Robeson County 4-H

  It's Friday which means it's day five or the last day of our 4-H Jr. Chef Day Camp .  It's been a fun week of measuring, cooking, local foods, and today its all about taste.  We warmed up our group with letting them know today was all about testing their frozen concoction of Ice Cream.  Each group had a chance to work in the kitchen to make strawberry syrup to cover their vanilla ice cream.   While one group was in the kitchen the other group had questions and a job at hand.  Being that it is our receptionist's, Aletha Mebane, last day they wanted to help send her off in 4-H style.  All the youth got the chance to know her over the week passing by her desk and speaking to her to and from the bathroom and kitchen, garden, break room, auditorium, etc.  While our youth was learning where their pictures were (and where they had been tagged), they got a chance to make Happy Retirement cards and notes for this lady who loved seeing and speaking to ...

  With the focus on the local foods movement this week our field trips today sort of help us pull all the pieces together.   Day four of 4-H Jr. Chef Day Camp took us to Fuquay Varina and then to Raleigh.  Our first stop, Brie Arthur's home.  Mrs. Arthur is an author, foodscaper, and self proclaimed plant nerd.  The first thing our 4-H'ers noticed pulling up to her house was the landscape.  Their exact words, "Boy there sure are a lot of plants here."  What they found out is all those plants have a purpose, and much of the purpose is an edible one. We found traditional items such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and various herbs.  What they weren't expecting to find in the landscape were things like wheat, corn, and rye.  For some of the more invasive items, such as mint, she has a living wall that things grow on and are contained in.  Our youth learned about gardening based on soil temperatures vs. air temperature and why Hydroponics may be...

Each morning after our day campers get settled in we review the previous day.  I always ask them what they learned and what they liked.  Today one of the main things they liked was making new friends.  Little did they know, on day three of 4-H Jr. Chef Day Camp ,  they were about to make many new friends that will be very important to their cooking. We loaded up and headed to the Robeson County Farmer's Market in Downtown Lumberton.  There we had a scavenger hunt goal, and a shopping goal.  Our young chefs were given the reciepe turned shopping list for tomatillio salsa, and told to find farmers who were selling the ingredients and find the best prices.  This meant our youth had to have conversations with adults they did not know to get the information.  What they learned was that our farmers who grow are food are really nice, and have really good prices, however not all the farmers have the same prices.  They also learned that some farmer...

Day two for 4-H Jr. Chef Academy and we started on a simmer this morning.  Our day campers might have gotten a little tuckered out yesterday, but no time for being tuckered because we needed to turn up the heat and get things done today. After going over our list of what we learned and liked on Monday...it was a ton of stuff by the way...we split up into our groups and got to work.  During our time with Mrs. Janice we learned how to take corn off the cob and made cream corn for our lunch on Wednesday.  Then we started working with peaches.  Miss Shea Ann taught us about the process of making cheese.  We used an acid to separate the curd and weigh and made queso fresca cheese.  It was sort of gross looking when the milk separated but after pressing the curds into a block of cheese, it wasn't so bad. After getting a chance to work with both, it was time for lunch.  Chik-fil-A box lunches made us pretty happy and quiet as we devoured our sandwiches a...

If you walked into the Cooperative Extension building in Robeson County today you would have been knocked over by the smell of bacon, watermelon, and the smell from the grill wafting inside.  In case you couldn't guess this is day one of our 4-H Jr. Chef Academy .  Of course we started the day with laying down the ground work and setting our rules for camp and the kitchen.  We also started by designing our own apron for the camp.  It didn't take long to get the basics under our belt and split up to cook and do some other fun things. In the kitchen, our day campers got the chance to make their sides for lunch.  On the menu baked beans, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw to go with our hamburgers and hot dogs.  Many of our youth love these items but have never made them from scratch.  Today they learned about mashing and ricing potatoes to get rid of lumps.  They also had the chance to peel and slice cucumbers from Mrs. Janice's garden which they cons...

Did you know more than 200,000 animal species play a role in pollinating more than 250,000 plants?  Honey bees are part of a 10 million dollar industry that includes pollination, honey, and crops.  These are just some of the things members of the Dirty Rascals 4-H Junior Master Gardeners and the Robeson County Master Gardeners Association learned on our trip to the Bayer Bee Center. We learned about the anatomy of a bee, the different roles of the Queen Bee, worker, and drones, and let's not forget the hierarchy of the hive.  Nature is brutal.  We also learned the difference between honey bees and bumble bees, and of the various roles they both play in pollination.  The Bayer Bee Center is researching all sorts of things having to do with bees, and we learned there is so much we still don't know about this most important insect and the roll it plays in our food chain. We of course could not visit without talking about honey.  Folks got to belly up to th...

This article was written by our own Shea Ann DeJarnette for the Robesonian and should be published June 25, 2017.  It also appears on the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Robeson County Center's website. Did you hear the squeals of joy when school let out?   Every child in the county was overjoyed that their summer vacation was beginning.   If you missed it, it could have something to do with the deafening sigh of parents wondering how they would keep their children busy this summer and away from the video games and TV screens.   Well, no worries mom, dad, and children of all ages, Robeson County 4-H is here for you.             Summer Fun is the title for a series of day and overnight camps as well as leadership opportunities for youth put together by Robeson County 4-H.   We work with youth between the ages of 5 and 18, and each week focuses on a specific range of ages in that group.   Ea...

  One of the great things about summer is the offerings from the local Farmer's Market.  Robeson County has a great collection of folks who grow and sell produce at the Robeson County Farmer's Market in downtown Lumberton.  To celebrate the a full season of fruits and vegetables North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Robeson County Center joins forces with the farmers for the annual Summer Extravaganza.   This is the 7th year for the event that involves free samples of products available at the market and brings in more than 100 folks to sample, shop, and educate.  Also on hand this year besides your friendly Extension staff were the Robeson County Master Gardeners Association.  Members offered activities for youth and demonstrations on how to create container gardens.  Each person who participated in the educational event also had the opportunity to be part of a drawing to win the containers that were created.  The hospital brought out their he...

Ask anyone in the office, one of my favorite lines just walking by someone is, "I didn't do it".  Mostly it is said just to see the humorous reaction for those I work with.  However on this day, in this instance our 4-H members did do it, and I could not be more proud of them. Today was the Southeast 4-H District Activity Day .  Now that sounds all big and official but what it boils down to is 4-H members from 18 counties competing in public speaking and presentations (demonstration speeches).  For Robeson County youth they first must compete at County Activity Day and place first or second in their age division in their category to move forward to District Activity Day and come in a practice with the staff and volunteers to make sure they are ready for DAD.   This year we had six competitors who made it to District Activity Day which was held at Lenoir Community College in Kinston.  They broke records every time we turned around.  First we had mor...