Farm to Fork Challenge

   

   
Today our 4-H Jr. Chef Day Campers loaded up in the 15 passenger vans and headed to see exactly where their lunch was going to come from.  They were also excited to be joined by our Horticulture Extension Agent Mr. Mack Johnson and one of our 4-H Alums turned 4-H Volunteer, Brooke Canady.  Ms. Shea Ann also gave them their magic word challenge for the day, and it was, "Thank You.".  With instructions in hand of how to use their word our Chefs loaded up and headed out.  Today the traveling Chefs headed east toward Holly Ridge to visit a farm by the name of Xanadu.

 

Xanadu farms started just after World War II when the government was selling land at Topsail Island.  The Yow family purchased land and retired to their farm named Xanadu.  Decades later their great grand children are operating the farm and have become leading producers of biodynamic fruits and vegetables as well as event hosts by using their natural landscapes to offer group experiences.  Our Jr. Chefs got a first hand tour of the farm and even sampled some of the fresh offerings such as Blueberries right off the bush (some of our 4-H members were prepared to eat their weight in juicy, sweet, blueberries).  Our youth also got a chance to go in to the high tunnel greenhouse and help plant, suash, pepper, and cucumber seeds in trays for seedlings to begin.  One of the neat things about this farm is that they ship their food fresh off the farm to local restaurants who prepare the food and you have the chance to really enjoy a farm to table experience.

   

One of the restaurants that does this is Dockside.  After enjoying the morning on the farm our 4-H Jr. Chefs when straight to the restaurant where they enjoyed incredible views and had a chance to enjoy farm fresh items with their meals.  Once they were full from lunch our campers loaded back up on the vans to head back to the office.  

   They made it back just in time to feed their sourchough starters and let Mrs. Jade know what they liked and learned on this trip.  When they left they said thank you to everyone for helping them gain a greater appreciation for where their food comes from.  

   To see all the phots from today's adventures please click this link.  

The Great Cooking Challenge

   

Our 4-Her's had their first day of Jr. Chef Day Camp and it seems as this week we will be working to challenge them daily as we go.  They are bright, eager, and passionate about their food.  Today we worked on getting the lay of the land and a little team building becuase they need to work as a team in the kitchen.

 

We split into two groups and one group went into the kitchen to start making lunch while the other groups was working on the great Sourdough Challenge.  The Sourdough Challenge allows our youth to make their own sourdough starter and learn the chemical properties of the starter and how they are growing microbes and bacterias and how they impact the food they eat.  Specifically sourdough bread.  Today they started the experiment by measuring flour and water, measuring the ingredients in their jars and collecting other data such as aroma and tempreture.

While the great sourdough challenge was going in one room in the kitchen our Jr. Chefs were tackling other challenges.  Today they learned about food safety and knife skills as they practiced chopping things like parsley, garlic, and measuring bread crumbs and cheese to make meatballs.  Each group took their hand at both activities and the meatballs were part of our pasta lunch bar.  

I have to say we all thought the meatballs were great at lunch but even our County Extension Director, Mac Malloy came in and sampled their cooking skills and was quite impressed.  After a full lunch that included salad, corn, pasta, meatballs, garlic bread, and dessert we hit the carpet to give our group a chance to digest theri food and the adults a chance to clean the kitchen before the next round of fun.

After a little rest we split back up and one group learned about and sampled a variety of smoothies, including a Spinach smoothies which we understand was not everyone's favorite.  However the peanut butter and chocolate smoothing and well as the strawberry banana smoothie, well those were big hits.  Our youth also got a frozen fruit parfait which had many good reviews.

While one group was enjoying the smoothie bar the other was learnnig about foods and chemical reactions.  Corn starch and water make a nonnewtonian fluid that always has our youth smiling, getting their hands a little dirty and making them curious about how properties interact to do things.  This particular mixture, depening on how you work with it, can be both a solid and a liquid at the same time.  How cool is that?

One other thing we are doing as part of camp is the etiquette challenge.  Each day we will try to use a magic word in our interactions with each other at camp and at home.  Today's word was please.  Our youth did their best to practice using the word please and tried to make it more common in their everyday language.  We hope parents will encourage their word challenge at home each day as well.

