This week, the 6th graders entered the kitchen to find at their tables a mysterious looking grinder and ten little bowls, each labeled with the name of a whole grain or seed. Their task for the class: to grind, cook, and savor their own hot, multi-grain cereal. The grains we use vary from class to class, but a typical recipe includes hard wheat berries, flax seeds, jasmine rice, oats, rye, farro, long-grain brown rice, millet, buckwheat groats, and richly colored Wehani rice.

The students each pick a grain, record the initial volume, place the grain into the grinder, and then crank its handle clock-wise until all the grain flows through. (The flax seeds go into the cereal whole, and one lucky student at each table grinds the millet by hand in a mortar and pestle, as the seeds are too small to go into the grinder.) We ask the students to notice the fragrance released by the act of grinding. Many agree that ground buckwheat smells just like toast with peanut butter!

Post-grinding, the students record a plus, minus, or equal sign depending on whether they think the volume of their grain has increased, decreased, or stayed the same. After writing down their guess, they measure the actual volume to determine whether their hunch was correct.

The finished dry cereal is cooked in boiling water for approximately ten minutes and sweetened with either brown sugar or maple syrup, depending on which ingredient each table prefers to use. (A close vote is often accompanied by intense lobbying.) Everyone enjoyed the cereal with or without milk, regardless of the time of day, and we had enough left over to send students off with bags of dry cereal to make again at home.

All of the grains in the bowls, ready for student selection

We found out that buckwheat groats even taste good raw

First we measured the product before ginding

Then we ground it up by hand

Everybody tasted, stirred, and seasoned

And then we all ate the delicious sweet grain cereal