July

[print_link]
[trx_br][trx_br]

Bastille Day/Camel Cup Food Tasting/Reminiscence:

Its Bastille Day today and you can celebrate by having a jam tasting activity with some yummy French croissants. This is a wonderful activity because it combine food tasting with reminiscence. Many of your clients will have been prolific jam makers in their day, making good use out of home fruit trees, and this provides an opportunity for them to talk about their experiences and reminisce about how to make that perfect strawberry jam!

Material:

Croissants
Various jams-different flavours, home-made, shop bought, organic, non-organic etc.
Popsicle tasting sticks available from craft stores

Instruction:

Decide on the time and place for your Bastille
Day Croissant and Jam Tasting Feast. Morning or afternoon tea would be great time. Invite all of your residents and appropriate staff to attend and encourage both resident and staff to submit a bottle of jam that they have made themselves; been given by a relative or friend; or have bought from somewhere. Collect as many different types of jam as possible. The homemade variety is always delicious, but you can get some great jams from the supermarket these days, including a whole range of organic jams from Woolworths/Safeway. You may need to do some detective work and find out which staff members amongst you jam makers!
Once you have collected all your different jams, ensure they are labelled clearly. Give every-one a plate with a croissant on it and several Popsicle sticks. Invite them to taste each jam, using a Popsicle stick.

Talk about the merits of the different jams as you taste them, and encourage participants to talk about their own experiences jam making. Some questions to ask could include whether or not they made jam in the past; where they got their bottles from; where they got their fruits from; who they gave jam to once make; whether or not they ever made a failed or particularly good batch and which was their favourite type of jam to make.
You can enhance the reminiscence aspect of this activity by borrowing some books on jam making from the library or buying the latest issue of a food magazine that contains jam making instructions.