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Fall. 1943 FROM THE EAST lrene Delan, Dunrobin, Carleton County, tells of her experiences as a Club sirl- "When the young girl of today finds out just what diflerent organizations have in store for her she must be so thankful for the wonderful oppor- tunity which was not, handed out to her mother. As the Bible says, "seek and ye shall find". There is nothing more true. ‘ My first experience _in club work ililll ii rather unique birth. Another girl and I were sent to a W. I. leaoer truming school on Kitchen Ensemble, Just because none of the women of the Institute thought they had time to intend. Of course we were very meek, being cast in among older ladies who I knew all about sewing when neither Hr uo knew much more than the simple running sticli. ‘However, we took up [he class and both made dresses and aprons. My first dress was a com- ulcte failure, but I was now interested ill the art of sewing and felt the urge lo go on,â€"so I made another. I liked lt much better and felt now I was a .cal dressmnker. However, I am still iuornin and still have a lot to learn l-i-fore ’11 be a dreasmaker. However, at the achievement day we met our County Junior Cluo Leader and she asked us why we .Iidn’t belong to the Juniors. We said uecause we didn’t know about it. She invited us to attend leader training school. So we launched out on our .lunior Homemaking career. I have uttended four leader training schools wince then and have carried on three [losses and one Garden Brigade Unit. In these clubs I have found priceless information. But as one thing leads to another, one doesn’t just stop at Junior Home- inaking Clubs. I was given $10.00 toward my apenses one year to attend the Toronto Exhibition. This experience I found invaluable, meeting girls from all over the province. I have also attended two conferences held at Kemptville Agri- cultural School. There you meet girls from different parts of the Eastern Counties and really I think they are inroin arable. I am sure that every- one w 0 attended them enjoyed them "to the hilt”. If we want success for our junior organizations we must have unity and mold there be any better than among young girls and women who today mean so much to the "extra" pro- duction. There isn't any reason why we can’t enjoy ourselves as much in our work as our fellow ladies who live in the cities. So by these organ- izations we are able to give young farm girls the information they would otherwise have missed". o o a a o Lucille Vanderhoof, Westport, Leeds County, relates her activities in the club, Being Well Dressed and Well Groomed. “Are you going to join the club?" That was the popular question among ‘ our teenagers. The club was a group being organized to take up the course “Being Well Dressed and Well Groomed". It sounded very interest- ing and it was not‘long until we had a fair sized group, We had grand times at our meetings and learned so much. Patching and darning were fun when we were all together learning to do something both useful and interesting. Of course we all made mistakes. I remember once I made quite a mix-up of my first. attempts at some particular type of sewmg. We all had a good laugh about it, but just the same, I tried a little harder next time to do it right. I think that experience has helped me a great deal. In a group as small as OUTS, you learn to laugh over a mis- take and try again. ,EVery one of us had a liking for nice clothes but we didn't always think about that loose button or small tear. Together, we learned the proper and easiest way to do these Simple h yet essential tasks. We began to take pride in bong the owner of a self- upplied patch, and a neat appearance. We have grown more clothes consci- ous and remember to take the ro- verbisl ‘stitch in time'. p The (time enjoyed in our friendly gatherings has surely developed a spirit of co-operation which will always be a great help to us. Our newly acquired ability to look well groomed and keep our clothes re- paired and smart looking will be a big help in our share of this war cllort. A great deal of credit is due to the Women’s Institute Branch for making this opportunity available to us teen-age girls”. FROM THE CENTRE Shirley M. Harden, Grafton, North- umbcrland County, belongs to the Garden Brigade. “This is a report of the Neith- uniberlancl Junior Garden Brigade as a gardener sees it. The Garden Brigade was brought this year to the girls of Castleton, Wieklow and Vernonville, and Grafton. In the spring twenty girls planned a garden. We were each supplied with twenty packages of vegetable seeds and ten of flowers. The summer being busy, we had very few meetings. An organ- ization meeting was held at Wicklow. There was to be a canningr meeting in each of the centres. Let‘s