Hi everyone!
Some quick recaps and important notes from today. (And one optional piece of fun homework, so make sure you get all the way to the end!!)
First though: Make sure your scout does a "tick check" before going to bed tonight. They were climbing around in the woods a lot, and now's the season when those bugs are waking up.
We started the meeting with our troop's Earth Day tradition (pictures attached) of collecting garbage around the school. They found so much. And their teachers were sure impressed. The GMS staff was very thankful for the girls' work keeping the school beautiful.
We followed up by turning into amateur wilderness foragers, and environment-savers! We talked a little bit about invasive species and why they are a problem, then we went hunting through the GMS forest to find garlic mustard--an invasive species starting to really overgrow Wisconsin. We pulled up bags and bags of garlic mustard through the forest (pictures also attached) BUT, even though garlic mustard is bad for our local environment, it is GOOD for us--we turned it into a delicious garlic-mustard-pesto snack. (recipe below)
Then we headed inside and took care of some Girl Scout business. We talked about our upcoming Girl Scout badge/Journey work: "MEdia" and divided up responsibility for leading different areas of his badge work. The girls all signed up to take charge of a certain section of the work.
THEN we also had some decision making to do. Our troop has our Silver Award project coming up, and the Greendale Health Department asked us if we were interested in doing our project with them. The project was going to be 3 parts:
1) Organize a community event where kids and grown ups and older folks got together, and then spread out and audited and appraised Greendale's walking paths, looking for areas to improve.
2) Actually do those improvements (for example, adding benches, signs, etc.) and for this, they've already received a $250 grant from the Greendale Women's Club to help with expenses--and that's ours to use!
3) Also re-make the Greendale Walking Path brochure the Health Department uses that was a Boy Scout Eagle Project about 20 years ago, because it has a lot (LOT) of out of date information.
So we talked a little bit about this, and the girls voted, and decided this would be a good project to do to help the community and make the world a better place.
Finally, we ate our garlic mustard pesto, and also cooked our birthday-cakes-in-a-cup (recipe also below) for a wrap-up treat.
Whew! We did a lot. It's no wonder we ran late! Thanks for everyone's patience!
RECIPES:
1) Garlic Mustard Pesto
Ingredients:
Equal parts spinach and garlic mustard leaves (cleaned and dried)
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese
Instructions:
In a food processor, chop spinach and garlic mustard. Add olive oil until it reaches desired consistency. Add parmesan cheese to taste.
Optional:
Add lemon juice, nuts, pine nuts, or sugar to taste.
2) Microwave Birthday Cake In a Cup
Vanilla mug cake
4 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-2 tsp sprinkles
4 Tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Combine all ingredients and then add to a greased mug that's at least 16 oz. Microwave for 90 seconds.
OPTIONAL HOMEWORK (FUN!!!)
It's time to design a cmap t-shirt and patch for next year! Our troop has a history of getting our designs picked for the Green Corners Campout shirt or patch almost every year. Let's keep the streak alive. I've attached the design submission form. Email or get it into my hands by May 13th in order for it to be entered for the September campout! This design will be worn by Girl Scouts from all across Greenfield, Hales Corners, and Greendale!
