Sprouts and Wild Honey

          This week, in science, I learned about sprouts and wild honey. These are both very interesting topics to learn about, and they are also very healthy and delicious. They can heal many diseases and can save your life if you need it.

           Sprouts are very important for our diet because they contain citric acid, which we need for our bodies to work. During the 1700s and 1800s, the sport of whaling was very popular as the demand rate for whale oil was increasing. These whaling expeditions could take years, so most food would spoil over that time. The only foods they could eat were salted meat and tough crackers.

          During these sea trips, usually about half of the crew would die because of a disease called scurvy. This disease was caused because the sailors did not have any citric acid in their system. Some symptoms of scurvy were bleeding gums, swelling at the joints, pain, and eventually death. Years later it was discovered that lemons and oranges were citric fruits, and could cure this disease that many sailors feared. Then people found that even sprouts could cure scurvy because they were also citrus.

           Sprouts contain many enzymes, which your body needs, vitamins, and minerals. They are also delicious to eat. Sailors would take seeds on their journeys, because after a few simple steps, you will get sprouts which are edible, delicious, and necessary for your health. The steps are first, fill the jar almost to the top with the seeds you would like to use. Next add water and put them in sunlight or not in sunlight depending on the seeds. Leave them overnight and come back the next day; you will see that the seeds would be cracked and have little green plants poking out of them. Drain out the water inside of them, and put in new fresh water. Repeat the steps until your sprouts are the length that you want. This should be about an inch or two.

           If you see your sprouts and they are brown, smell bad, moldy, or have bugs on them, you should toss those out and start again. You do not want to eat bad sprouts because these are not good for you. Make sure to clean out your jar before you put new sprouts in there. Also remember to wash your sprouts before you eat them.

           This week I also learned about wild honey and bees. Sometimes you may underestimate these amazing creatures, but they are the reason we are alive right now. You see bees pollinate, which replenishes all of our fruits and vegetables, which keep us and the animals we eat alive. As you can see just with this favor, bees keep us alive. They also help make one of the most loved foods in the world: honey. Technically flowers make the honey with their pollen, but the bees turn the nectar into honey.

           A honeybee has another stomach that they use to carry the honey. They go to several flowers and use their long tongue to slurp up nectar. Bees can go to hundreds of flowers in order to fill their stomach which can weigh as much as the bee itself. When they get back to the hive the bee regurgitates the nectar, which now is liquid. Then another bee in the hive swallows it again and does the same. Even though this process seems gross and acid from the bees’ stomachs that make the nectar into honey. Then the nectar is put into a honeycomb, but it is still watery and liquid. The bees beat their wings up to 260 times per second to thicken the honey. Once it is the right substance, it is covered with beeswax and is just waiting to be enjoyed by the bees, people, and even other animals. Also, since honey is low on water it does not allow yeast spoil and bacteria to get into the honey, so it can last a long time.

           If a bee that just came back to the hive found a good place to get nectar, such as a place with many flowers it will “dance” and move in the direction the other bees should fly according to the sun. If the bee is really excited, it will dance faster. This bee dancing is when a bee moves in a straight line, shaking in a back and forth, in a zigzag motion. Then it circles back to the direction it started and does the action again.

          Honey also heals wounds, when applied. It is being used more and more with doctors to help heal their patients. It can also heal people internally. It can be digested with cayenne pepper, ginger juice, and lime juice to heal colds and the flu!

          Bees are incredible creatures, and they can solve problems faster than we can, even though their brain is the size of a pinhead! They give us delicious food that we can enjoy every day, and they keep us alive by pollinating all of our fruits, vegetables, and nuts. So the next time you see a bee, maybe think twice before you kill it.

         Sprouts are also very important. They healed many of our ancestors who could have died from scurvy. They’re not very difficult to eat because they are very good and they are easy to grow. They also give us many vitamins and minerals that we need as well as enzymes.

           As you can see, sprouts and wild honey are very important for our bodies and they are not difficult to eat. This proves that we have a wise creator and he made us, animals, and plants to live in harmony together and to live off of each other as we do. I cannot wait to learn more about this amazing world next week.