change from the general points to something more original. I do not live on a farm myself, but always have a garden. It was divided into two sections to fit my garden space. A damp spring prevented planting until the latter part of May. I must say, though, that it progressed very rapidly. In fact in three \veeks‘ time I had lettuce and radishes. I learned various things in the garden club this year. Did you know that peas grow nearly as well in August and September as they do in earlier summer? Believe me, they do, except the plants are smaller. Peas at this time of year are a real treat. I had two reasons for plant. ing peas the second time. First, no new potatoes when the green peas were ready; secondly, trouble with some neighbours' cows. Another thing was that spinach can be re- planted. Plant it on the same ground as soon as the old goes to seed. Here’s a new one, for me, at leastâ€"tie a string around the stalks above the onions if you want to have thin necks. This kills the stems while the onion keeps growing. We had one main purpose in grow- ing a garden this year. Our motto was “Vegetables for Health, Health for Victory". Although the cows damaged my garden I had enough to supply our family of four. I had more carrots than I needed so gave some to my sister who had no garden. Thus I stopped her from buying some foods, very likely canned foods, which some soldier, sailor or airman would have greatly appreciated. I urge you to give any extra vegetables to someone who needs them. Then more canned foods will go to our fighting forces. Now I would like to tell you of our achievement night. 'We were very fortunate to have With us Mr. C. H. Hodge, “The Farmer”, who gave us some very interesting slides and an address on Home Improvement. He stressed, though, to “grow vegeb ables during the war and do your home improvement after”. I'l‘he girls set up fifteen exhibits on individual tables, consisting of many varieties of vegetables and a mixed bouquet of flowers. The record books were also displayed. Mr. It. C. Banbnry, local Agricultural Representative, and Miss Jean Scott, Home Economics Coach, were in charge of the evening. Many Institute members also attended. The girls tried a short test. Certificates of Achievement were awarded to ten girls. Some musical numbers closed the evening." HOME AND COUNTRY Ktfl FROM EAST T0 WEST WITH CLUB GIRLS FROM THE WEST Hildrcth and Hazel Hall, Tara, Bruce County, are sisters in the sec- Land and third years of the Garden Brigades respectively. Hazel is club leader. First, Hildrcth's Garden Diary: "August again! Anyone would know that by glancing at the dinner table overflowing with vegetable good» ncss. Let me describe such a table. Well, to begin with, there is home- made bread, butter, meat and gravy, hutâ€"the ies and cakes are missing! In that al we hard working people get to eat in August? Oh no! Let’s get back to the most plentiful and most essential part of the mealâ€"yes, the vegetables. While a huge plate of crimson tomatoes in the middle of the table are waiting their fate, the potatoes, broccoli in white sauce, but- tered beets and sliced raw kohl-rabi are being passed around. Well, you say, there is certainly a lot of work in planting and tending to a garden and then look at the work in preparing the vegetables for a meal. Here’s where the Garden Brigade comes in. The keen competi- tion between the girls of these orgarh ized garden brigades, the careful guid- ance of the Home Economics Coach, the information given by free litera- ture, and the determination of all girls to provide their families with essentâ€" ial vegetables prepared and served in a manner which retains the most food value, makes gardening a pleasâ€" ure. This year I am completing my sec- ond garden brigade project. I thought this year it would be interesting if I arranged my club storv in diary form. So here‘s what happened. May 5th-May 15: On the evening of May 5 we held our first meeting. Our Coach, Miss Dumin, attended this meeting leaving information and pamphlets. Due to the very back- ward rainy weather the early part of my garden was planted fourteen days later than last year. Strangely enough my first planting on May 14 seemed very earlyâ€"in comparison with the planting of Hazel‘s and the neighbours’ gardens. This was due to the fact that my ~nrden was situated on the slope of the hill. June 2#Hazel and I planted out the strawberries, 130 in all. I spent quite some time helping Hazel with her garden as it was all planted by hand except the peas. June 5â€"June 30: All my later plantings such as broccoli were plant- ed by June 11th. Hot weather en- couraged my garden very much. As there was still plenty of moisture everything flourished, including the weeds. These took much effort to combat but I