Students hoping to sharpen their kitchen skills will have the opportunity with a special 4-H club in Washington County.

Registration for a new youth cooking club called Clover Cookers is now open and it is available to any fourth through 12th grade student, both current 4-H members and those who are not yet involved in the program. Washington County 4-H and Youth Coordinator Amy Green shares what they’ll learn, “Focusing in on kitchen safety, food safety, healthy choices, food groups, and then they’re always going to have kind of a feature recipe of the day. And so they’re going to learn about reading recipes, learn about fractions and math, and doubling recipes. And then also, kind of a fun healthy spin on a lot of the things they’ll do is they’ll talk about what else could we use instead of these ingredients perhaps to make it a healthier choice, or a healthier option for our families.”

She adds that it’s important for kids to learn cooking skills today, “We’re not always in our kitchens as much as they used to be, and so this is just kind of a carved out time where kids really get to be in the kitchen, have the experience regardless of what their family dynamics are or make ups are, or their facilities are at home. We’re giving them several caring adults who volunteer to just work with kids in that space and let them get a little bit messy. Sometimes I know we don’t always have time to let our kids to explore and learn and to take the time in the kitchen, so this group will allow them to have that space and time to do that, and learn, and have fun.”

The club will meet every other month on a Saturday afternoon. To register contact the Washington County Extension Office. Registration is $30 to cover cooking supplies and ingredients.