This week we explored the wisdom of Indigenous foodways and learned that popcorn has been enjoyed by Native peoples for thousands of years. In the classroom we read Tomie dePaola’s The Popcorn Book, in which we learned that one-thousand-year-old popcorn kernels were discovered in Peru and could still be popped!
In the kitchen classroom the kindergarteners made a Peruvian spice blend, popped fresh popcorn, and cut up fresh fruit for chicha morada, a refreshing Peruvian beverage made with purple corn and spices. We had so much fun grinding the spice blend in the mortar and pestle, chopping pineapple and green apple, squeezing limes, and customizing our own bowls of popcorn with our homemade spice mix, melted butter, nutritional yeast, and the Japanese rice seasoning furikake.
