Posts Tagged: 4-H
4-H teaches responsibility
Tanner, 10, hails from a family with a long 4-H tradition. Mom Kellie Rosales started in 4-H at age 9. Grandma Teri Penfold grew up in 4-H and is now a leader.
With more than 6 million members, 4-H is the nation's largest youth development organization, supporting students ages 9 to 19 through an expansive and varied program designed to shape future leaders and innovators, the article said.
In California, 4-H is part of UC Cooperative Extension.
The article described the months-long process Tanner has undertaken to show a farm animal at the fair. He meets weekly with the 4-H goat leader and makes one or two additional trips to work with Bonnie on his own.
4-H members are responsible for regularly walking their animals, feeding them, weekly weigh-ins, giving any oral medications, practicing showing in a ring and touching the animals so they're used to being handled.
"The 4-H program teaches the commitment needed to properly prepare a goat for show - and more importantly - how to see a project through to completion," the article said.
Rosales said she appreciated the opportunities and experiences that 4-H provided.
"I just want that for my kids," she said. "I want them to know they're going to work hard, and when they work hard it's going to pay off."
The best of the best: salted caramel butter bars
Well, if you're Angelina Gonzalez, an alumnus of the Sherwood Forest 4-H Club, Vallejo, and now the Solano County's 4-H SET (Science, Engineering and Technology) Program representative, sometimes practice makes perfect, and sometimes perfect doesn't need practice.
Gonzalez's salted caramel butter bars swept all five awards in the adult baked goods section of the 2014 Solano County Fair. Judges first awarded the bars a blue ribbon, and then best-of-division, followed by the sweepstakes award and the coveted best-of-show.
"I've been entering cookies in the adult baked foods department for the past few years and have done well in the past," Gonzalez said. "I love baking and cookies are my specialty. This year, I attempted a recipe that I had never made before. It was a bit of a risk, but I wanted to try something new rather than another cookie recipe. I'm glad I did."
Its origin? Gonzalez selected the recipe on the Internet. (Shelly, the person who posted it several years ago, describes herself as "an addict of the buttercream sort.")
"Although I never took a 4-H food project, I am thankful to 4-H for everything that I have learned through it," Gonzalez said. "I started 4-H when I was nine years old and quickly learned that I loved it. The following years, I became an active member our Sherwood Forest 4-H Club as historian, treasurer, vice president, and president."
She enrolled in many different projects, including arts and crafts, ceramics, rabbits, dogs, dairy goats, horses, and leadership, receiving multiple awards at fairs. Among them: first place in novice and senior showmanship and various best-of-show awards and outstanding 4-H exhibitor awards.
"I would definitely say that 4-H gave me confidence and life skills for the future," said Gonzalez, who holds a master's degree in sociology from Sacramento State University. "After aging out of the program and a year off, I came back to 4-H (Sherwood Forest 4-H Club) as an arts and crafts project leader."
She just completed her seventh year as a project leader. Her work is much appreciated; she recently received the Solano County 4-H Alumni Award. "I love 4-H and look forward to where it takes me next," she said.
4-H'ers celebrate National 4-H Week every October. Youths and adult volunteers who want to sign up for the youth development program should contact their county 4-H program or the statewide office for more information.
Here's the prize-winning recipe, not only perfect for the holidays but for any occasion.Salted Caramel Butter Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 1 lb. salted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla (or use Princess Cake Emulsion)
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 bag (14 oz.) caramel candies (about 50 individual caramels), unwrapped
- 1/3 cup milk or cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt (optional) (*see No. 7 below)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325°
- In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Using mixer on medium speed, beat together until creamy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Sift the flour into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until a smooth soft dough forms.
- Spray a 9x13 inch baking pan lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Press one-third of the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom crust. Wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator.
- Bake crust until firm and the edges are a pale golden brown approximately 20 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool about 15 minutes.
