LESSON 1: A Food Pyramid Built From Corn (Science)*
LESSON 2: Meaty Numbers (Math)*
LESSON 3: The Web of Life (Multidisciplinary)*

*All Lesson plans are adaptable for ALL ages!

ANN LEARNS A SECRET FAMILY RECIPE

1964

It was time to grind feed for the pigs, again. Ann couldn't believe how much they ate! Every day her dad ground corn for them, and every day they ate it all. He said they were supposed to gain a pound a day, which was hard to imagine. If Ann did that, she'd weigh more than 365 pounds in one year!

The "Hammermill" he used for grinding the corn was a loud pounding machine, so she usually tried to stay away. But today was different. Today she was going to learn the secret recipe for making the feed. Her dad said it was important for her to learn so she could pass it on to the next generation. He said it was an important part of raising healthy animals.

Her grandma had told her it was important because it affected the bacon and other meat they ate. She was always telling Ann, "You are what you eat. It's true for pigs, and true for kids."

Ann couldn't argue with that. She thought the food from her farm was the best in the world. She knew it was all connected too. Good corn came from good soil. Good pigs came from good corn. And meat from pigs was important to keeping her body healthy and strong.

She wondered if the Evans' recipe for pig feed was better than the one on the neighbor's farm. She was going to learn how her dad made it, but she wondered if the pigs would be happier if her mom made their food instead of her dad. She wondered what they'd think of food made by a 10-year-old.

Finally, he started the lesson. He showed her the screen he was going to put in the bottom of the grinder. It was divided into quarter inch holes because the pigs were still little and needed their food ground into small pieces. The cows could eat bigger pieces, so he used a screen with bigger holes for them. The Hammermill grinder would keep pounding until all the corn went through the holes, so the smaller the holes the longer it took to get all the food through them.

Ann didn't think the pigs were so little any more. When they were little and pink she could cradle them in her arms. Now they weighed more than she did-80 pounds! Sometimes they knocked her down when she was giving them water. Her dad sold them when they were about 220 pounds. That was colossal, gigantic!

She remembered the first time she'd ever seen baby pigs. She was 3 years old, and had stood on the fence watching them drink milk from their mother. She'd drawn a picture of all those babies, then cut it out. It was still in her baby book.

Oh, her dad was telling her to pay attention. He was putting the screen in the grinder. As she watched, he hooked it to the tractor and backed it to the corncrib. Corn was piled high in that building, all the way to the roof. He started to shovel it into the grinder. He shoveled and shoveled; she helped.

Ann had never seen so much dust. And the noise was terrible. But it was amazing to watch the big ears of corn go in one end, and come out the other in small bite-size pieces. She couldn't believe the pigs ate the corn AND the cob.

Not all farmers fed the whole cob. Sometimes, even her dad hired men to shell the corn off the cobs first. Ann loved that because she could climb on the pile of cobs left behind. Today he explained that the feed would be better if he didn't use the cobs. It would fill the pigs up faster. But he wanted to teach her the traditional family recipe, and that called for whole ears.

He said ground corn was rich in carbohydrates, like the bread food group. It gave pigs energy and helped them grow fast. Ann couldn't argue with that either. After she ate corn on the cob, she always had energy to spare.

She needed some energy right now! They'd spent an hour shoveling corn, and she was tired. It had been flowing into a mixer wagon. Finally, when it was three-fourths full her dad said they had the right amount.

They drove the mixer wagon to the shed where the "concentrate" was stored. This was something her dad bought in big brown bags at the local co-op store. They were filled with soybean meal, vitamins and minerals. The soybean meal had lots of protein in it, and Ann knew protein was important to young animals growing fast. Protein was important to growing kids, too. Her grandma always said, "Eat your meat to get your protein."

It seemed amazing that such a little amount of protein added to feed could turn into meat so high in protein. Pigs must be factories for protein, she thought!

Ann counted the bags as her dad poured them in. He said the recipe called for six. He poured them right on top of the corn. It reminded Ann of her mom pouring all the ingredients for cookies into a bowl, one on top of another.

Then it was time to stir. Her dad turned on the mixer. It looked like a blender working. It pulled the food into the bottom, then up the sides, and back down in the middle. Over and over, around and around, the feed cycled, until it was perfectly blended and Ann couldn't tell the concentrate from the corn.

Then her dad asked if she wanted to taste it.

She paused. It didn't look too bad, but it didn't look too good either. Her dad was watching her. She thought some more. She didn't want to disappoint him, but she didn't want to get sick either. Well, he wasn't going to tell her to do something that made her sick, so she put a little in her mouth.

She could taste the vitamins first. Then, after she got through the dusty taste, she could taste the corn. It wasn't too bad, crunchy and chewy, pasty with chunks in it, but not bad. It wasn't anything she would ever order in a restaurant ("I'd like to order pig feed, Evans' style please."). But she'd had worse. It was like tasting flour. Maybe if her mom mixed this stuff into pancakes and she could put a little syrup on top, it would be good. Maybe.

Still chewing, she watched her dad drive into the pig yard and unload the wagon into a big metal feeder. Ann watched the pigs crowd around. They lifted the covers of the individual compartments with their noses, then dug in. They shoved, pushed, squealed and grunted. They were thinking only about their food, and nothing was going to get in their way.

"They like it!" smiled the chef.