Our Pouches Are Packed; We're Ready to Go!

Our final project in preparation for the Gold Rush field trip this coming Sunday was to make pouches similar to those carried by gold miners and peddlers to carry their valuables. For the miners, valuables meant gold. For the peddlers, including Jewish peddlers who traveled sometimes as far as 100 miles between farm houses and mining camps, valuables could be precious Jewish ritual objects, such as t'fillin (phyllacteries) and perhaps a Siddur (prayer book), but also food they would need to see them through until their next stop. In most cases, hardtack (definitely kosher!) was a staple.

We already prepared the hardtack two weeks ago in class. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, we made the pouches.

During Gold Rush days, leather was the material of choice for pouches. In our Edot class, it was felt (a lot cheaper and much easier to work with!)

Each student was given a 10" diameter circle of felt with pre-punched holes along the circumference.

Then the student chose a red, gold, or green drawstring to weave in and out of the holes (which proved to be the hardest step, since it was easy to miss a hole).

Finally, the string was drawn tight to form the pouch shape and, just before it was time to go down to recess, each student put several pieces of hardtack into the pouch.

It was too tempting not to taste the hardtack, and luckily we had made enough pieces to allow each student to take a piece to "gnaw" on during recess. The concensus opinion was that it tasted "OK" - i.e. not bad and not great. We agreed that if you were really hungry and had nothing else to eat, it probably would have tasted a lot better, maybe even great!

I'm looking forward to greeting those of you who are joining us on the field trip in Sonora's Woods Creek Rotary Park around 11:15 Sunday morning, where we'll enjoy our picnic lunches and some 1-2-3-4 cake before heading to Columbia State Park for a tour of Jewish businesses on Main Street and a lesson in the Old Schoolhouse there. We'll end the tour in the Sonora Pioneer Jewish Cemetery, where we'll have a treasure hunt, looking for Jewish and other gravestone symbols, and learn about some of the Jewish pioneers buried there from "letters home" our students wrote.

REMEMBER TO TURN YOUR CLOCKS BACK ONE HOUR BEFORE GOING TO BED SATURDAY EVENING!