Fresh homemade bread straight out of the oven. Hmmmmm. Heavenly. Butter, a favourite jam, sharp cheese, chocolate spread, pesto…the options are endless to enjoy with that first decadent slice of warm bread that our Prescott County 4-H members have baked!
Eight 4-H members spent a total of 12 hours during two months learning how to make multi-grain loaves of bread, butter dinner rolls, jalapeno cheese bread, buttermilk biscuits and bagels. Leaders Faye Allen and Ida Everest taught the members the basics of yeast, proofing your dough, kneading and the importance and variability of gluten in different flours. Quizzes included helpful bread tools (bench scraper, bread lame etc.), recognizing the difference between whole grain breads and enriched wheat breads, and why bread goes stale and how to store it for optimal freshness and shelf life. Members enjoyed sweet breads for snacks such as maple pecan sticky buns and biscuits with homemade jams.
The club held its 4-H Achievement Day on Sunday, March 9, 2025, at Walford on the Hill, Vankleek Hill. All eight youth submitted their six (6) buns which they had made solo at home and a short talk about their experience in the Breads Club. The official judge, Pat Wilson judged all entries and awarded 1st place to Annie-France Tweed, 2nd place to Anna Wyman and third place to Meaghan Fraser. The audience was treated to resident Lorna Young’s stories of making bread since she was five years old. She is 93 now. Her son, Pharan spoke on her behalf and described how she prepared dough in a washtub and baked the bread in a wood fired stove. Kelsey Campbell from the Broken Kettle bakery in Vankleek Hill also presented a variety of baked goods and spoke on how she got started in the bakery business, working at a bakery in Ottawa, then in Alfred and now, as proprietor and manager of the Broken Kettle in Vankleek Hill. A People’s Choice award to choose your favourite bakery item resulted in date squares as the favourite, followed by lemon squares. Later, all enjoyed eating the buns (with homemade blueberry jam) and squares and cookies.
Overall, the youth shared that they ‘loved Breads Club’ even though kneading the dough to the correct elasticity and smoothness can be challenging as a beginner! We’d like to thank Suzanne, Activity Director at Walford on the Hill, Lorna Young, Faren Young, Kelsey from The Broken Kettle, the 4-H youth, parents, and our judge Pat Wilson for their support for a successful 4-H Breads Achievement Program.
4-H is a wholesome program for youth (aged 6-21) to learn about topics, enjoy hands-on experience and mentorship. The 4-H Dairy Club is planned for April (contact: [email protected]); the Beef Club will start March 27 (contact: [email protected]) and a Pizza Club is planned for Fall 2025 (contact: [email protected]).
Prescott County will also start a 4-H Cloverbuds Club this year for youth, aged six to eight. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
There are typically six meetings for each Club. 4-H’s motto is “Learn by Doing”. Please see The Prescott County 4-H Facebook Page or 4-H Ontario for more information.
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