- While the bottom crust is baking and the remaining dough is chilling, make the caramel filling. Place the unwrapped caramels in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the cream. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. If caramels are not completely melted, microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until smooth.
- Once the caramel is melted, add in your 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and stir until combined.
- Pour the caramel filling over the crust. If you are going to salt the caramel, sprinkle it on caramel layer now.
- Remove the remaining chilled dough from the refrigerator and crumble it evenly over the caramel.
- Return the pan to the oven and bake until the filling is bubbly and the crumbled shortbread topping is firm and lightly golden, about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Let cool before cutting into squares.
Next step? Enjoy! P.S.: There will be no leftovers.
4-H enthusiast Angelina Gonzalez with her best-of-show salted caramel bars, Solano County Fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Sacramento 4-H takes to the national stage
An innovative 4-H program developed in Sacramento will be featured on American Graduate Day 2014, a multi-platform PBS event broadcast live from Lincoln Center in New York on Sept. 27. It can be viewed on the web at http://americangraduate.org/grad-day and on participating PBS stations from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
“I got to look at the stars. I saw the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and the Milky Way. It looked like a line of milk and glitter,” said one camper.
To tell the nation about this program, American Graduate Day 2014 has made arrangements for three Sacramento representatives to travel to New York City next weekend to be panelists on the show. They are Marianne Bird, UC Cooperative Extension 4-H advisor; Gayle Craggs, a Twin Rivers Unified School District teacher and 4-H On the Wild Side leader; and Bonnie Lindgren, a 4-H member who was an On The Wild Side teen leader for four years. (Lingren, 2014 McClatchy High School graduate, is now a freshman at Carleton College in Minnesota.)
Media contact: Marianne Bird, (916) 875-6423, mbird@ucanr.edu
For more information, see the attached PDF documents:
4-H members to plant one millionth tree
The project was launched in 2008 after 4-H member Laura Webber saw Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." At the end, the documentary suggests ways viewers can help ease the dire consequences of global warming. One was, "Plant a tree." Webber decided to plant one million.
Even as she went off to college, trees continued to be planted around the world and tallied on the 4-H Million Trees website. Many 4-H members coordinated tree planting projects in their local communities to take part in 4-H Million Trees. One of those was Julien Lévy of the Belmont 4-H Club, who created "The Reforesting San Bruno Project" after the September 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion. In Louisiana, a 4-H member coordinated the planting of 150,000 trees to replace those lost in Hurricane Katrina. In Mariposa County, a 4-H member planted trees to reforest an area ravaged by wildfire.
Webber, now an international studies major starting her senior year at Vassar College, and her father will join current 4-H members at Huddart County Park in Woodside to plant the millionth tree.
Other media:
ABC Eyewitness News interviewed Webber at the site of the very first tree planted as part of the project for a story on the evening news.
New UC advisor is already making a positive impact
“She brings enthusiasm, high energy, intelligence and a passion for agriculture to her job," said Bill Gass, executive director of the San Mateo County Farm Bureau.
No day is average for Bolshakova, who is also the county director for San Mateo-San Francisco counties UCCE and the director of Elkus Ranch, a place for hands-on learning experiences for Bay Area children.
One morning she is working with concerned citizens about beekeeping policies, collaborating with scientists at UC Berkeley about eradicating aphids in gardens, and in the afternoon herding students around Elkus Ranch teaching about rangeland, the story said.
“I think the biggest challenge facing San Mateo County agriculture is urban-rural interface, and that goes in both directions,” she said. “I work with many youth who never thought about plants or planting a seed and watching it grow. I worry that people are becoming disconnected to their food and where it originates.”
Bolshakova was born and raised on a 450-acre pig and crop farm in southwestern Michigan where her parents still work the land. Her childhood experiences nurtured a passion for the environment and a keen awareness of the interdependency between people and nature.
Bolshakova has a bachelor's degree in biology from State University of New York, Buffalo, a master's degree from the University of Toledo, and a Ph.D. in ecology from Utah State University.