MSU Extension Tollgate Farm and Education Center

Welcome to Day 1 of Eco-Warriors Camp! Eco-Warriors is perfect for those who like to tinker, engineer, craft, and change the way we think about trash! The week will include calculating our eco footprint, exploring pros and cons of renewable energy, repurposing items in our makerspace, and taking a field trip to the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority.

One of our daily priorities is to take care of our Animal Chores in the morning. Each week, campers learn to care for chickens, sheep, goats and ducks. Today, Yellow Peppers fed the chickens and collected the eggs. When they were done, they had time to try picking up and holding the chickens. Green Peppers made their way to the goats and experienced their first day of milking.

Each day campers will make two visits to Garden Kitchen, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our two recipes today are Feel the Beet Smoothies and Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Rice.

Feel the Beet Smoothie

• 1 cup  unsweetened rice milk
• 1 cup  frozen raspberry
• ½ cup  beet, cooked and sliced
• 1 cup  beet greens, chopped
• 1 banana, sliced
• ¼ cup  quinoa flakes or oats

In a blender, combine the almond milk, raspberries, beets, beet greens, banana, and quinoa flakes. Blend until smooth.

Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Rice

• 1 head broccoli, chopped
• 1 tablespoon  cooking oil, of preference, or water
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon  salt
• ½ teaspoon  pepper
• 2 tablespoons  grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish

Directions: In a food processor, pulse the broccoli florets and stems until they reach your desired “rice” consistency. In a pan over medium heat, add oil and garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add riced broccoli, salt, and pepper, and cook 5 minutes, or until tender. Add Parmesan and stir to combine. Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan.

Part of the fun of attending camp on a farm is getting to go on tractor-pulled Wagon Rides! Miss Alyssa drove us around the perimeter of Tollgate to show us more of the gardens, fields and woods that we will be visiting this week!

We made our Tie Dye shirts to wear on Friday! **They will be sent home on Thursday. They have not been washed, just dried in the sun. We recommend washing alone in cold water and air-drying.**

As Eco-Warriors and Super Heroes, one of our goals is to minimize our Eco Footprint. One of the ways we're doing this is recycling old t-shirts and making them into Tote Bags to be used for produce, groceries and any other everyday needs. Pepper Groups showed great attitudes when they were asked to share their scissors and even offered to help one another when cutting was difficult!

Our STEAM Challenge this week is to create Carnival Games out of up-cycled materials. This challenge is allowing campers to share their creativity, collaborate with others, and engineer a new product with repurposing in mind. We're looking forward to finishing our games and sharing them with other Pepper Groups on Thursday.

A few reminders!

1. Campers should come in long pants and closed toe shoes for the field trip on Friday. These are safety precautions from the facilities we are visiting.
2. Join us at 3:30pm on Friday for our Closing Celebration! Campers will prepare a song to share with families. We will still have After-Care for those who are enrolled.