in the classroom such as wheat stalks and a variety of different grains for comparison.  An experiment with a bottle filled with yeast, sugar and warm water and topped with a deflated balloon, served to illustrate clearly what yeast is doing when added to flour and water.  As the yeast fed on the sugar, it breathed out carbon dioxide and inflated the balloon.  This was a delight to the children.   
The program has been carried out three times this year and we are hoping to include a fourth.  Several volunteers ensure that the taste education experience is conducted successfully. It’s amazing how quickly flour and water can make a mess but it’s even more amazing to witness the enjoyment and the learning that illuminates a child’s smile at the point of discovery.

Written by Suzanne Biro, member of the Prince Edward County, Ontario Slow Food Convivium