Field Trip!

Happy Koninginnedag!

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

It's Queen's Day in the Netherlands on the same week we just have to be studying about them!!  Isn't that a wonderful coincidence!!  Now we got to celebrate a great new holiday!  April 30th is Queen Mother Juliana's birthday and is an annual public holiday in the Netherlands.  The current reigning Queen Beatrix continues the tradition in April (even though her birthday is in January) and the whole country has a grand outdoor party.  There are dances and concerts, flea markets called vrijmarkt, and feasts.  The official color of the Netherlands is orange, and like St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, there is orange food, orange clothes, orange drink, etc. etc.


The Dutch culture in San Francisco is apparently going strong because they had quite a rockin' little festival going on today in beautiful Golden Gate Park, in the shadow of a HUGE windmill!!! Does it get any better?  Oh, yeah it does :)  Check out the fun we had...

Food! Next pic shows one of each :)
There were lots of food booths selling cookies, cakes and candies also!








They were pretty yummy!

Games for the kids!!

Cheek Flags!

 

People actually wearing wooden shoes!

 

 
Dutch art masterpieces!  Here is my daughter as The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

And also as the Queen! (The King looks like quite a catch!)

 

 

The windmill actually works!  And look at the size of the cheese!

 

 

There was a beer garden

and a real garden with GIANT CARROTS!

My son enjoyed the really big shoe :)

 

and my daughter won some really tiny ones at the games!

We had a blast and really felt like we had immersed ourselves in the Netherlands!  Once again I am so thankful that I started this blog because we are finding so many wonderful activities while learning about the wonderful world we share!! 

Oh yeah, the had a small vrijmarkt (flea market) and this is what the kids (and I) bought!  It's so AWESOME!!! 
I just wish we had it before we did Egypt week :)
 

On the Menu: Dutch Food

Eet Smakelijk!!

No, that's not what we're making for dinner, it's the Dutch phrase for "enjoy your meal"!!  The Netherlands are known for making some of my favorite types of food- cheese and licorice.  Not together, of course, that would be gross. 

The Dutch have been making cheese since 400 A.D. and are one of the largest exporters of cheese in the world.  Edam, gouda, beemster are a few examples.  There are markets set up just to sell cheese!

 

The people of the Netherlands also have a great fondness for licorice.  They have over 80 types of licorice, ranging from sweet to salty, chewy to hard.  I would definitely go crazy in their candy stores!!






Stamppot
 

The typical cuisine of the Netherlands is pretty simply prepared.  A very common dish is "stamppot", basically mashed potatoes mixed with mashed vegetables.  This is served with sausages or braised meat.  Soups and stews are very popular.  Sometimes they are almost the same thing- Dutch pea soup is traditionally so thick that a wooden spoon will stand straight up in the pot!  We made another traditional soup for our weekly recipe- Brown Bean Soup.

Bruine Bonen Soep (Brown Bean Soup)
recipe found on About.com
For the recipe you will need:

• 8oz bacon - cubed
• 3 shallots - chopped
• 2 carrots- diced
• 1 leek- sliced in rings
• 1 T ground paprika
• 3 cans of pinto beans- drained and rinsed
• 12oz. tomato puree
• 3 cups beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• salt & pepper
• Worcestershire sauce

1. Fry the bacon in a large soup pot.  When crispy, remove some of the bacon for later.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (except salt, pepper and Worcestershire).  Bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes at least, longer wouldn't hurt but you want the veggies soft.
3. Blend the soup with in a blender, food processor, or with an immersion blender until it's a little chunky but mostly smooth.
4.  Taste the soup and add seasonings to your taste.  Top with bacon and enjoy!

This soup was simple but good.  It was sweeter than I expected it to be, very nutritious and super easy to make.  I would've liked a little more, I don't know? Oomph? I'm used to pretty flavorful foods and this was just, well, BEAN SOUP. 

This weekend I found out there is a Dutch festival in SF!!  I swear I didn't plan that at all, but I am sooooo excited!  Apparently, April 30 is Queen's Day and the celebration is going to be held at the big windmill near the tulip gardens in Golden Gate Park!!  I will be sure to try some of the (hopefully) delicious snacks and beverages and post as much as I can!!  I love a good field trip!!!!!

