Postcard-Geography Album: Michigan, “The Wolverine State”

We received this beautiful postcard from Anabel and April of Giggles and Crayons.

We love seeing all the wonderful activities they do on their blog. Just recently they made a rainbow out of fruit and made a snack to teach what an island is.

"Hello, This postcard is from Michigan where I lived for a while when I was a girl. We lived in an apple orchard and picked apple. Those apple were sold to big companies that made juice and applesauce. The state flower is the apple blossom and apple are the main thing I think of when I remember Michigan."

Applesauce, then, seemed like the perfect food for us to make to represent this state. We decided to make it in our crockpot. Here is our recipe, based on the recipe from Cooking With My Kid. I would have loved to show you a photo of the finished applesauce but it was eaten so quickly, I didn't get a chance. It is that good.

Crockpot Applesauce

10 medium apples (peeled cored and sliced in wedges)

3/4 cup apple juice (water or part water and part apple juice can be used instead)

juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons butter

brown sugar and cinnamon to taste, optional

Place apples in your crock pot. Toss them in lemon juice and dot them with butter. Add water and close crock pot. Cook on high for 1.5 to 2 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. Use back of a spoon to break up apples and stir in cinnamon to taste. Serve warm. Makes 8 servings

Another good food for this state is pasties, a savory filled pastry. Copper and iron deposits were discovered in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the 1840s. Many of the first settlers to the area were immigrants from Cornwall of England, with years of mining experience. Pasties were a convenient lunch to carry into the mines. It could be held by the crust on the edges with dirty hands with the crust was tossed after the meal was completed. The traditional filling is meat, potatoes, and onion. 

While we were looking at Michigan, we also looked at the Great Lakes and learned the names of them. The boys thought it was interesting that the state was divided into two portions by Lake Michigan. We also reviewed all of the states surrounding Michigan, which is something I would like to do with each state from now on.

Our finished Michigan page.

Get to know some of the Great Lakes State's geography, history, events, people, and accomplishments. 

 

Creative Connections for Kids has a nice post on Michigan Blueberries.

We have "visited" 20 states (40%) (and Washington DC) with our postcard-geography album.
Create your own visited map of The United States

We have been having a wonderful (and educational) time making pages in our States Postcard Album, but we have only just begun. I am asking for your help. If you live in any of the below states and would like to exchange a postcard with us, please email me or leave a comment on this post and I will contact you about details. We will post your card when we do our page for that state! Thanks so much for helping us with this project. These are the states we need: Mississippi, New Jersey, Vermont, Wyoming.