CRAWFORDSVILLE -- Montgomery County youth tried new foods and learned new skills during this summer’s Garden to Grill 4-H SPARK Club. This weekly club took participants on a journey from seed to salad, teaching students how to plant, care for, harvest and prepare fruits and vegetables that can be grown in their own Indiana backyards.

SPARK Clubs are subject-specific organizations aimed at reaching new audiences through 4-H. The goal of SPARK Clubs is to increase 4-H membership throughout Indiana. SPARK Clubs are open to any youth in grades 3-12.

“The Garden to Grill SPARK Club not only provides youth with an opportunity to learn how to grow and prepare their own vegetables, but it can also introduce youth to the 4-H Garden project or other projects that may interest them,” said Abby Sweet, Montgomery County’s 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator.

Over the course of six sessions, Garden to Grill covered a wide variety of topics, including plant biology, human nutrition, pest management, food safety, and culinary arts. Using the garden at the Montgomery County fairgrounds, participants discovered the joys and challenges of caring for a garden and cooking their own produce. A few even discovered that they like to eat vegetables! Most recently, the participants selected various vegetables from the garden, blended their own pesto sauce and cooked mini veggie pizzas on the grill.

After a successful program this summer, Garden to Grill will continue to be offered in Montgomery County in the years to come. Not only will it help to grow the county’s 4-H program, it will also teach youth life skills that will help give them a healthy future.

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