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Published Sep 12, 2025 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
The For Our Youth horticultural club visited the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley in August where they toured the grounds, learned to cook using a mud oven, and harvested the produce they planted in the spring. Photo by Rhonda CurranArticle content
On a beautiful sunny August Saturday, the For Our Youth (FOY) horticulture club met at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens (BBFG) to tour the gardens, sample different food grown there, and harvest the vegetables we had planted in the spring.
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Introductions were made with our host Olivia, the BBFG garden manager, who welcomed us warmly. After attendance was taken, everyone shared which vegetable or fruit was their favourite to grow and eat.
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For Our Youth club members harvested the produce they planted in the club’s plot at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley. Rhonda Curran photo Photo by Rhonda Curran /jpeg, KC, apsmc
We then headed to the FOY children’s garden plot as one big group. Wow, was everyone excited to see the garden’s bounty! Peas, flowers, tomatoes, oh my! So much to pick and look at.
After a lesson on how to save seed for next year’s harvest, we tied some ribbons to a few extra large pole beans to mark them as seed savers. After that, the children got right to work.
The peas were stripped, basil and parsley snipped, and all the ripe tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, zucchini, eggplant, and watermelons picked.
Leader Bonnie helped cut the strawflower bouquets for everyone to take home to dry. A few marigolds were cut as well for a fresh flower bouquet.
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Grapes caught the eye of For Our Youth club members while touring the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley this summer. Rhonda Curran photo jpeg, KC, apsmc
Leaders Natasha and Brad showed the kids how to use different tools to pull weeds in the garden. The kids checked the corn they had planted and determined it wasn’t quite ready. After harvesting, weeding and watering our garden, we moved on to the next activity: a full tour of the BBFG.
Olivia pointed different plants out for the children and taught them about all kinds of different things that grow in the BBFG, along with what the benefits are of having a botanical food garden in our community.
Everyone tried grapes, herbs, ground cherries and other interesting plants. Did you know that everything growing in the gardens is edible and comes from heirloom seeds?
We gathered some more herbs for a recipe we would be making with Leader Bonnie. After we got all our ingredients together, the children made dip for the vegetables we harvested.
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With Leader Bonnie’s guidance, Dilly Dip and Garden Goddess Dips were concocted and stirred. Next, Olivia showed the children how to make flat breads, which were cooked in the mud oven. It sure smelled good.
During their botanical food gardens visit, For Our Youth members learned how to make flat breads cooked in the mud oven. Rhonda Curran photo jpeg, KC, apsmc
The warm bread was used to try different spreads made from ingredients grown at the BBFG — lilac jelly, sour cherry jelly, Saskatoon berry jelly, and sea buckthorn jelly were a hit with everyone.
While the kids were having their flatbread snack, Leader Brad showed everyone an eggplant versus a tomato science experiment. Both vegetables look very similar on the outside, but when cut open, they are actually so different. We didn’t know eggplants came in such different sizes, colours and shapes.
As a final exciting snack, we cut into our watermelons. They were perfect — sweet, juicy and cool. We were surprised how cool the melons were coming directly from the garden under the hot sun. The kids ate their fill of vegetables and dip, and no one went home hungry.
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Baskets of leftover beans, tomatoes and peas were sent home, along with frozen bags of grated zucchini that Leader Rhonda had thoughtfully prepared earlier in the month when our garden produced giant zucchinis. Seriously, they looked like baseball bats!
For Our Youth club members sample a variety of spreads, including lilac jelly, sour cherry jelly, Saskatoon berry jelly, and sea buckthorn jelly, during a visit to the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley. Rhonda Curran photo jpeg, KC, apsmc
The For Our Youth garden produced around 50 cups of grated zucchini. Way to grow kids! What a fantastic August meeting.
A big thank you to Olivia for hosting us, sharing all her wonderful horticulture knowledge and for the fun mud oven demonstration.
Our September meeting will take place at Leader Kim’s farm where we will use our harvest of tomatoes and basil to make different kinds of salsa and enjoy a special presentation from Meredith Watson from The Lake Huron Coastal Centre.
Interested in seeing what the fun is all about? Contact Kimberlee Feick Lowry at kimberlee1072@yahoo.ca.
Submitted by Rhonda Curran
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