See you Thursday!

The garden is sprouting! Seeds we put in the ground at the open house are taking off, and the rhubarb is abundant.

Pictured at left: Dry beans sprouting. Pictured below: Rhubarb harvested.

Our first summer session will be Thursday, June 9. Children who have completed grades 3 and up may attend. Arrive by car, bike, or foot at 10 and sign up for for 3 sessions. Programs presenting will be:

Simply Good Eating with Ruth Neil
JMG Certification with Patty Conradt
Healthy4U with Sandy Anderson
Garden with Master Gardeners Shirley Guild and Pam Schmidt

Free lunches will be available, and we finish up at noon.

Rhubarb Muffins

We made just enough muffins for a great turnout yesterday: 4 dozen mini muffins and 2 dozen regular muffins were gobbled up by 7 p.m. at the open house. A huge thank you to Elaine Braaten for helping prepare the muffins. The version "with protein and fiber" with Great Northern bean puree (see "Ideas" below the recipe) was actually the favorite with most tasters for texture and rhubarb flavor. My Simply Good Eating lessons at the garden in 2011 will feature beans. Stay tuned for lessons like "Bean Recipe Test Kitchen" and "Kids' Choice: Baking with Beans."
~Ruth Neil, Community Nutrition Educator

Rhubarb Muffins

Serving Size: 1 muffin
Yield: 2 dozen muffins

Ingredients:
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups cut rhubarb
½ c. nuts (optional)

Topping:
1 Tablespoon butter
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin tins or line with paper cups.
2. In large bowl, blend sugar, brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla, and buttermilk.
3. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to large bowl and blend until moistened.
4. Add rhubarb and mix. Add nuts if desired and mix.
5. Fill muffin cups about half full. In small bowl, mix butter, sugar, and cinnamon to make topping, and sprinkle on top of muffins.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.

Ideas:
Substitute raspberries or blueberries for rhubarb.

Try 2 egg whites instead of 1 whole egg to reduce fat.

If you don’t have buttermilk, add 1 Tablespoon vinegar to1 cup minus 1 Tablespoon milk. Let rest 5 minutes; use as substitute for buttermilk.

Try adding beans! Puree 1 ¼ cups Great Northern or light red kidney beans. Add in step two, reducing buttermilk to ¾ c. buttermilk and reducing oil to ¼ c. oil.

“Rhubarb Muffins with Protein & Fiber”
Nutrition Facts for rhubarb muffin with beans,
1 egg, ¼ c. oil, ¾ c. buttermilk, and no nuts:
1 muffin (makes 2 dozen regular-size muffins)=
140 cal., 3 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 0 g trans fat,
11 mg cholesterol, 131 mg sodium, 25 g carbs,
1 g fiber, 13 g sugars, 3 g protein, 1% vit A,
1% vit C, 4% calcium, 5% iron
(Compared to original recipe, fat is reduced
from 6 g to 3 g; protein is increased from 2 g
to 3 g.)

Family Fun This Week (Survey)

Harvest Party

Congratulations to all JMG participants!

3rd year of the Mower County Junior Master Gardeners was a success! This year produce was healthy and abundant. Produce was grown for the harvest party that happened Thursday September 2. JMGer's talked about a product from the garden and showcased their hard work over the past summer.

Meal served was Honey Roasted Root Vegetables, Garden Minestrone, and the ever so popular Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies. The pumpkin patch was invaded by the youth whom each got to take one home.

We are looking forward to next year and the winter season ahead!

We prepare for the fair!

It was quite an adventure last week at our gardening sessions! Jen had her groups making Watermelon smoothies. The blender was going, kids were cutting and juice was everywhere! Nothing beats a smoothie on a hot day. A few feet away Ruth had another group cutting up the yellow zucchini from the garden. This group was steaming zucchini and learning how to use it. The youth really seem to enjoy their sessions with Jen and Ruth!

The youth always have plenty of produce to pick from the garden each week. All the vegetables get weighed once they are picked and we are keeping track of how much produce we have grown. It will be exciting to add everything up at the end of the season. Everyone is doing a great job of keeping the weeds out and making sure everything is watered.

Yesterday we had a smaller group of kids than normal. Ruth and Jen couldn't be with us so we had all the kids in the garden picking vegetables, weighing, and logging totals. Master Gardeners, Pam and Shirley, are with us each week and they explain lots of gardening tips to the kids. The youth are able to take home lots of information to use in their own gardens.

