​Ripley Horticultural Society’s youth club learns about nurdles and makes salsa

The Ripley Horticultural Society’s “For Our Youth” Club met Saturday, Sept. 13, at the home of leader Kimberlee’s farm. The members were eager to use up the bounty of tomatoes from their garden and learn how to make fresh salsa. As an added bonus, the club welcomed a special guest speaker to teach the group about micro-plastics.

After a rousing game of Cross Country Canada led by the junior leaders, the gang settled down in Kimberlee’s roomy shop to listen to an engaging presentation by Meredith Watson of the Lake Huron Coastal Centre. Her organization is a charity dedicated to protecting and restoring Lake Huron’s coastal environment. She discussed the amount of micro-plastics being found on beaches up and down the coast, describing the types of plastic and where they come from.

The club learned a great new word, “nurdles,” which are tiny discs of plastic, forming the raw material that companies use to create more complex plastic items. Billions of nurdles get lost during storage and transportation which creates significant plastic pollution in the lake.

The kids asked great questions and enjoyed the hands-on activity of sifting through buckets of sand to find, and identify, different types of plastic, trash and metal, and classify them on a chart. They were all very enthusiastic junior scientists! The club thanked Meredith for her time with a donation to her organization, delivered by leader Brad and his son, Henry.

After a few stretches, the club got down to business with the next activity: making fresh salsa! Leader Bonnie harvested a huge bowlful of tomatoes from the club’s garden plot at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley. Leader Brad brought bell peppers and hot peppers from his garden, and leader Kim supplied the rest of the ingredients. Everyone had a turn to chop, dice, slice and mix everything together, with junior leaders Brie and Brianna making sure the younger members kept all their fingers intact.

The main salsa recipe consisted of fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, garlic, olive oil and lime juice. Then the members got to choose their own special “add-ins,” such as peaches, hot peppers, smoked paprika, herbs or pineapple. The kids labelled their customized personal jars of salsa to take home and share with their families. Everyone enjoyed scooping up the leftover salsa with nacho chips as part of the snack.

One thing these kids are great at is helping to clean up. With a cooking day, there’s always quite the mess to contend with. But everyone pitches in with a smile, and this makes the work go very quickly. Way to go, gang!

Once all the tables were wiped, scraps composted and the bowls stacked, the kids lined up to pick their treat from the treasure box, which was well-organized by junior leader Chris. The leaders hope the members enjoyed their salsa at home, and hopefully, shared some with their families.

The club’s final meeting of the year takes place at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens, Oct. 18. The members will be putting their garden to sleep for the winter, playing some games and enjoying delicious snacks as they say farewell to the club for another season!