WC 4-H Swine Club bakes CHEO cookies

CARP – With the Carp Fair only weeks ago, the 4-H Swine Club is pretty busy getting ready for the big auction, but not so busy they don’t have time to bake several hundred cookies for charity.

Every year, the West Carleton 4-H Swine Club members, youth from nine to 21, purchase a pig, raise it, show it at the Carp Fair, then auction it off for meat. It provides the members with hands-on learning about every aspect of the swine industry, or as the 4-H Club famously says, they ‘learn to do by doing.’

A percentage of the proceeds raised at the auction goes to a charity of the members’ choice. Last year that donation was a just more than a very hefty $8,000.

“Usually it’s a significant donation,” 4-H Swine Club leader Rachel Devlin told West Carleton Online last night at the Carp Fair Agricultural Hall where roughly 24 members and leaders were hard at work baking chocolate chip cookies.

Devlin leads the club along with sisters Megan and Erin Carroll and Tanya Boyd.

This year, 11-year-old member Ally Pink wanted to add a bit more to the donation, this year going to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and thought baking and selling a whole bunch of cookies would do the trick.

The work season for the 4-H Swine Club starts in June when member get a chance to pick their hog. There is a pig for each member. Each hog is tagged with a number, and a list of those numbers are put in to a hat. Each member picks a number out of the hat and that’s their hog.

“They try to pick one they think will grow well,” Devlin said.

The ideal market weight is about 275 pounds (125 kilograms). The members must care for the pigs from June until the time of the auction, the fourth weekend in September.

“They care and raise the pigs,” Devlin said. “Feed, clean, muck out their stalls. Usually feed and supplies are covered by the sale, and they will get some left over for themselves. But if the hog gets too fat, that creates waste. The fat would be trimmed off, but you would actually lose money.”

Members who don’t live on a farm will team up with members who do live on a farm and work together to come up with a schedule and care for all the hogs together. The whole process is a learning experience and surprised can pop up along the way.

“A couple got sick this year, so the members had to learn how to care for them,” Devlin said. “Often (West Carleton hog farmer) Bruce Hudson comes in and talks to the members about the industry.”

The hogs are sold by the pound at the auction. Two per cent goes back to the 4-H club to continue the program, five per cent goes to the charity of the members’ choice and the members receive a tidy little cheque for themselves after the sale is finalized.

“Some save it for school,” Devlin said. “Others might put it in to the beef show if they are part of that club. Usually, we have someone who wants to buy a truck in 10 years.”

Not every 4-H Swine Club member is destined to be a hog farmer when they grow up, or even stay in agriculture.

“We have one who wants to be a doctor,” Devlin said. “There’s a variety. A few have been in the club a few years now. It’s kind of cool to see how they grow,”

This year the club is doing something different. The bake sale was the idea of three-year club member Ally, who loves to bake.

She thought baking cookies would be a fun way to supplement their donation to CHEO.

“This year they decided to do a little extra fundraising,” Devlin said.

The gang made roughly 200 cookies at their individual homes and last night (Sept. 4), the whole gang hopes to bake 300 more cookies.

“We’re never sure how it will go with this many kids in the kitchen,” Devlin said.

The group has been selling cookies through pre-order and will have a special booth at this Saturday’s (Sept. 6) Carp Farmers’ Market. The pre-orders were $5 for five or $10 for 10. At the market, they will be by donation only, due to the rules surrounding the market, but the club hopes to get at least $1 a cookie.

“4-H members age out at 21, so CHEO is pretty significant,” Devlin said.

All the members donate supplies and Brown’s Independent Grocer in Stittsville made a nice donation including gloves and hair nets for last night’s baking.

Ally is credited with the cookie fundraiser idea and said it was a fun way to get the club together in a different setting.

“I really like baking, and I chose CHEO because in June, I broke my elbow,” Ally told West Carleton Online. “They took really great care of me, so it’s kids supporting kids.”

Ally said she was sent to the Arnprior hospital after breaking her elbow, and after that was sent to CHEO where “they took a bunch of x-rays and made a half-cast for me.”

Now she’s all healed up and ready to return the favour while having fun at the same time. Baking is definitely a hobby.

“Any baking in general,” Ally said. “Tonight is going good. We do get a lot done in one night.”

Ally is a Grade 7 student at Huntley Centennial Public School and her pig this year is named Dolly Pigton.

“She’s a Brookshire,” Ally said. “She’s a black pig with a white blaze and white legs.”

Ally says Dolly is in the 210 to 225-pound range right now.

“Brookshire’s are known for their meat, so I’m excited this year,” Ally said.

Find the West Carleton 4-H Swine Club at the Carp Farmers’ Market this Saturday, Sept. 6 and your donation for cookies will help support the club’s own donation to CHEO which will happen sometime after the auction at the Carp Fair.