Geocaching

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Geocaching Louisiana Style!
A Geocache Activity to Learn More about Louisiana
Products
Group Name _________________ Members
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Dairy Cache Global Address_________________ Import
ant Fact _________________ _______________________
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Sugar Cane Cache Global Address_________________ I
mportant Fact _________________ __________________
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Rice Cache Global Address_________________ Importa
nt Fact _________________ ________________________
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Sweet Potato Cache Global Address_________________
Important Fact _________________ ________________
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Strawberry Cache Global Address_________________ I
mportant Fact _________________ __________________
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Dairy Products
Sweet Potatoes
Rice
Sugar Cane
Strawberries
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Your next stop is Sweet Potatoes
Your next stop is Strawberries
Your next stop is Rice
Your next stop is Dairy Products
Your next stop is Sugar Cane
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Clue 1 This animal is a true opportunistic
feeder. They will eat almost anything, including
garbage!
Clue 3 This animal is classified as a carnivore
due to the shape of its teeth. However, about 80
of its diet is plant matter.
Clue 2 This animal is very elusive and is rarely
seen by humans. In fact many Louisianans do not
realize that they live in our state!
Clue 4 This animal eats with the seasons greens
in spring, fruit in summer, nuts in the fall. In
the winter, it dens.
Clue 5 In Louisiana, this mammal is a true
distinct sub species that is known as Ursus
americanus luteolus.
Clue 6 About 300 members of this endangered sub
species are known to live in Louisiana.
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Group Name ____________ We used ___ clues. Our
guess is _________________
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Strawberry Facts

• There are about 200 seeds on a strawberry.
• Strawberries do not normally reproduce by seeds.
  Strawberry plants send out runners. Each runner
  grows on the ground and sends out roots into the
  soil. The roots then produce new plants.
• Strawberries are members of the Rose family.
• A strawberry is a good source of vitamin C and
  is often eaten fresh.
• The fruit seems to be strewn (scattered) among
  the leaves. This may be why the plant was first
  called strewberry. It later came to be called
  strawberry.
• Livingston Parish is one of the states primary
  strawberry growing areas.
• The first American species of strawberries were
  cultivated about 1835.
• The plant grows best in a cool, moist climate
  and does not do well in warm temperatures.
• In France strawberries were cultivated in the
  13th Century for use as a medicinal herb.
• Today every state in the United States and every
  province in Canada grow the strawberry plant.

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Sweet Potatoes

• Sweet potatoes originated in Central and South
  America
• African slaves in the South called the sweet
  potato nyami. The Senegalese word nyami was
  eventually shortened to the word yam. Yam
  discovered in Africa also refers to sweet
  potatoes that are grown in Louisiana.
• The orange-fleshed, Puerto Rican variety was
  called yams to distinguish them from the
  white-fleshed sweet potatoes grown in other parts
  of the country. The yam reference became the
  trademark for Louisiana-grown sweet potatoes.
• Both Louis XVs and Empress Josephine's fondness
  of the sweet potato encouraged two short periods
  of popularity for this veggie in the late 18th
  and early 19th centuries.
• Native Americans already grew sweet potatoes when
  Columbus arrived on the northern continent in
  1492.
• George Washington Carver came up with over 118
  products made from sweet potatoes such as shoe
  polish, coffee substitute, and laundry starch.
• Vitamin A in sweet potatoes is necessary for
  strong tissues and is required to maintain a
  healthy immune system function and develop
  resistance to infection. The sweet potato is an
  important source of vitamin B6, iron, potassium
  and fiber. Sweet potatoes protect the body
  from cardiovascular disease and lower the risk of
  stroke. Sweet potatoes contain virtually no fat
  and are low in sodium.
• The Louisiana Yambilee Festival began in 1946 to
  celebrate the years harvest of yams, or sweet
  potatoes, and is held annually in Opelousas,
  Louisiana (St. Landry Parish).

