November 20, 2009

Hass assumes POD leadership

I would like to announce that effective November 13, Dr. Lanny Hass has assumed the position of interim director of Personal and Organizational Development for North Carolina Cooperative Extension.

To the position, he brings 28 years of Cooperative Extension Service as well as a national reputation for expertise in organizational development. Coming to North Carolina after 11 years as an agricultural economist at Virginia Tech, Lanny has served in many roles, ranging from county agent to area farm management specialist to associate director of Personal and Organizational Development.

As the interim director, Lanny will lead the POD team as it continues to focus on building Cooperative Extension’s capacity through organizational and individual growth. Please join me in welcoming Lanny to his new position.

--Dr. Jon Ort, director, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, N.C. State University

Posted by Natalie at 03:04 PM

November 13, 2009

A (Mount) Pleasant taste

When you call Marvin's Fresh Farmhouse a local restaurant, you're saying a lot.

It's a country restaurant in a small town, with a down-home menu that is literally down on the farm. Almost all of the meat and vegetables are from local farms.

Marvin is Marvin Bost. He and his wife, Cabarrus County extension agent Debbie Bost, live on a state-recognized "century farm" - meaning a farm that has been farmed in the same family for more than 100 years - although their 145-acre spread actually dates back to an original land grant to Marvin's ancestors.

Read more in the Charlotte Observer

Posted by Dave at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2009

Hungry teens head for Greensboro

The Cooperative Extension Program at A&T will be hosting an elite group of teenagers from across the state Nov. 12 to 15. The teens will be coming for training in intervention measures for hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and kidney disease. Extension health and nutrition specialists are using a $50,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to train the “Force of 100” in nutrition, food safety, physical fitness and proper exercise techniques.

Following their training this week, the teens will be expected to return to their communities and work on their own lifestyle changes, involve their household in changes, and conduct at least two programs that involve their family, friends and community.

Read more news from NC A&T State University, ag e-dispatch

Posted by Natalie at 09:47 AM

November 11, 2009

NC youth, retired specialist capture awards at NJHA Conference

Braving blustery, chilly weather, 30 delegates traveled to Hershey, Pa. to represent North Carolina at the 75th annual National Junior Horticultural Association annual convention. 4-H youth and adult leaders participated in a weekend of contests, field trips and workshops to share their interest in plants, meet new friends from across the country and learn about Mid-Atlantic horticulture.

As part of a 75th anniversary celebration, NJHA invited past alumni to return, and one of North Carolina’s Extension legends was honored. Larry Bass, retired 4-H horticulture specialist, attended and received an induction into the NJHA Hall of Fame. NJHA was founded in 1934 by Grant Snyder, and since that time, it has had annual conventions to educate youth about horticulture, careers, leadership and education. The 2010 convention will be held in Cleveland, Ohio.

Continue reading "NC youth, retired specialist capture awards at NJHA Conference"

Posted by Natalie at 08:48 AM

Distance education course on tourism offered in spring

Dr. Samantha Rozier Rich, assistant professor and tourism Extension specialist at N.C. State University, will teach an online distance education course this Spring 2010 entitled Foundations of Tourism (PRT 595-602 – Special Topics Course). The course was developed to provide a strong foundation of tourism-related knowledge and practice among Extension field faculty and other professionals working in the tourism field and/or hoping to work in the tourism field.

The course will run seven weeks (March 12 – April 30) and will meet once-a-week, via Elluminate (Thursday evenings from 7-8:30pm). In addition to live (synchronous) online class discussions and lectures, the course will include a variety of assignments aimed at providing students with the opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience working with tourism businesses and professionals.

Continue reading "Distance education course on tourism offered in spring"

Posted by Natalie at 08:31 AM

November 10, 2009

Hylton named Stokes County director

Michael Hylton, interim director of the Cooperative Extension program in Stokes County, has been named permanent Stokes County director.

Hylton's appointment as Stokes extension director was announced by Extension Director Dr. Jon Ort and Bryan Steen, Stokes County manager. Hylton has been a member of the Stokes extension staff for seven years, serving as the county's horticulture agent before being named interim county director.

Prior to joining extension, Hylton spent nine years working for landscaping firms and a nursery. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and speech communications from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s degree in agricultural science from North Carolina A&T State University.

Continue reading "Hylton named Stokes County director"

Posted by Dave at 08:33 AM

October 30, 2009

CEFS will host Will Allen lectures

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) is bringing Will Allen to Raleigh for its 2009 Sustainable Agriculture Lecture on Nov. 9. Allen’s Growing Power Inc. in Milwaukee has become a national model for adapting community supported agriculture to work for inner-city consumers, and he was selected for of one of the 2008 MacArthur Fellowships (the “genius award”) for urban farming initiatives he has developed. Allen will be discussing “Steps to Successful Urban Farming” during a talk that will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the McKimmon Center on the N.C. State campus. This talk will be free and open to the public, but seating is limited. The SAES, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State, and the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Sciences operate the CEFS jointly. Among its research units is a Small Farm Center, and the CEFS also has swine, dairy, organic cropping, farm systems and pasture-based beef units devoted to innovative practices for advancing sustainable food and farming.

