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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Solano County 4-H
'Bee-ing' There at the Dixon May Fair
"You can learn a lot from these displays," a fairgoer at the 144th annual Dixon May Fair commented. She was looking at an educational display with the catchy title, "None of Your Beeswax," the work of Ryan Anenson of the Tremont 4-H Club, Dixon, whose projects include beekeeping. The display is...
Dixon 4-H'er Ryan Anenson of the Tremont 4-H Club created this award-winning educational display, "None of Your Beeswax" for the Dixon May Fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Dixon 4-H'er Madeline Giron sketched this color pencil drawing of a bee, on display in the Youth Building (Denverton Hall) at the Dixon May Fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This photo by Markus Taliaferro of the Suisun Valley 4-H Club shows a honey bee sipping nectar.
Just add pollinators! Katelyn Nipper of Fairfield created this innovative illustration of brightly color flowers and crayons.
Sharing 'The Secret Life of Bees'
"Where can kids learn beekeeping for free?" someone asked us last week. One of the ways is through the 4-H Youth Development Program. Who can join 4-H, which stands for head, heart, health and hands and which follows the motto, "making the best better?" It's open to all youths ages 5 to 19. ...
Honey bees at work. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Elmira 4-H Club member Kailey Mauldin gets ready to present an interpretative reading on "The Secret Life of Bees" at the Solano County 4-H Presentation Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
4-H member is a winner from curly haired cavies to chocoflan
Thirteen-year-old Celeste Harrison, a fourth-year member of the Sherwood Forest 4-H Club, Vallejo, shares her expertise about chili and cavies (guinea pigs), but she's also a pro in the kitchen and at making a dessert called “Chocoflan.”
It's part cake, part flan.
The chocolate dessert recipe originates “from my Great-Aunt Esther and it's what we serve at all our family gatherings,” she said.
It's a winning one, at that. And just in time for Valentine's Day.
Celeste baked the dessert for the recent Solano County 4-H Project Skills Day — where 4-H'ers share what they're learned in their projects — and her presentation and recipe earned a showmanship award, one of seven awarded.
Last year she won a showmanship pin for her project, “Curls Just Want to Have Fun: How to Care for Your Curly Haired Guinea Pig.”
Celeste, a seventh-grader is active in 4-H. She serves as the treasurer of her 4-H club and last year served as a Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) officer in the Solano County 4-H Program. This year she's enrolled in five projects: cavies, poultry, dogs, record keeping and rabbits.
Always eager to learn, Celeste decided to “take dogs, rabbits and poultry so I can learn showmanship,” she said, noting that she competed in the Round Robin Small Animal Showmanship at two county fairs last year but was inexperienced at showing animals other than cavies. So this year's she's set her sights on learning more about them. Her goal: to place first in Round Robin.
No stranger to the kitchen, Celeste served as a member of the Sherwood Forest 4-H Club's Chili Cook-Off team for the last two years in the Solano County 4-H Project Skills Day.
This year, however, she turned from chili to chocoflan. The evaluators loved it! So did the 4-H'ers and their families who sampled it.
Here's the recipe:
Chocoflan Recipe
A bundt pan, deep roasting pan, blender, large bowl and a hand mixer are needed for this recipe.
Ingredients for flan:
A 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
A 7.6-ounce can of Media Crema (light cream)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces of cream cheese
5 eggs
Ingredients for chocolate cake:
2 cups white sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup hot water
Directions:
Put an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Coat a bundt pan with cooking oil spray.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and cocoa mixture and beat with a hand mixer for two minutes. Add the wet mixture in increments of one cup into flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir cocoa powder into hot water until melted and then stir into cake mix and set aside.
In a blender, add in all flan ingredients and blend on high until smooth. Pour cake batter into a bundt pan (make sure surface is level). Pour flan mixture into the cake batter but do not mix (it will sink to the bottom of the bundt pan while in the oven).
Put chocoflan into a large roasting pan and fill the pan with about 2 inches of warm water. Spray a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray and set it on top of the bundt pan (but do not fold it over the bundt pan.) Bake for one hour and 45 minutes. Remove cake from oven and let cool before inverting it onto a serving platter. Enjoy.
Solano County 4-H Program
The Solano County 4-H Youth Development Program, part of the UC Cooperative Extension Program, follows the motto, “Making the Best Better.” 4-H, which stands for head, heart, health and hands, is open to youths ages 5 to 19. In age-appropriate projects, they learn skills through hands-on learning in projects ranging from arts and crafts, computers and leadership to dog care, poultry, rabbits and woodworking. They develop skills they would otherwise not attain at home or in public or private schools. For more information about Solano County 4-H, contact 4-H program representative Valerie Williams at vawilliams@ucanr.edu.
Bee-ing All You Can Bee: From a 4-H Beekeeper to Ag Major
We remember photographing a young beekeeper, Mikayla Hagan of the Rio Vista (Calif.) 4-H Club, when she delivered presentations at Solano County 4-H events. Yes, 4-H'ers can enroll in beekeeping projects--if a club offers them. And they should! Rewind to the 2012 Solano County Project Skills Day....
Back in 2012, beekeeper Mikayla Hagan of the Rio Vista 4-H Club talked about her beekeeping project with then Mike Reagan, member of the Solano County Board of Supervisors. She won a showmanship award at the Solano County 4-H Project Skills Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Fast forward to today: Mikayla Hagan (center) is the recipient of a college agricultural scholarship from the Friends of the Dixon May Fair. With her are scholarship chair Carrie Hamel of Dixon and Friends of the Fair president Donnie Huffman of Vacaville. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Six college scholarship winners received a total of $11,250 from the Friends of the Dixon May Fair in 2018, totaling $186,250 in college scholarships awarded since 2000. In front (from left) are Cameron Garlick of Dixon, Makala Hagan of Rio Vista, Mackenzie Davi of Dixon, Rebecca Luedke of Dixon, and Jillian Raycraft of Dixon. In back are Donnie Huffman of Vacaville, president of the Friends of the Fair, and Carrie Hamel of Dixon, scholarship chair. Not pictured is scholarship recipient Halie
Kids and Bugs Go Well Together: Check Out the Dixon May Fair
Kids and bugs go well together. Take the entries in Today's Youth Building at the 143rd annual Dixon May Fair, which opened Thursday, May 10 and continues through Sunday, May 13. Some of the exhibitors focused on honey bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and bumble bees--and some ventured out of the...
Dixon May Fair Youth Building superintendent Building superintendent Stephanie Hill (left) of Yuba City and assistant building superintendent Pat Connelly of Vacaville hang bumble bee pillow, the work of Solano County 4-H'ers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beekeeper Ryan Anenson, 16, of the Tremont 4-H Club, Dixon, took this blue-ribbon winner, close-up of a bee. Overlapping the photo are plant leaves. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Jake Vinum, 15, of Vacaville, won a blue ribbon for his wall hanging, titled "Horseshoe Spider," cleverly crafted with a horseshoe and "spider legs." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Khole Cahoon, 13, of Vacaville won a blue ribbon for her chocolate ganache cupcakes, decorated with bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beekeeper Francis Agbayani, 12, of the Vaca Valley 4-H Club, Vacavile, is displaying his 4-H project, "Don't Bee Making Mistakes," a blue-ribbon winner. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