Windmills in the Netherlands

Got wind?

I guess they must have a lot of it in the Netherlands because they are famous for their windmills.  At one point the country had over 10,000 windmills dotting the land!!  Now they have about 1,000 that are still standing and some of them are even still in use. 





Greek windmills

Windmills have been credited to the Greeks, who are believed to have invented them sometime around 250 BC.  From there the idea travelled around quite a bit getting refined.  The mills were used to grind grain but since the blades were fixed in one direction, they would only work if the wind was blowing from the right way!  If only Mother Nature could be that predictable!


Sometime between the 1200s and 1300s, they developed the "post mill" that could be rotated to face the direction of the wind- genius!
Soon, these popped up all over Europe.  But they really became popular when Cornelius Corneliszoon van Uitgeest, from the Netherlands, found a way use the wind power to power a saw for cutting wood.  The Dutch were beginning a major exploration of the Indies and needed many ships.  The windmill-powered saw made that job much easier.  But windmills also helped the Netherlands another way.

As I mentioned before, the Netherlands is a very low-lying country.  For over 2,000 years they have been fighting the North Sea over land.  The sea was winning until the Dutch devised a way to hold back the sea using dikes (walls), canals and windmill-powered pumps to create mineral rich land.  Miles and miles of these dikes and canals form the coast of the Netherlands and if these dikes or pumps should fail then many parts of the country would be underwater pretty quickly!!

So windmills are more than just a pretty tourist attraction- they changed the country in more ways than one!!  So we made our own little windmills :)

Windmills
For the project you will need:

• large plastic cups (1 per mill)
• plastic straws (2 per)
• brass fasteners (1 per)
• paper for sails
• tape
• pushpin or skewer to poke holes

1. Cut the straws to the length you want.  Ours were bendy straws so we cut at the bend. 

2.  Find the center of the length and poke a hole in each straw.  Insert the brass fastener through each straw making a  + 

3. Cut 4 strips of paper about 1.5 inches wide and as long as your sail arms (straws).  Tape them onto the straws. 

4. Turn the plastic cup upside down and poke a hole where you want to attach the sails.

5.  Now you have your very own teeny tiny windmill! 

Where we live it's ALWAYS windy so this could come in handy! Hmmm, maybe on a bigger scale?!

Week 40: The Netherlands

Week 40!?!

I really can't believe I made it to week 40 already!!  I have to say this is the longest I've ever stuck with something that was optional :)  I hope you are enjoying learning about these countries along with us.  Every week the kids and I are learning something new and I can't believe how much they are remembering!  I know we are making memories here :)

 

This week we decided on the Netherlands, actually I wanted to do Holland but guess what? Holland isn't even a COUNTRY!!!  See, I'm learning new things, things I probably should've leaned in school.  So since Holland is actually what they call an area of the Netherlands, here we are.  Let's learn a few fun facts-

• The Netherlands actually have 2 capitals.  Amsterdam (52.37°N/ 4.89°E) is the official capital but the Hague was the first capital since 1584 and where the government is run.
• The official languages are both Dutch and Frisian but over 80% of people speak English as well.

• The name "Netherlands" means "low country" in Dutch.  That is because almost half of the country is below sea level and is only usable because of the 1,500 miles of dikes that keep the North Sea from flooding in.  The highest part of the country is only 1,000 ft above sea level.

• Because of the dikes, the Dutch (as people in the Netherlands are called) built windmills to run pumps keeping the areas dry.  At one point there were 10,000 windmills in the Netherlands.  There are still over 1,000 in use today.

• Holland is known for its tulips.  The Netherlands is the #1 producer and exporter of tulips and flower bulbs in the world. 

 

• Bikes are a very popular way to travel in the Netherlands (probably because it's so flat!).  There are specially designated bike paths called "fietspaden" where only bikes are allowed.
• There are over 1,000 museums full of Dutch painters like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Mondrian. 

• Dutch people are some of the tallest in the world.  Men average 6ft and women almost 5ft 6 inches.
• The Dutch were avid explorers.  They were the first to discover Australia and New Zealand.  New York was once also a Dutch colony called New Amsterdam.

They explored the world and now so are we.  Luckily (or maybe not) we get to do it from the comfort of our own home- and we get to invite you along with us!!  C'mon let's go :)