A new and a wonderful experience in my life: Lupinus trip

Well, all this adventure started when we investigated about chocho. At first, I didn’t know that chocho had other names, like lupinus, tarwi, altramuz or tauri; and while I was searching for information, I also found that chocho flower has different colors like pink, yellow or purple, and that it’s seeds can have different forms. Something that amazed me was the chocho’s disease, which name is Antragnosis. I also knew that Incas ate it a lot in the past, and that it can be used in many recipes.

After doing this, we discussed in the class about this product that has many benefits for us, because it has proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, iron and vitamins. Each student put a characteristic of lupinus on the board, and we could learn more characteristics about chocho, the ones which we didn’t find.

Having all the theory in mind, we continued with the third part of the project, which consisted of creating something amazing with lupinus. In this activity we used lupinus with Antragnosis and lupinus which were in a good condition. We knew that lupinus with the disease could be used to create wonderful things, even though it can’t be eaten by us. So, we started to create something amazing; but the previous day, Pame and me didn’t know what to do. In the afternoon Pame told me that we could create a doll with a chocho’s cob, and I agreed with that because it was an original idea. So, in class we pasted all the lupinus that were in a good condition on the cob, and for the nose we pasted one seed of lupinus with Antragnosis; for the skirt we pasted on the leaves of the cob some brilliant figures and for the eyes and the mouth we used a pink glue. We also put on the doll a ‘scarf’, which was actually a ribbon. Everyone liked our project and they said that it was beautiful and amazing. All the students created beautiful wonders as you can see in the pictures. There were bottles, dolls, an angel and also a notebook.

The final part of the project was to cook a dish with lupinus, so the first Monday of December we did this. Chemistry people and Socials got together in the lab, and we started to cook. Everyone was doing something: some were cutting tomatoes; others were squeezing out lemons and oranges. In my group were working Pame, Dany and me, ande we decided to prepare ceviche of lupinus. We used oranges, lemon, tomato, tuna fish, pearl onion, salt, pepper, ketchup, pop corn, ‘tostado’ and obviously chocho. We had a fun time that day. And finally, each group tried all the dishes that were prepared, and obviously ALL OF THEM WERE DELICIOUS!! But in my opinion, our recipe was the best because it included many things and it had a great taste.

In conclusion, in this project I learned many things, for example the uses of chocho, its benefits, the history of it, how it is also known, and more things. But I also learned how to work in a group, how to search information, and also how to cook and create a different recipe. So I thank you Monica for giving us this project to do. It was an amazing experience, because we shared a great time with our friends and also with our teachers.