Week 8 in Region 1

Hitting Hydration Home with PoP Club

After a couple of weeks of not doing Monday PoP Clubs, we were finally reunited with our Sheldon and Rock Rapids participants. This week our focus was water; thus we decided to do infused water. We had samples of cucumber lemon water for the kids to try and they were also able to take a fruit and vegetable coloring sheet with them. Lots of the kids liked trying the water and some said it kind of tasted like lemonade. Many of them even said they wanted to make some at home. With such a successful activity and great turnout this week, we had a record number of children spending their PoP tokens; even during fair season!

Pretty Plots with Garden Camp

We started our morning by going to garden camp in Lyon county. With fair starting next week, we lead the activities for the morning. Our main goal for the day was to get everyone’s plots looking very nice. During the Lyon county fair there is the garden tour where the regional horticulture intern gives a tour of the donation garden and all of the garden camp kids are able to show off their plots. Lots of weeds had grown over the past few weeks so weeding took quite a bit of our time. However, we made sure to save enough time to enjoy a snack of cherries, cotton candy grapes, and rice crispies and play a game.

Veggie Scrambles with Dayhab

This week in dayhab was another cooking week! Our focus was on protein and a little bit of dairy. We talked about different sources of protein and how meat is just one source. Our main ingredient this week was eggs, so we decided to make a veggie scramble. The ingredients used were eggs, spinach, red bell pepper, ham, and cheese. This was a great teamwork activity since everyone had to work together to get all of the ingredients ready to be scrambled. This was a huge hit among all of the dayhab clients. One of our favorite parts was when the Orange City dayhab clients requested to finish the leftover spinach!

Farming Innovations

On Wednesdaymorning, we split up to attend two different events. Erin went to the Northwest Iowa Research Field Day while Morgan and Camilla ran the weekly Daycare Garden Program. At the field day, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach specialists presented their projects from the past year to a group of farmers to help them understand how they can change their practices for the better. Topics presented on included crop economics, nitrogen measurement methods for field crops, and tar spot, amongst others. Erin had a great time and learned a lot about Northwest Iowa Crop raising and how extension helps local farmers.

Learning Local Foods with George Daycare

Over at the George Daycare, Morgan and Camilla had a fun time with the preschool-age kids. Our first activity was talking about farmer’s markets and how some farmers take their produce there to sell. We read the book Tractor Mac Farmer’s Market, which the kids really liked. This book really emphasized the importance of eating healthy and not just junk food. After the book, we traveled outside to check on the garden and try another piece of kale. After checking the garden, we all played a fun game of red pepper, green pepper (red light, green light).

Sioux County Fair Finale

Speaking of fair season, Thursday was the last day of the Sioux County Fair. It marks the end of our first fair in region one. We had the opportunity to attend three times. During our time there, we were assistant judges to static exhibits, judged working exhibits, and judged herdsmanship. We also got to enjoy some great fair food!