Eighth Sunday of Epiphany

The Earth Will Produce Grapes, Grain, and Olives

Hosea 2: 22

What did Jesus eat when he went to Matthew's house for dinner?

Recreating the tastes of Bible times is difficult. We know the names of most of the spices they used, but we aren't sure which foods they used them with, or in which combinations or proportions.

But these two mixes make interesting gifts, and they may give us an idea of what Jesus' food tasted like.

Find one small, clean, straight-sided jar for each child. If you use baby food jars, encourage the children to decorate the lids.

For the salad spice mix, obtain dried parsley, dried onion flakes, dried basil, garlic salt, and lemon pepper.

Let each child layer 1 tablespoon dried parsley, 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes, 2 tablespoons dried basil, 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic salt, and 1-1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper in any order they like to make a sort of sand painting in the jar. Cover tightly.

To serve the spices, shake or stir them together and sprinkle over a green salad for a Bible taste.

For the sweet spice mix, obtain sugar, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cardamom, and ground coriander.

Let each child layer 5 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander in any order to make a pretty jarful of spice, and cover tightly.

Stir or shake the spices together to make Bible cinnamon toast, or sprinkle on fresh fruit or tapioca pudding.

Or you may choose to make the wheat and grapes place mat for this lesson.

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