13th September Snack a Pickle Day; Peanut Day and Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day

What a combo! All these days can be celebrated with a book! Read them while you cook up a feast in the kitchen.

• Snack a Pickle Day 

Pickles are cucumbers preserved in a brine or vinegar solution, together with herbs. The word "pickle" originated from the Dutch word "pekel," which means brine. The whole process of making pickles started in 1440, and the invention of the mason jar gave a significant help in 1858. Pickles are a great source of vitamin K and are low in calories.

• Peanut Day 

Did you know that peanuts are legumes and not nuts? Peanuts most probably originated about 3,500 years ago in South America. They belong to the family Leguminosae where their relatives, beans and peas, are included. They are not nuts because nuts grow in trees, and legumes like peanuts and potatoes grow underground. Peanuts are rich in vitamins B6 and E, iron, zinc, and magnesium.

• Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day 

This is a great day to let children get creative in the kitchen and cook together with their parents or caregivers. This day was born thanks to a cooking school franchise in Texas called the 'Young Chefs Academy'.

20th - 30th May International Pickle Week

Apparently Pickle Week is celebrated for ten days, not seven during May and it has been since 1948. In Australia children look at you strangely when you talk about 'pickles'. We have gherkins, cucumbers, mustard pickles and dill pickles, but the actual act of 'pickling' is not something many children would have thought about, even though it has been around since the 1300s. I asked a class what it meant to be 'in a pickle' though and surprisingly a couple knew that if you were in a pickle you were in difficulty. They will be ready when they finally read Shakespeare's The Tempest and see this reference!

There are books to read now though...some which actually have the edible 'pickles' as a subject, some where it is used as a character's name and others where someone finds themselves 'in a pickle'. Have fun reading, pickling vegetables and eating pickles for these ten days.