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• Some dairy products are milk, cheese, yogurt, ice
  cream, butter, and cream.
• Homogenization is the process of breaking milk
  fat globules down into tiny particles so that
  they are evenly dispersed throughout the milk.
• Pasteurization is the process of heating milk
  very quickly to kill germs, and then rapidly
  cooling it.
• The average amount of milk that a dairy cow
  produces each day is 100 glasses.
• The dairy industry is concentrated in the
  southeast part of the state in what we call the
  Florida Parishes, which are Washington,
  Tangipahoa, St. Helena, Livingston and East
  Feliciana, which have about 400 dairy farms and
  also in Desoto Parish just below Shreveport. 
• Louisiana ranks 32nd in the nation on total milk
  production per year with just under 500 herds in
  the state. 
• Tangipahoa Parish is in the top 100 dairy
  counties in the nation on monthly milk production
  with Washington, Tangipahoa, St. Helena, and
  Desoto consistently ranking in the top 10 among
  counties in the Southeast Federal Milk Order. 
• The predominant breed of dairy cattle in the
  state is Holstein. 
• The amount of feed that one dairy cow eats in one
  day is 90 pounds.
• The udder is the body part of the dairy cow that
  is milked.

Louisiana Dairy Products
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Sugar Cane

•  
•  
• Sugar cane contributes 140 million a month to
  Louisiana's economy.
• Louisiana's commercial sugar cane industry was
  founded in the heart of New Orleans - Sugarcane
  arrived in Louisiana with the Jesuit priests in
  1751 who planted it near where their church now
  stands on Baronne Street in New Orleans.
• Sugar cane grows an inch or more a day during the
  summer.
• In 2002, sugarcane was being produced on over
  450,000 acres of land in 25 Louisiana Parishes.
• Of the U.S. sugar producing areas, Louisiana is
  the oldest and most historic.
• Etienne deBore, first granulated sugar on a
  commercial scale in Audubon Park.
• Sugarcane is planted vegetatively, using whole
  stalks of cane rather than true seed.
• Sugarcane is a grass and more than one cutting
  can be harvested from each planting. Sown in late
  August or early September. every fourth year, one
  planting produces three crops. The field then
  sits idle the fourth year until the cycle repeats
  itself.
• The cane by product is bagasse which is used as a
  fuel to power the factories.
• Approximately 27,000 employees are involved in
  this production and processing of sugar in
  Louisiana alone.

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LOUISIANA RICE

•  
• v      The Conrad Rice Mill is the oldest rice
  mill in America. It is also one of the leading
  tourist attractions in this area of the Bayou
  Teche.
•  
• v      In 1921, a group of farmers, dissatisfied
  with their marketing options, decided to work
  together to market their rice. They created a
  farmer-owned cooperative now known as Riceland
  Foods, Inc.
•  
• v      The Louisiana Rice Industry began to
  flourish around 1900. The introduction of
  irrigation systems allowed for expanding
  production in South Louisiana.
•  
• v      After the civil war the prospect of cheap,
  abundant land and a mild climate lured Midwestern
  wheat farmers and immigrants, mainly from Europe,
  to come to Louisiana's prairie.
•  
• v      Modern farm equipment, improved milling
  techniques and select seed breeding all combined
  to place Louisiana at the forefront of the
  American Rice Industry.
•  
• v      Rice, that ancient grass whose grains are
  so treasured by Louisianans, was grown as far
  back as the Ice Age in India.
•  
• v      Rice first came to Louisiana about the
  time New Orleans was founded, in 1718. When ships
  would arrive bearing African slaves, they would
  also bring barrels of rice seed so the slaves
  could grow their own food.
•  
• v      At the turn of the century there was a
  rice-milling district, rice row, along Decatur
  Street in New Orleans French Quarter, including
  the largest rice mill in the world.
•  
• Louisiana's climate, landscape and location along
  the Mississippi River come together to create
  fertile fields that of sustain a wide variety of
  crops, including rice.

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What is your favorite Louisiana rice dish?
Your Name Favorite Dish __________________________
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Have you ever planted a sweet potato?
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Besides sugar, do you know any products made from
sugar cane?
Your Name Answer _________________________________
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What is your favorite way to enjoy fresh
Louisiana strawberries?
Your Name Answer _________________________________
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Have you ever milked a cow?
Your Name Answer _________________________________
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