The Southwest Portland Post., April 01, 2012, Page 4, Image 4

4 • The Southwest Portland Post
FEATURES
April 2012
Young farmers thrive at
Alpenrose Dairy’s 4-H program
By Jillian Daley
The Southwest Portland Post
All four aspects of 4-H’s sym-
bolic clover: Head, Heart, Hands
and Health are thriving at a local 4-H
program.
The 4-H Discovery Farm at Alpen-
rose Dairy in Southwest Portland
hosted its first spring learning camp
last month, and a summer learning
camp is imminent.
Activities include animal husbandry
and tending a new garden. Young
gardeners will donate the produce to
a local food bank.
Lisa Battan launched the Discovery
Farm Club in 2010 because she wanted
her daughters to gain experience for
their dream careers in agriculture and
animal science.
Battan later made her club more fo-
cused, calling it Hens and Hares, and
Discovery Farm shifted from the name
of the club to the name of the place.
Two clubs are coalescing this spring:
Ewetopia, which focuses on sheep
and goats; and Cloverbuds, which is
for children in kindergarten to third
grade.
“This is about engaging youths in an
opportunity to learn, be responsible
and take on leadership positions,” said
Battan, whose club has 23 members.
Club sizes range from four to 60
members, depending on how many
leaders are available to manage a
www.pdxplan.com
group, said Pat Willis, an Oregon
State University Extension Service
4-H faculty member. The university
administers all 4-H groups in Oregon.
To help hire teen counselors for the
summer learning camp, Willis said he
is applying for a $2,000 Oregon State
University 4-H Foundation Innovative
Program Grant.
Also, 4-H officials are discussing
creating a zoology program for teens
in ninth to 12th grades, he said.
All 4-H clubs’ curriculum centers
on teaching children healthy living as
well as science and civic responsibility.
Clubs may concentrate on many
topics, such as raising animals, foods
and nutrition, environmental science,
computer science and Lego robotics.
Southwest Portland is a region that
lacks the agricultural traditions other
areas possess, so it can be difficult to
generate interest in 4-H, Willis said.
Alpenrose’s owners are helping get
local youth interested by providing
space at their dairy, free of charge.
“Alpenrose has been great for us,”
Willis said.
Located on 52 acres along Southwest
Shattuck Road, Alpenrose processes
raw milk trucked in from area farms.
Products include its own milk and
ice cream and ice cream for Baskin-
Robbins, for which the dairy holds the
Northwest regional contract.
The Discovery Farm occupies the
Alpenrose barn, which previously
was home to a few horses and ponies
Lisa Battan feeds the pigs at the 4-H Discovery Farm at Alpenrose Dairy.
(Post photo by Jillian Daley)
belonging to the dairy owners’ family.
Residents now are a combination
of 4-H and Alpenrose animals: a cow,
two pigs, a donkey, three ponies, two
horses, three sheep, three goats, about
12 chickens, a turkey, three rabbits and
a flock of ducks.
Aiding 4-H is typical of Alpenrose’s
long-time community outreach efforts,
said Tracey Cadonau McKinnon, Al-
penrose communications and events
coordinator.
Alpenrose, established in 1916, for
decades has welcomed the public to
its baseball fields, opera house, bicycle
racing track, quarter midget racing
track and Dairyville, a replica of a
western frontier town.
“My grandpa started the dairy, and
since it started, that’s just been the big
thing is giving back to the commu-
nity,” Cadonau McKinnon said.
She said 4-H has returned the favor.
Last December, 4-H helped revive
Christmas at Dairyville, a tradition
that had been absent for several years.
“We’re all about the community and
giving back to kids, and that’s really
what 4-H stands for, too,” Cadonau
McKinnon said.
For more information on 4-H Dis-
covery Farm, call Liz Smith at 503-
245-5070 or email her at smithe3@
onid.orst.edu.
THE PORTLAND PLAN: OUR ROADMAP TO 2035. PROSPEROUS, EDUCATED, HEALTHY, EQUITABLE.