Week 7
This was an extra special week in my summer. Remember way back to my first week when I went to Super Star Chef Training? Oh yeeeeeah....time flies.
I spent this week in Madisonville, KY with the Super Star Chef team. We traveled from Madisonville to Dawson Springs every morning to teach the Super Star Chef curriculum to West Kentucky 4-H campers. We taught four groups of campers for 50 minutes apiece, Wednesday-Friday.
That Monday morning we bustled around Lexington collecting extra cooking and teaching supplies, pre- and post-tests, and reinforcement items, which are fun free-bees given to program graduates. Each camper got their very own apron, set of measuring cups, cutting board, and graduation certificate upon completion.
Tuesday evening we traveled out to the 4-H campsite for class sign-ups. As I have learned, I am one of few natural-born rural Kentuckians to never participate in 4-H camp as a child, therefore sign-ups were surprising to me. My vision of class sign-ups was very dull compared to the lively, enthusiastic, and competitive soirée we walked into. We had to actively recruit our class members, which was challenging without props. For example, Music Class played the songs they would be learning, Rocketry Class boasted their homemade rockets, and Pinterest Class had beautiful pictures of their upcoming crafts. By the end of sign-ups we had an average of 6 kids per class and only 2 males overall.
Wednesday began with purchasing program support supplies, in this case groceries for our recipes. We taught the campers hand-washing and knife safety, including the differences between types of knives, and allowed them to practice cutting fruit. We used our chopped fruit to make fruit kabobs using skewers. The Sweet Treats Class even let us borrow melted chocolate for our kabobs!
After buying our groceries Thursday morning we headed back to Dawson Springs. We taught the campers the importance of food preservation and made strawberry freezer jam.
On Friday we made homemade salsa with the campers, providing them with chips to enjoy their finished product!
Although I have taught a few audiences on a weekly basis throughout the summer, such as the women at Chrysalis House and the veterans at St. James Place, this was my first experience teaching on a daily basis. Even though we only had three days with the campers, by the end of the week I had gotten to know each one of them. I learned about their families, pets, hobbies, extra-curricular activities, favorite foods, books, movies, music....the list is endless.
On Friday as we were finishing up each class the kids gave us all hugs and thanked us for spending time with them. It was a blast spending those few hours a day with them, but I regretted not having the opportunity to stay the entire week with them. Many of our campers were already exclaiming their excitement to participate in Super Star Chef again next summer. The 4-H contact for the Super Star Chef program was so thrilled by the class she asked if we were available for other camps, but unfortunately the summer was already booked. Perhaps next year 4-H could consider asking some of the Super Star Chef participants from this summer to teach the class at each camp next summer!
Week 8
This week was a whirlwind! Not only was I busy polishing out the details for my big summer project (waaaait for it!), but it was also fair week in Fayette County. My agent and I headed out to the fair grounds to help set-up and organize. It is always nice to get out of the office, and strangely enough I find it refreshing to do a little bit of manual labor. By manual labor I simply mean moving and arranging tables, assembling a flag with no instruction manual, and helping a guild of quilters build quilt racks.
Extension....always keeping me on my toes!!
I had the honor of judging the different categories of canned goods. In the beginning of my internship, I assisted in judging the canned goods submitted to the Nicholas County fair, so it was interesting to experience the flip-side of this process. I found that categorizing the canned goods was actually more challenging than judging. The strangest canned product we had submitted was called Kool-Aid Pickles, where the contestant added fruit punch flavored Kool-Aid mix to her pickling cucumbers.
We also had some beautifully crafted hand-woven baskets submitted for judging, however, we called in the professionals for this competition. The women who traveled to Fayette County to judge the baskets were experts, and knew each design name on sight.
We had so many gorgeous quilts brought to display that I could barely choose which ones to include in my blog! My favorite quilt was a baby blanket, which was designed to resemble a sheet of notebook paper with a child's drawings. The quilter even included the 3-hole punch on the left-hand side of the paper!
My favorite part of the fair was watching baby chicks hatch with the kids who came through the pavilion. I had never learned about how baby chicks grow inside the shell, and I found it surprising that it takes less than a month for them to hatch! It was exhausting watching them chip away at the shell, but very rewarding to see how fast they regain their strength.
We wrapped this week up by visiting Village Branch Library for their "Cooking on a Coin" program. Over the summer I have gotten to know a few of the kids who keep coming back to participate, and they have astonished me with their maturity and genuine interest. Their cooking skills have notably improved, and hopefully we have taught them a few things about budgeting, reading labels, and being health conscious.
It does not seem possible that the summer is already over! The past couple of months have provided me with so many amazing experiences, all of which have taught me something new, as well as honed my personal and professional skills. At this point in time I felt ready to tackle my Big Summer Project, which I intentionally saved for my final blog post. Stay tuned to read about my week-long experience teaching the Top Chef program (designed by yours truly) at Camp Carnegie in downtown Lexington!
On Friday as we were finishing up each class the kids gave us all hugs and thanked us for spending time with them. It was a blast spending those few hours a day with them, but I regretted not having the opportunity to stay the entire week with them. Many of our campers were already exclaiming their excitement to participate in Super Star Chef again next summer. The 4-H contact for the Super Star Chef program was so thrilled by the class she asked if we were available for other camps, but unfortunately the summer was already booked. Perhaps next year 4-H could consider asking some of the Super Star Chef participants from this summer to teach the class at each camp next summer!
Week 8
This week was a whirlwind! Not only was I busy polishing out the details for my big summer project (waaaait for it!), but it was also fair week in Fayette County. My agent and I headed out to the fair grounds to help set-up and organize. It is always nice to get out of the office, and strangely enough I find it refreshing to do a little bit of manual labor. By manual labor I simply mean moving and arranging tables, assembling a flag with no instruction manual, and helping a guild of quilters build quilt racks.
Extension....always keeping me on my toes!!
I had the honor of judging the different categories of canned goods. In the beginning of my internship, I assisted in judging the canned goods submitted to the Nicholas County fair, so it was interesting to experience the flip-side of this process. I found that categorizing the canned goods was actually more challenging than judging. The strangest canned product we had submitted was called Kool-Aid Pickles, where the contestant added fruit punch flavored Kool-Aid mix to her pickling cucumbers.
We also had some beautifully crafted hand-woven baskets submitted for judging, however, we called in the professionals for this competition. The women who traveled to Fayette County to judge the baskets were experts, and knew each design name on sight.
We had so many gorgeous quilts brought to display that I could barely choose which ones to include in my blog! My favorite quilt was a baby blanket, which was designed to resemble a sheet of notebook paper with a child's drawings. The quilter even included the 3-hole punch on the left-hand side of the paper!
My favorite part of the fair was watching baby chicks hatch with the kids who came through the pavilion. I had never learned about how baby chicks grow inside the shell, and I found it surprising that it takes less than a month for them to hatch! It was exhausting watching them chip away at the shell, but very rewarding to see how fast they regain their strength.
We wrapped this week up by visiting Village Branch Library for their "Cooking on a Coin" program. Over the summer I have gotten to know a few of the kids who keep coming back to participate, and they have astonished me with their maturity and genuine interest. Their cooking skills have notably improved, and hopefully we have taught them a few things about budgeting, reading labels, and being health conscious.
It does not seem possible that the summer is already over! The past couple of months have provided me with so many amazing experiences, all of which have taught me something new, as well as honed my personal and professional skills. At this point in time I felt ready to tackle my Big Summer Project, which I intentionally saved for my final blog post. Stay tuned to read about my week-long experience teaching the Top Chef program (designed by yours truly) at Camp Carnegie in downtown Lexington!
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