February

Pancake Day

• National Lamb Lovers' Month
• Black History Month
• Pancake Day
• Presidents' Day
• National Potato Lover's Month / National Sweet Potato Month
• Forcing Flowering Branches
• National Dental Health Month
• February 24 is the birthday of Winslow Homer
• Oklahoma Vegetable of the Month: Sweet Potatoes
• Oklahoma Fruit of the Month: Cherries

February 7 is the Birthday of John Deere

He created a plow from a broken piece of polished steel that made it possible for farmers to work sticky prairie soils. From his customers he learned that the cast-iron plows they brought with them from the East were unable to cope with the thicker, tackier soils of the Midwest. While plowing, farmers had to stop every few feet to scrape off the damp earth that clung to the plowshare (the cutting blade).

National Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations. Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from beginning bird watchers to experts, and you can participate from your backyard, or anywhere in the world.

National Canned Foods Month

Eating healthy is a matter of choice for most of us today, but it wasn't so simple for early American colonists. We know that a healthy diet includes eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and that we can usually get some variety of these at the grocery store. But early Americans could only get fresh fruits and vegetables during the growing season. For the rest of the year they had to rely on food preservation techniques.
Explore food preservation techniques with:

National Snack Food Month

Look for healthy snack ideas in Food and Fun, and try this lessons:

Write detailed instructions for making your favorite snack.