Making Rock Candy
I hope everyone had a good Father's Day weekend. We had bacon and cake for breakfast, so I'm putting it in the "W" column. I'm crazy blessed to have a great Dad and be married to one. Anyway, on with the show...
Have you ever made rock candy? I feel like we tried it as a class in elementary school with not great results, but we recently successfully made some rock candy sticks.
I feel like this is a good summer activity for kids because there's the whole making them part, which is an activity that takes up time, then there's the sciency part (watching the crystals form), and then obviously the big pay off: eating them. What's not to like? Maybe the waiting for a week? On second thought, *Bonus* virtue lesson: patience.
I don't want to re-invent the wheel here, so I will direct you to Mom's Crafty Space, where I found this great recipe and tutorial. You can find that here.
water
food coloring
clothes pins
bamboo skewers
--just be sure to trim the sharp tips off the skewers first. Then cut them in half and you're good to go.
The one tip I would offer is to soak your skewers and roll in sugar before you start the boiling process. This way the sugar can dry on the sticks by the time you are ready to put them in the jars. Our skewers weren't really dry when we put them in the jars and I watched all the sugar crystals fall off the stick and had to repeat that process. So do that first. : )
At first (probably the first 4 days) I was sure this wasn't working, but then we finally saw the crystals forming. We actually left ours in there for a little over a week. The directions we followed didn't mention this, but when we were ready to take out the skewers I did break up the surface sugar on top of each jar with a knife before I tried to pull out the sticks to be sure it didn't scrape any of the rock candy off the sticks.
Some turned out better than others, but all in all, edible, cool and fun. A great summer project.
Have a sweet day!
You are loved!
Have you ever made rock candy? I feel like we tried it as a class in elementary school with not great results, but we recently successfully made some rock candy sticks.
I feel like this is a good summer activity for kids because there's the whole making them part, which is an activity that takes up time, then there's the sciency part (watching the crystals form), and then obviously the big pay off: eating them. What's not to like? Maybe the waiting for a week? On second thought, *Bonus* virtue lesson: patience.
I don't want to re-invent the wheel here, so I will direct you to Mom's Crafty Space, where I found this great recipe and tutorial. You can find that here.
Here's what you'll need:
a bag of sugarwater
food coloring
clothes pins
bamboo skewers
--just be sure to trim the sharp tips off the skewers first. Then cut them in half and you're good to go.
The one tip I would offer is to soak your skewers and roll in sugar before you start the boiling process. This way the sugar can dry on the sticks by the time you are ready to put them in the jars. Our skewers weren't really dry when we put them in the jars and I watched all the sugar crystals fall off the stick and had to repeat that process. So do that first. : )
At first (probably the first 4 days) I was sure this wasn't working, but then we finally saw the crystals forming. We actually left ours in there for a little over a week. The directions we followed didn't mention this, but when we were ready to take out the skewers I did break up the surface sugar on top of each jar with a knife before I tried to pull out the sticks to be sure it didn't scrape any of the rock candy off the sticks.
Some turned out better than others, but all in all, edible, cool and fun. A great summer project.
Have a sweet day!
You are loved!
- Haley
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