succeeded in keeping the garden fairly free from weeds. llbly onions when harvested weighed 80 5. June 30-Aug. 30: By June 30 there was an abundance of fresh vegetables for table use. I found it a good plan to serve the vegetables in a manner attractive to the eye as they always seemed to "go better” and bring forth compliments. Even by the end of August my garden still looked fresh. Aug. 30-Sept. ’7: Well, tomorrow is achievement day and here I am the night before writing my club story." A few excerpts from Hazel Hall’s story of the club tell of a busy sum‘ mer. “Our club meetings had full attend- ance and we really had fun as well as achieving our record book work. How we did enjoy each new veget- able as it became ready for use. Even though we had a splendid garden in 1943, spring time found us scarce of variety, an canned goods were hard to get. As the variety grew more plentiful it took considerable less bread and other baking, which is itself a grand aid to solving these wartime shortages as well as being a sure way to better health. Then, too. the sums of inoriev from occasional sales of vegetables are quite a help to one's pocket book. I am heping that next year I can add a lot of interesting things to my gardenâ€"a few pepper squash, celery sweet peppers, banana melons an dill. One of these days we are going to make a crock of sauerkraut from the cabbage that are about to split open. ‘As a rule we use our kuhl-rabi for eating raw but this year we tried cooking it and putting a white sauce on it and all the family liked it. As a leader of the Brigade I was very pleased that the girls took such an interest in their gardens and club meetings, and hope that I can enroll at least five more members for the next project this fall." FROM THE NORTH Charlotte Dodds, Clute, Cochrane District, answers the question, “Has club work been worth while '.’" “About four years ago I became a member of the first homemaking club held in Clute. A number of us girls went bravely to the first meeting to start learning about sewing. since this was not taught in our country schools it was entirely new work for us. The first club, Being Well Dress- ed and Well Groomed, turned out to be a big success. Our next sewing course was a bit more advanced but thanks to our previous one, our print dresses were made quite easily and fit beautifully. Our last course, which includes sewing, is Cotton Accessories for the Club Girl’s Bed-room. Owing to the fact that this has been a very busy summer for the members, who happen to be all members of the Farm Girls’ Brigade, it has not progressed as rapidly as previous courses. As an inexperienced leader of this course, I have to divide my time between gainv ing confidence in myself as a leader and enjoying the things our course includes. Even so, however, I am going to benefit greatly from it as I have from our other sewing courses. One thing in particular I can thank these courses for is the appreciation of becoming colours, and being able to see for myself that the material I may buy is at least worth the money I have to pay. Cookery, of which I have taken only two courses as yet, has also taught me a lot. New dishes, not always sucv cesses at first I can assure you, make a meal much more interesting to get for the family. One of these courses in particular, The Cereal Shelf, sounds like starting a new day right, but really, it includes dishes for every mea1,â€"puddings, cakes, breads and any number of things iiiade \i-ith cereals have opened my eyes to the uses of this food, and a very nutriti~ ous and delicious one at that. The gardening clubs, although I must admit I did not enjoy them as much as the other clubs, were a great help to the winter food situation. Perhaps our gardens were not as large as our southern cousins’ were, because of vegetable seed incluueu that our northern climate would not agree with. The result of these classes has really been magnificent. One of our club girls, with County Honours, and who was assistant leader for a time, has entered the Air Force. Six months after going into uniform she passed her examinations in cookery school, receiving her title, Leading Air. woman. She reported that if it had not been for the help of the classes her progress would have been much slower. As it was, she had a ground- ing she certainly did not regret liar» ing. For myself, upon taking two years home economics at high school away from home, I have found the work lessened almost by half. I had already learned in much more detail parts of our work we were taking. As our older girls are lean'ng us, and entering work for themselves, I am sure that they have found, as I have, that they have our homemaking courses to thank for a wider under- standing of practical work. Yes, Club Work has been worthwhile."