The rest of our time yesterday was spent hanging posters and pictures of the kids and activities that we have done throughout the summer. We hope everyone will stop by to see the youth who have been part of our Junior Master Gardener program. Please look at the garden as well. Hopefully you will know someone who would like to be part of this wonderful program!!

Enjoy the Mower County Fair!!

Fruit Frenzy

The JMG group has another successful day at the garden and the rain stayed away!

Megan and the 4-H Ambassadors made Fruit Pomanders with the JMG session. The kids really got into it and some even knew why they are used!

In another session Jen made Citrus Salad using lettuce and spinach from the garden while Ruth demonstrated the textures, tastes and smells of fruit.

We'll continue our learning journey again next week....

Let's Jam

Our theme for July 15 was "Let's Jam." Master Gardener, Elaine Braaten, did just that with the kids. With the raspberries from her home, she demonstrated how to make jam. Everyone was able to take home a yummy sample!

While some kids were busy making jam another group was making Colorful Fruit Salad with Jen. Youth learned how to cut up fruit and how to use the juices from the fruit. The completed salad looked delicious. Hopefully the kids have tried the recipe at home!

The JMG session learned the methods of preserving foods. Freezing, Dehydrating and Canning methods were discussed. Patty brought in canned foods for the kids to look at. The youth tried canned Strawberry Jam and Tomato Juice and sampled some dehydrated foods.

Youth harvested green beans, lettuce, zucchini, swiss chard and kolhrabi from the garden. Some of the kids were taking the produce to sell at the Farmer's Market. Each week we are able to see how different the garden looks and we are amazed at how it is producing. The best part of this program is watching the kids grow and learn. These are valuable lessons that will last a lifetime!!

The garden is growing and producing beautifully! Master Gardeners, Shirley and Pam, had the kids pick peas, kohlrabi, and spinach. A few kids washed up the produce for Megan to take to the Farmer's Market. After the 2 in 1 garden was harvested the plants were pulled up, the soil was worked and it was replanted, hence the name 2 in 1. While some of the youth worked in the garden others were learning how to make salsa in the kitchen with Jen. Our 4-H summer intern, Megan, had her groups make ice cream in a bag. This was a huge hit with the kids! While kids were finishing up their ice cream the JMG groups made scarecrows in the garden. We all had lots of fun and look forward to the next session!

Our theme for June 17 was "The Trashy Side." Reduce, Reuse and Recycle were the three important words youth learned about. Megan had the kids build a project using recyclable materials. There were some fantastic projects to display when they were done! Junior Master Gardeners buried newspaper, aluminum cans, glass and plastic to see what would happen to each of the materials after a few weeks. Jen had kids taste testing fruits and vegetables along with discussing where to shop for nutritious foods in grocery stores. Ruth used Strawberries that were picked from the garden to make delicious Fruity Breakfast Parfaits. The kids continued to maintain the garden with the help of the Master Gardeners and had great games with the 4-H Ambassadors. We hope to see all children again this week!

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Update from Master Gardener Therese Manggaard:

We had a wet day yesterday, but Elaine & I stuck it out. We had 2 youth in attendance.

We planted the celery and eggplant and did a lot of weeding. There were a few strawberries for a snack. I noticed the remaining spinach is about to bolt. It will be time to harvest that on Thursday.

We are in need of fence or trellis for the climbing beans and sweet potatoes. The whole garden is really starting to take off. It's so much fun coming back to see the changes.

-Therese

Day 1: From Mustard Greens to Hamburger Plants...

Despite the rain, we began our summer garden program with 30 kids in attendance. The kids were split into three groups according to age. We had each group attend sessions where they learned about nutrition, gardening and games. Ruth provided a great lesson on hamburger plants and made a delicious healthy snack: Mexican-Style Bean Pizza. Master gardeners Pam and Shirley assisted kids with weeding the garden and harvesting a few of the items from the 2 in 1 garden. Youth picked lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, radishes and strawberries, which were delivered to the food shelf. Mower County 4-H Ambassadors provided many fun games for the kids and helped keep them out of the rain! We wrapped up with lunch and a reminder to everyone to bring pictures next week of their gardens at home.

-Patty Conradt, JMG Leader

Gardening Rain or Shine

Watch local news coverage of our first Thursday morning garden session of the summer at kaaltv.com.