Green Science Adventure Camp-1: Day 2

Day 2 of Green Science Adventure Camp was awesome! We had a blast with all of our amazing campers!

This morning in Garden Kitchen, we made strawberry jam with some of the strawberries that we picked yesterday. It took a lot of muscle power to mash up the strawberries, but we have strong campers and they did a fantastic job! While the jam was cooking, we snacked on popcorn that was drizzled with maple syrup and butter. The sounds of munching were very loud!

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Red Peppers mashing strawberries for making jam.

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Yellow Peppers munching their popcorn snack!

We took care of the animals again today, which is a very important job. We trust our campers to be kind and gentle as they care for our furry and feathered friends. The Yellow Peppers bottle-fed the kid goats while the Green Peppers milked Isabella, our mama goat. The Red Peppers gathered eggs and made sure our adult chickens had fresh food and water. The Orange Peppers hung out with the goose, ducks, and young chickens and took care of their needs.

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Red Peppers carefully collect eggs during morning chores.

We spent some time this morning tie-dying T-shirts. These will be ready for campers to wear when they come to camp on Friday!

Green and Yellow Peppers work on dying their shirts.

Green and Yellow Peppers work on dying their shirts.

We like to highlight the animals that live here on the farm during camp, and today was all about chickens! We discussed the types of feathers that chickens have and what each of their functions are. We talked a lot about down feathers and that they are especially good for keeping birds warm, which is one of the reasons why people use them for stuffing comforters and pillows. We also discussed chicken breeds, ages, and how you can tell what color eggs they lay (hint: it’s just behind a hen’s eye).

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Petting one of our Isa Brown pullets, which are young adult/teenage chickens.

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Green and Yellow Peppers watching Ms. Mandy crack and egg.

After learning about the anatomy of chickens, we learned about eggs. The campers asked lots of great questions about eggs that we eat versus eggs that hatch into chicks, and we learned that any egg could hatch if the hen lived with a rooster and the hen was allowed to sit on the egg for 21 days to keep it around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Our campers were very knowledgeable about chicks and how they hatch. We also did an experiment to see how thick an egg’s shell is. We put an egg in a jar of vinegar and watched the acidic vinegar break down the eggshell. Campers were intrigued by the bubbles we saw!

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A Yellow Pepper watching vinegar bubbles work on deconstructing an eggshell!

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The Yellow and Green Peppers meeting the farm’s resident goose, Hazel! She protects our ducks from predators.

During our afternoon Garden Kitchen session, we made buttermilk biscuits to go with our strawberry jam. Hopefully every camper went home with a recipe card, but if you didn’t, the recipe is at the end of this post.

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Yellow Peppers cutting butter into the biscuit dough.

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Yellow Peppers taste-testing the biscuits and jam!

We continued to work on our sustainable farm models, and we talked about adding animals and different planting methods. We are building on the campers’ original design throughout the week as they learn more about what goes into making a farm sustainable.

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Orange Peppers working on their farm model.

The pepper groups gathered natural materials to construct their own bird nest. We talked about egg composition and what is necessary to build an ideal nest. Sturdiness and ability to protect an egg are major components of great nests, and we tested our nests for these qualities.

Red Peppers gathering mud for their

Red Peppers gathering mud for their

Our skits are a work in progress, and we spent some time today listening to music and continuing to brainstorm skit ideas. Be sure to check back here for videos of our skit performances on Friday!

We had another wonderful day with our campers, and we are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow for more learning and adventures!


Biscuits

Ingredients:
9 ounces of all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
5 Tbs. chilled butter, cut into small pieces
¾ cup buttermilk
3 Tbs. honey

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven 400
  2. Weight or lightly spoon flour into dry measure. Level with a knife. Gently whisk the dry ingredients in large bowl.
  3. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse meal.
  4. Chill for 10 minutes
  5. Combine buttermilk and honey with whisk. Add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moist.
  6. Turn out on to floured surface. Knead four times.
  7. Roll into 9×5 rectangle, fold in by thirds.
  8. Reroll into 9×5 rectangle, fold in by thirds.
  9. Reroll into 9×5 rectangle, fold in long ways by thirds
  10. Gently pate to ¾ inch thick. Cut with 1 ¾ inch cutter.
  11. Place rounds one inch apart on babing sheet lined with parchment paper
  12. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool.
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