To see all the photos from today please click this link.

 

JMG News

 

2024 "Growing Good Kids" Book Award Recipients

The Junior Master Gardener Program and the American Horticultural Society honor engaging and inspiring works of plant, garden and ecology-themed children’s literature through the “Growing Good Kids – Excellence in Children’s Literature Awards” Program. This year's book award recipients will be announced in July, and will be featured on the JMG website at the link below! View Past Award Winners HERE!

Agua Fresca Recipe

Beat the heat with this sweet summer treat! Use the link below to find Dinner Tonight's recipe for Watermelon & Lime Agua Fresca, and the Cucumber and Lime flavor!

Click for Recipes Images and recipes are from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's Dinner Tonight Website.

View Video Tutorial for More How To & Recipe Ideas HERE!

Sign up for a July JMG Workshop Today! View Available Trainings & Workshops Here!

Allow us to help promote your training!  Complete this form to provide us details!

SE 4-H District Teen Retreat

 

SE 4-H District Teen Retreat is an overnight event for youth between the ages of 14-18.  This leadership event will be held at the Trinity Center in Salter Path, NC.  Youth will take part in District Officer Elections, workshops, and more. The cost of the event is $95 per person. Thanks to our United Way funds we are able to offer this event to youth for $55 dollars per person. The registration cost includes four meals, snacks, a t-shirt, lodging, transportation, and supplies.

Youth will leave the Robeson County Center on May 18th at 8 am to arrive in Pine Knolls at around 11 am. Youth will need to bring bedding (sheets and blanket, pillow, or sleeping bag), a change of clothes, and toiletries/towels.

We will return after lunch on Sunday around 5 pm.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, NC State University will honor requests for reasonable accommodations made by individuals with disabilities. Please direct accommodation requests to: Shea Ann DeJarnette at Shea_Ann_DeJarnette@ncsu.edu or 910-671-3276. Requests can be served more effectively if notice is provided at least 10 business days before the event.

To register please click on this link:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/se-district-4-h-teen-retreat-tickets-873500221677

We Can't Say Thank You Enough

   

April 22-26, 2024 is National Volunteer Week.  This year we thought we would celebrate a little differently.  On Wednesday Robeson County 4-H hosted a Garden Party Luncheon for our 4-H Volunteers.  We wanted to celebrate our adult audience with their years of service and have the chance to give our most prestigious honor, the Robeson County 4-H Volunteer of the year award.

    We had about 20 volunteers enjoy the catered luncheon.  We started the program around 12:15 and completed our awards by 12:45.  To see the awards by year click this link.  We were pleased to award our 5, 15, and 40 year recipients with mementos marking their time with 4-H.  

    Dr, Eddie Locklear was on hand to announce the newest inductee into the Robeson County 4-H Hall of Fame and recipient of the Dr. Eddie and Mrs. Brenda Locklear Endowment.  This year our winner is Joyce Jones.  Mrs. Jones has worked with our 4-H program for more than 40 years and has worked tirelessly to make sure all children have opportunities in Robeson County.   

    At the end of our event each of our volunteers received a planter with money plants seeds in side of them.  We thought since they grow great kids and we are unable to give them money we could at least give them money plants for all their hard work.  One lucky person at each table was also able to receive the tea pot planter that was the center piece to take home.   All in all we just hope our volunteers know how much we appreciate all their efforts and look forward to working with them in the future.  

  To see the photos from Tuesday's event please click this link.  

If You Could Just Listen...

 

Today is one of our favorite county 4-H events, County Activity Day.  For those of you not familar with this anual competition, it is where our youth have the opportunity to give a presentation or compete in public speaking to win awards, and get the chance to move up to compete against 17 other counties at District Activity Day.  This year the compeititon was fierce and our youth had some interesting topics and opinions that they shared with us.

Starting with our Cloverbud division, 5-7 year olds, Kingsley Roberson with the Young Leaders 4-H Club told us about his favorite transformers.  This age category is none competitive each youth gets a participation ribbon and practical feedback to get them ready for competition when they are nine.

