Anne and T.J. Orender want their sons to grow into well-rounded adults who are able to take care of anything, from shotguns to snickerdoodles.
The two older boys — Codie, 12, and Dakota, 10 — exhibited that range of 4-H projects at this year’s Lyon County Fair. The third son, Weston, turned 7 too late in the year to fulfill the meeting attendance record required to exhibit.
The Orender kitchen was a hub of activity Thursday, as Codie and Dakota measured and whipped and baked their way to plates full of cookies and loaves of banana bread to take to the Lyon County Fair later that day.
Anne Orender planned to take along extra cookies, in case an accident happened between their home and the exhibit table.
It’s something she learned long ago and occasionally has needed to make use of.
“For my foods last year, I made puppy chow,” Dakota said. “Something happened to it ... It fell over and the glass went everywhere.”
The boys have been successful at past fairs with their foods and other projects, bringing home purple ribbons that qualified them to take their entries to the next level, the state fair in Hutchinson.
They worked on the foods project together, with each measuring the ingredients they needed, and adding them to a common bowl.
“After we got our dough made, Dakota would scoop them out, I’d roll them up in a ball and put on sugar and cinnamon,” Codie said of the snickerdoodles, adding that he had high expectations for the judging that evening.
Dakota, too, felt optimistic about their ribbon chances when he talked about his projects Thursday afternoon. He was particularly confident of the quality of the snickerdoodles.
He knew, he said, because he’d checked them, both before and after the baking.
“He is totally telling the truth there,” his mother said. “If any dough flew out of the bowl, he was right on it. It was like having a little doggie around.”
But Dakota knew the quality of the cookies and how they should rank among the many others that would be judged.
“It’s gonna be a purple,” Dakota predicted, enumerating the reasons: “The fact that I checked ’em and they taste good and they’re fluffy.”
Dakota was right. Both he and Codie received purple ribbons on their snickerdoodles and qualified to go to the Kansas State Fair in Septembeer.
The banana bread brought mixed results for a team effort by the boys, who had measured separately and mixed together.
Anne Orender had wondered how the breads would be judged, because the boys are at different levels of competition and were likely to have different judges. Baked goods must be presented intact and, with only two loaves made and two boys to exhibit them, no one had an opportunity to taste the finished product.
When the judging was done Thursday evening, Dakota held a blue ribbon and Codie had a red. The judge said his pan had been sprayed with a little too much cooking spray, which resulted in a slightly crustier loaf. The judging had included detailed questions about nutrition, preparation challenges, cost per dozen cookies and other information.
Anne Orender had the boys keep copious records of their foods meetings, field trips and other experiences as they went along so they could easily assemble record books for each of their projects.
Codie, with five years of 4-H experience, enrolled in shooting BB and shotguns, foods, crafts and wood; Dakota enrolled in the same projects with the exception of shotgun.
Dakota made a vegetable bin, featuring a bottom that sits elevated from the floor, a pegboard back that lets air circulate through the vegetables, and a slanted hinged lid for easy access.
He plans to give the bin to his mother when the fair ends.
Codie took a hope chest he’d trimmed with mitered molding. He had countersunk the screws, packed the tiny craters with cherry wood filler and applied three coats of poly that left a glow instead of a shine.
“It took us like two days, maybe three,” Codie said.
Codie plans to enroll in a woodworking class at school, thinking that his 4-H experiences with electric saws and other tools will give him a step up on testing.
“Next year, I’m going to be in seventh grade,” he said. “... They won’t let you do anything unless you pass the test with 100 percent.”
T.J. Orender lends a guiding hand with the wood projects; Anne provides the tips for the foods and nutrition projects.
The latter is an ongoing part of life for the three Orenders, who are at varying stages of skill in the kitchen.
Anne Orender learned to cook from scratch as she was growing up on a farm, and has carried that tradition into her own family. She believes it’s healthier for the children and for the adults to eat freshly prepared foods and avoid the additives, preservatives and other chemicals mixed into foods in recent years.
“I think it makes a difference in how kids do in school,” she said. “As early as kids are starting to mature, it has to be all those hormones.”
She’s teaching her sons to cook the same way. Codie said he enjoys cooking and learning to make new dishes.
“I’ll help cook rice, tacos, pizza,” he said.
“He can make bread; he likes to grill,” his mother added.
Dakota, too, is learning to grill, and all three boys help out around the house as part of the family routine.
“They might be bachelors some day for quite a while,” Anne Orender said.
She wants them to know how to take care of themselves and to do it well.
“They all have to do laundry, too,” she said, adding that she likes to “run a tight ship.”
“I’m not the only one who wears clothes around here.”