Living Root Garden School • Design • Name: ______________________
🔍 The Case
The case of the forty tomatoes — the garden ripened everything at once. Save it before it spoils.
Drying is the oldest trick there is: tie a small bunch of basil, mint, or oregano with string, hang it upside down in a dry, shady spot, and wait. When the leaves crumble between your fingers, they are done — pour them into a jar and label it. The flavor gets stronger as the water leaves.
Freezing presses pause: spread berries on a tray so they freeze one by one, then pour them into a bag. Herbs freeze well too — chop them, tuck them into an ice-cube tray, cover with water or olive oil, and freeze. Pop out a cube whenever a soup or a pan needs one.
A fridge pickle is a cucumber (or a pepper, or a green bean) that takes a vinegar bath in the fridge. Vinegar is sour, and sour is a place where most spoilage microbes cannot live — so the pickle stays crunchy while the fridge keeps it cold. A grown-up handles the hot vinegar and the pouring.
Some foods just need the right shelf: onions, garlic, and sweet potatoes keep for months in a cool, dark, dry spot with air moving around them. A basket in a pantry beats a sealed plastic bag, because trapped dampness is what makes them sprout or rot — and food spoils because tiny living things called bacteria and molds eat it before you do.
Ask: Which do you think will still taste like summer in a week — the dried herb, or a fresh herb left sitting on the counter?
Try: Dry one herb — hang a small bunch upside down until it is crunchy — and freeze one thing: berries on a tray, or herbs in an ice-cube tray. Label and date both, and write down what you did so your future self knows what is in the jar.
Stretch (Teens & Growers ready for more): Compare dried vs. fresh herb scent after seven days — same herb, both forms, sniffed blind — and write up which kept more scent and why you think so.
Tell: Fill in the log below — date, what you saved, what surprised you — then finish this sentence in words or a labeled drawing: “My ___ kept best because ___.” If anything smells off, looks fuzzy, or fizzes when it should not, it goes in the trash — no tasting, no arguing.
Date
What I saw
What surprised me
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
🛠️ Build It
Draw your dried herb and your frozen herb side by side — which one looks more like dinner?
🗣️ Be the Teacher
Tell someone how drying keeps food safe — take the water away and the spoilage bugs cannot move in — in your own words, no reading off the packet.
🏅 I can…
☐ I can save summer food for later.
Portfolio check
☐ Guide read
☐ Case solved
☐ Ask, Try, Tell done
☐ Build It filed: Preservation log (what, how, when, how it kept)
☐ Taught someone
☐ Badge earned: I can save summer food for later.
Living Root Garden School • livingrootgarden.com/homeschool/ • Free — print as many copies as you like. File this sheet with your portfolio log. Sprouts do the Read, the Case, and Build It; Growers try the Ask, Try, Tell stretch when ready; Teens do the whole packet — including teaching it back.