By Matthew McClellan

Rowan 4-H Agent

If you’ve followed my writings before, you will know that I tend to write about the outdoor skills and livestock 4-H programs.

Today, though, I am going to write a little about some of the other opportunities available in our program. In the history of 4-H, the original projects were agriculture-related for boys and cooking and sewing for girls. Today, those projects still exist and each is open to both boys and girls.

In the early days of 4-H, youth learned skills that would translate directly to their home lives and disseminate knowledge from the states’ land grant universities out to the public. That is still our mission today, the difference being our delivery methods and vehicles for educational outreach.

There have been lots of changes in the ways food is bought and prepared since those early days in 4-H. When 4-H began in the early 1900s, most of the population lived on the farm and most of the food consumed by the family was produced on the family farm or at the very most, produced locally to the family home.

Today, however, that is not the case. Few people live on the farm and we as a society have become distant from where and how our food gets to us.

Well, this summer, Rowan County 4-H will be taking one of those original 4-H projects and bringing those skills into 2017. During the summer, Rowan County 4-H will offer a program we have titled 4-H Culinary Bootcamp as part of our 4-H Summer Fun! series.

Youth in this program will be introduced to the latest in kitchen safety and food preparation techniques. Youth will learn about local food distribution systems and take home some amazing recipes to prepare for their families. Our Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent, Toi Degree, will be taking the lead on this program so I am sure that it will be exciting, fast paced and a whole lot of fun.

I am almost ready to release our complete Summer Fun! series schedule so stay tuned to the Salisbury Post, our county Extension website and our 4-H Facebook pages to stay completely informed as to when all of our summer programming is open for registration.

As always, if you have any questions about any of the programs I have discussed or any general 4-H questions, please feel free to contact me at the Rowan County Extension Office at 704-216-8970.