Pioneer Life School Projects
Experience pioneer life first-hand by making butter, dipping candles and baking bread. Gather berries, leaves and nutshells to make your own natural dyes. Simulations and reenactments reinforce how difficult and labor-intensive daily life was for pioneer families.
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Making Butter
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Pioneer families made their own butter and cheese. Even after leaving the trails, most pioneers had little or no refrigeration. Pioneers lucky enough to own a cow made butter and cheese to avoid wasting the milk. Pioneer housewives used a churn to make butter, but it can also be made in a plastic zipper bag. The Michigan Department of Agriculture recommends using a glass jar.
Give each student a quart-size plastic zipper bag containing 1 cup heavy whipping cream. Have students shake the bags until the cream begins to look like scrambled eggs. This is the butterfat separating from the milk. Keep shaking until the butter sticks together in a lump.
Open a corner of the bag and pour off the buttermilk. Dump the butter into a plastic bowl and add 1 teaspoon salt. Use a wooden spoon to stir the salt into the butter until it disappears. Keep the butter in a cool place in a lidded plastic bowl.
Making Sourdough Bread
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Sourdough bread starter was carried in crocks. All that buttermilk had to go somewhere. Pioneers kept sourdough bread starter in a crock with a lid, using it to make biscuits, pancakes and bread. Mix 1/2-cup buttermilk in a covered crock with 2 cups flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Keep it in a warm place for three to five days. On the sixth day, add 1 cup water and 2 cups flour and let it sit in a warm place for another eight to 12 hours. When it forms bubbles and has a sharp, sour scent, it is ready to use.
Pour off two cups of sourdough starter and refrigerate it to start a new batch. Use two more cups of starter to make your bread. Divide the remaining sourdough starter into quart bags and give it away. If you make too much starter and can no longer find anyone willing to take it, you can freeze it until you want to start a new batch.
Add 2 cups flour to 2 cups sourdough starter and mix well. Break two eggs into a bowl and beat them slightly until they are yellow. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Knead bread until all the flour is in the dough and it no longer sticks to your hands. It is ready to put in the pans when it feels like raw pizza dough.
Grease the bread pans with cooking spray or wipe all over the inside with olive oil on a paper towel. Divide the dough into two more or less equal parts and pat it into an oval in the pan. Cover with a towel and allow to rise in a warm place. When the loaves have doubled, place them in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 to 40 minutes or until the tops of the loaves are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing.
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Dipping Candles
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Pioneers made most of their candles from suet and tallow, which is rendered animal fat. Tallow was rendered in big iron kettles hung over a fire outdoors. Pioneer wives tied wicks to rods and dipped them in the fat and then in a second kettle of cold water to harden the wax so they could dip the candles again.
Melt sheets of beeswax or soy wax in a double boiler until it is all liquid. Students should stand with the wick on a long stick so that they are far enough from the wax to avoid splashes. Lower the wick into the wax and pull it back out before lowering it into water. Repeat until the wick is covered with 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch of wax.
Dyeing Cloth
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Take a nature hike with students to gather leaves, berries and walnut shells. Gather at least 1 to 2 cups of each plant, so that your dyes will be strong enough. Cut purple cabbage into chunks in one pile and cut onions in another pile. Boil separate pans of water for the cabbage, onions and each berry, leaf or other plant part. Put a different plant in each pot. Note what color each item produces as it boils, and what color it actually produces when you dye your cloth.
Give students squares of white muslin to put into each pot. Stir the cloth in the dye using a long-handled wooden spoon, lifting the cloth from the pot occasionally to check the color. When the cloth has absorbed enough color, pull it from the dye pot with the long-handled spoon and drape it over a rod to dry in the sun.
Have students keep a notebook listing what plant was used to make each pot of dye. Have them describe what color each plant made. After the cloth dries, ask students to wash the cloth. Have them note which dyes stayed in the cloth and which washed away.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit pioneer wagon image by Pierrette Guertin from Fotolia.com Butter image by Cornelia Pithart from Fotolia.com bread image by Bube from Fotolia.com
