Maine 4-H Dairy Team Earns Blue Ribbons at The Big E

On Friday, Sept 17, and Saturday, Sept 18th, Maine sent four 4-H Dairy members down to The Big E to compete against other New England states in a newly formatted set of competitions.

The day started with the 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl Contest and ended with two 4-H Dairy cooking competitions, Grilled Cheese and Extreme Milkshake. The Maine Quiz bowl Coach (and Chaperone) Wendy Landry helped the team prepare for the event in the months prior.

The four youth members, Owen B. from Penobscot County, Ali L. from Cumberland County, Jillian S. from Cumberland County, and Kat L. from Cumberland County won first place in the 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl Contest.

All team members take a written General Knowledge test before the team competitions, scores are used to seed the teams for the buzzer rounds. Maine 4-H member Kat Leach received High-Scoring Jr., and team member Jillian S. received High-Scoring Sr. in the written exams.

Owen, Jillian, and Ali also took home the 1st place for their grilled cheese sandwich which consisted of extra sharp cheddar cheese, colby jack cheese, grilled chicken, bacon, and ranch dressing on homemade sourdough bread.

In addition, Kat and Owen received 1st place for their entry into the Extreme Milkshake completion. The recipe included 100% Maine ingredients, locally made vanilla ice cream, fresh blueberry milk, whoopie pies, and blueberry cake and topped with a lobster lollipop.