We moved on to our 8-10 year old age division.  Thomas Underwood, with the Dirty Rascals Jr. Master Gardener 4-H Club gave a presentation in Science and Technology on Why Rocks are so heavy.  He shared his favorite type of rock with us and gave us great insight to his future carer of being a geologist.  He took first place in his age and category. 

In the 11-13 age division things got interesting.  Jahari Roberson and Malachi Jones with the Young Leaders 4-H Club went head to head in public speaking.  Jahari spoke on the impact 4-H has already had in her life and Malachi gave a speech on why he hates homework.  Although the scores were close, Jahari walked away with the first place win and Malachi came out with second.

Our 14-18 year olds showed up this year.  In presentations we had three presenters in three different topic areas.  Ian Malloy, with the Animal Science 4-H Club took home first place for his speech on Community Service.  Walt Malloy, also with the Animal Science 4-H Club took home first place in Small and Companion Animals for his speech on why kids need pets.  Jasmine King with the Titans 4-H Club took home first place for her presentation on Mac and Cheese which is in the Dairy Food Category.  Let me tell you the judges were happy to sample her mac and cheese, it got two thumbs up as did her presentation.  Our senior division was rounded out by three members of Young Leaders 4-H Club, all of whom competed in Public Speaking.  Taylor Hunter spoke about what you need to consider when choosing a college.  Demetrius Jones spoke about the importance of playing team sports.  Amare Jones spoke about the lessons learned in sports.  When it was all said and done, Taylor took first, Demetrius took second, and Amare took third place.  

Another addition to County Activity Day is 4-H Entertains.  This is a talent showcase in which two people can be chosen to move forward to District and represent the county program.  Today Thomas Underwood with the  Dirty Rascals Jr. Naster Gardener 4-H Club played the piano for us.  The judges deemed him to be our representative to move forward to District.  Congratulations Thomas.

All youth who placed first or second in their age category and division have the opportunity to move forward to District Activity Day which will be held June 14 at Mount Olive University.  We look forward to seeing everyone there and hearing their polished speeches as they represent the county program.

Also special thanks to our judges who took the time to be there today and offer constructive feedback to the youth.

To see all the photos from today's event please click this link.

Job well done everyone!

4-H Animal Science

 

4-H Animal Science is the cornerstone of the 4-H program. Youth get the opportunity to raise an animal for show at the fair. In the process they learn about responsibility, record keeping, anatomy of that animal and more. It is a fun project with real world learning opportunities.

This year we are turning the animal science project on its ear so please read the following information carefully.

-All youth taking part in this project must be actively registered in 4-H Online to receive an animal.

- This project is open to all youth ages 5-18. Please note our 5-7 year old Cloverbud division is non competitive.

- Youth must register and pay in Eventbrite prior to the deadline.

-Please note the deadline to register and pay for the Turkey project is earlier than all other animals. The deadline for this project will be April 8.

- If completing the turkey project youth will also be required to show at the state turkey show prior or during the state fair.

- Before registering please consider the needs of the animal (cost, pen, feed, outdoor area, predators, fencing, weather, etc.) before registering for this project. Once you register care, food, and other needs will be the responsibility of the family. Also think about vacations and schedules so that you can maintain a steady schedule for your animal in terms of water, feed, exercise, etc.

- There will be a mandatory Animal Science training and animal give-out at the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair Grounds on June 29 from 9:30-11:30 am.

- Other in person scheduled visits, video trainings, and possibly in person trainings per species are likely during this process. This will be discussed at the animal science meeting/training/giveaway in June.

- Youth are required to show their animal at the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair.

- We recommend the youth start by showing rabbits or chickens as a first project and move up to larger animals such as turkeys and goats.

- Please check the zoning ordinances and if applicable Home Owners Association policies, on raising animals where you live.

-Youth may complete up to 3 different animal projects.

- A project record book will need to be completed and turned in as part of this project. There will be a training on record books and we will offer virtual help in completing the books. Please note that there is a separate competition for record books in January as well that you may turn these books in for. More information will be given about that program during training.

To register please go to programs in your app or click this link:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4-h-animal-science-robeson-county-tickets-873386541657

If you have any questions please contact Shea Ann DeJarnette at sadejarn@ncsu.edu or Jade McNeill at jade_mcneill@ncsu.edu