To celebrate the end of another successful growing season in our Summer Youth Gardens, Clearwater Farm hosted a “Harvest Celebration” for participants and their families, our hardworking volunteers, and Clearwater Farm members. The evening was filled with family fun activities, including a cooking demonstration by Chef Shawn McManus of Savory Creations.
Shawn invited four kids to participate in a friendly cook-off. The prize was a delicious veggie pizza for everyone to sample. The secret ingredients were herbs harvested from the garden and a hint of honey freshly harvested during the event. Mayo Clinic Health System – Franciscan Healthcare, a strong supporter of nutrition and local food systems, donated their mobile teaching kitchen for this event.
Randy Payne, a professional beekeeper, was on hand to demonstrate how honey is extracted from frames of honeycomb. Not only were kids able to spin the extractor, but they delighted in tasting the sweet honey that oozed out of the spout. The honey was then strained and bottled on-site. Towards the end of the evening, Clearwater’s honeybees got wind of the operation and started cleaning up the spilled honey. Don’t worry! They were too busy eating the honey to bother anyone.
Families also learned about vermicomposting – that’s composting with worms – from local expert Joe Klinge who manages Hillview Urban Agriculture Center’s vermicomposting facility in La Crosse. Hillview diverts tens of thousands of pounds of food waste from our local landfill. Families were able to view the red worms in action as they moved through the compost.
The community garden, which is home to the 16 raised garden beds that make up Clearwater’s Youth Gardens, was open for families to tour. Kids also had the opportunity to make flower suncatchers, watch baby chicks play in a grassy pen, and feed the farm animals kale from the garden.
Everyone enjoyed some freshly prepared garden produce, including pesto pasta salad, chocolate zucchini cake, and infused cucumber-mint water.
This event was a success thanks to our many volunteers and community supporters! Thanks to all the families for joining us in this celebration! We hope to see everyone at our Taste of Summer fundraiser on August 27. Proceeds from this event will help support our Summer Youth Gardens program next year. To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.
