Catching Up on the 4H News

Wow!  I cannot believe I have not posted this week about our 4H events!  I guess it has been a little busy this week.  We also left to go out of town as we need to take Michael to the airport on Sunday and decided to take a little family trip out of town before he left.

So, the short 4H week was really only Tuesday from 4-8pm.  We managed to enjoy a Wildlife project meeting and a Food workshop.

We learned about the wild turkey from Taylor.  If you have never learned about wild turkeys, you should take some time to learn.  They are such intelligent creatures!  Here are some of the things Taylor told us:


Wild turkeys live in woods in parts of North America and are the largest game birds found in this part of the world.  They spend their days foraging for food like acorns, seeds, small insects and wild berries.  They spend their nights in low branches of trees.

You can usually tell the difference between an adult male (a tom) and a juvenile male (a jake) turkey by looking at a turkey's tail. All tail feathers of adult males are the same length. The feathers forming the center of a jake's tail are usually longer than the rest of the feathers in the tail.

Each spring male turkeys try to befriend as many females as possible.  Male turkeys puff up their bodies and spread their tail feathers (just like a peacock).

After the presentation, we learned about aging deer by looking at their teeth.  This is often on our contest and a very interesting science.  This was just one of the techniques that we reviewed as the contest will be in mid-October.  We also talked about hunting laws from our hunting guide.  I strongly encouraged the group to check out the hunter safety course online.  It is a bog help for that portion of the contest.

After this time in the wild, we were happy to go inside for a little bit of food talk.  Little did we know we were going to learn so much!  The 4Hers (taught by other 4Hers) were taught about types of noodles, how to make ricotta cheese, and MyPlate.  They also were shown a demonstration of the newest contest, Ag Product ID.  

They were first asked to identify the different noodles positioned on the table.  Once the 4Hers made their choices, they were given the correct answers.  Our boys really enjoyed this activity and want to learn new recipes to go with all the various pastas!

The ricotta making station was interesting.  They could not actually make ricotta in the short time of the workshop, but the 4Hers were shown the steps.  I do not know about the other moms, but my boys were begging to try the recipe sent home with them!

The station for the MyPlate was mainly an information table with pamphlets.  I was surprised to see a neat plate designed like the MyPlate.  I found out the plate was available locally so I will be obtaining one of these in the near future...so nice for portion sizes!

The Ag Product ID station was set up like the contest and the 4Hers were given the opportunity to test their knowledge.  This is a fun contest to learn about what food products are available in Texas.  We have a lot to learn about in the next few months...contest is in February!

So glad we have these opportunities in 4H.  Looking forward to learning along with the boys as we continue to focus on these awesome projects!