July 20, 2017
1524
The Ripley and District Horticultural Society’s "For Our Youth" club met Saturday, July 15, to learn about bugs and berries.
Roll Call was answered by 11 children naming the strawberry as their favourite berry and a variety of mostly good-looking bugs, such as the butterfly and the praying mantis, as their favourite bug.
Grandma J (Linda Jaynes) provided a nice amount of strawberries and raspberries.
Heather Newman and Mary Rose Walden took the children to the garden to see the plants they had grown and learn about plant care before the abundant harvest of juicy fruit is ready to be picked. To be able to eat it out of season, it needs to be preserved.
Heather took them to her kitchen where they read a recipe for making jam. Then the mashing, measuring, stirring, writing of labels, and filling of jars began. The sterilizing process was explained and how to prevent spoilage. The best part was the tasting of the delicious jam.
Natalie and Jaclyne Newman took the group to their garden patch where they grow potatoes, sunflowers and zucchini to be entered in the Ripley Fall Fair. Grandma J and Tryntje Eisen checked for bugs on their plants and explained that there are good and bad garden bugs.
Armed with a pill container, magnifying glass and a bug list, the bug detectives then scoured the vegetable garden for these critters, finding sow bugs, snails and slugs, earwigs, worms, milkweed bugs, etc. Even a small brown snake showed itself to the horrified delight of the children.
The meeting was closed with some more tasting of the delicious homemade jam and a hunt for fake spiders and caterpillars hidden in another part of Heather Newman’s extensive garden. The club members went home with jars of jam in their hands and (fake) bugs in their pockets.
Related Stories
No related stories.