Madison County Youth and Families are in need of more hands-on skills and exposure to prepare foods both inside and outside of the kitchen. Madison County 4-H and Madison County Extension FCS Agents  have teamed up to offer a program series for children and their families to learn the basics of outdoor cooking.  In this series participants learned new skills that are essential for families who are interested in hiking, camping, hunting, and other various outdoor activities and need to have a means to cook and consume foods in a healthy manner.

Target audience for this program was 4-H aged Madison County youth, who may also have been accompanied by a parent if they chose.  Children were primarily 8-14 years old and were responsible for the food preparation and recipe construction. Adults acted in a supervisory role as needed while the youth worked through the recipes.

This program hosted 15 youth and 5 adults over the course of three sessions.  Each session used various recipes and techniques to offer the participants a wide variety of skills and nutritious food options that were appropriate for a whole family.  The first lesson the students used pie irons and hobo pockets to create a dinner with sausages and mixed veggies and fruit turnovers.  The second lesson featured sloppy joes cooked on butane stoves in cast iron as well as saucy bars in a Dutch oven. The final lesson the participants used box ovens to create a cake from scratch and Dutch ovens again to make chili and cornbread.  Lessons also incorporated information about sanitary food prep practices, knife skills, fire starting, using charcoals, and how to properly pack a cooler.