Read more about the lecture
Read more from ag e-dispatch

Posted by Natalie at 08:29 AM

October 29, 2009

Secretaries Association names winners

A number of Cooperative Extension secretaries received awards at the annual meeting of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Secretaries Association, held Sept. 18 in Greensboro. The awards, recipients and their respective districts are:
NCCESA Professional Improvement Scholarship: Tracy Brown, Campus Chapter
NCCESA Executive Board Award: Janet Mabry, Stanly County, South Central District
NCCESA Sue Mills Lighthouse Award: Janice Dotson, West District Director's Office

Secretary Awards for Excellence:
Jean Carter, Campus Chapter
Rebecca Castello, Northeast District
Joan Hobbes, Southeast District
Jane McDaniel, West District
Judy Moore, West Central District
State Winner: Jean Carter, Campus Chapter

Posted by Natalie at 11:01 AM

October 23, 2009

EFNEP celebrates 40 years service with Hunger Forum

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) invites
you to join us as we acknowledge 40 years of service at our upcoming
anniversary and Hunger Issues Forum Dec. 4, McKimmon Center, N.C. State University.

The Forum entitled "Cultivating Solutions to Hunger" will address issues in the community through keynote speeches and three breakout sessions featuring national and state experts.

Breakout session topics include:
* Hunger, Nutrition and Obesity
* Connecting People to Food
* Mobilizing Community Resources to Reduce Hunger

Continue reading "EFNEP celebrates 40 years service with Hunger Forum"

Posted by Natalie at 09:03 AM

October 22, 2009

N.C. MarketReady is new name for Value-Added Agriculture Program

KANNAPOLIS -- N.C. State University’s Program for Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture will become N.C. MarketReady, effective Oct. 20.

The value-added program was founded in 2006 by Dr. Blake Brown, director and a professor in the N.C. State Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, with funding from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Since then, the program team, based at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, has grown to five faculty and four staff members. It works closely with N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute, also based at the N.C. Research Campus, as well as with faculty from main campus and Cooperative Extension field faculty across the state.

“We are excited about this new name,” Brown said. “The new name, N.C. MarketReady, more accurately communicates the scope of our program’s work.

Continue reading "N.C. MarketReady is new name for Value-Added Agriculture Program"

Posted by Natalie at 09:33 AM

October 19, 2009

News from NC A&T State University

The nomination deadline for the 2010 Gilmer L. and Clara Y. Dudley Small Farmer of the Year Award has been set: Monday, Dec. 1. The award will be presented on Small Farms Day (March 24, 2010) to a family farm in North Carolina that exemplifies success, innovation and leadership in small-scale agriculture. To be eligible, farmers must generate at least half their gross income from farming, have averaged less than $100,000 in annual gross farm revenue over the last three years, and the farm must be one with a family member making general management decisions.

Farmers living more than 130 miles from campus who would like to get their name in the hat for lodging, meals and waiver of registration fees for Small Farms Week activities on campus March 22 and 23 have until Jan. 15, 2010, to apply for a scholarship. In addition to living more than 130 miles from campus, applicants must rely on farming for at least 50 percent of annual gross income, and be part of a operation that has a family member making the general managerial decisions.

Read more from ag e-dispatch

Posted by Natalie at 03:47 PM

Extension SARE scholarships available for conference

This year the 2009 Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Sustainable Agriculture Conference (CFSA SAC) will be held at Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, Dec. 4-6.

Extension Day, Friday, Dec. 4, will include a three-hour morning (9 am – 12 noon) workshop focusing on local food, sustainable business practices and safe food handling and an afternoon tour of value-added facilities. Dec. 5 and 6 will be devoted to CFSA SAC.

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Posted by Natalie at 11:24 AM

October 12, 2009

PLT workshop helps teachers bring recycling to the classroom

Project Learning Tree® partnered with the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance to present a two-day educational workshop for 22 teachers and solid waste professionals in Wilkesboro, Sept. 24 and 25. The workshop included educational activities to help bring lesson plans focusing on waste and recycling into the classroom, as well as tours of a local material recovery facility and landfill.

“With the plastic bottle ban that began on Oct. 1, this is a great time to help get teachers excited about recycling in their schools, as well as providing them tools and ideas to help that happen,” said Kelley Dennings, education and outreach project manager with DPPEA. “Every second, 100 plastic bottles are disposed of in North Carolina. Now they must be recycled, not thrown into landfills.”

Continue reading "PLT workshop helps teachers bring recycling to the classroom"

Posted by Natalie at 02:03 PM

A&T hosts Fall Small Farms Field Demonstration

On Nov. 3, head over to the Fall Small Farms Field Demonstration at the N.C. A&T State University Farm in Greensboro. Read here for more details.

Posted by Natalie at 01:45 PM

October 09, 2009

Forestry experts say fall colors will come early

Despite drought conditions in parts of the state for most of the year, there should be plenty of colorful foliage worth seeing across North Carolina this fall, according to a North Carolina State University expert. Dr. Robert Bardon, associate professor of forestry and extension forestry specialist at N.C. State, says that in areas of the state that have experienced drought, people should expect to see colors early, and that the leaves will change color faster.

“People should be hoping for weather conditions that are warmer during the day and cooler at nighttime – since they create the most vibrant fall colors,” Bardon says. “However, if we have a wet fall, we can expect less vibrant colors this season.”

During the spring and summer, leaves manufacture most of the food necessary for a tree’s growth. The food-making process occurs in cells that contain the pigment chlorophyll, which gives the leaves their green color. The leaves also contain other pigments that are masked most of the year by the greater amount of chlorophyll.

Continue reading "Forestry experts say fall colors will come early"

Posted by Natalie at 08:13 AM

October 08, 2009

4-H celebrates 100th birthday at the Dixie Classic Fair

When people hear that Jessica Goodard belongs to a 4-H club, they often say something along the lines of "Isn't that like planting stuff?"

"No," she tells them, "it's community service."

For Jessica, a home-schooled high-school senior from Germanton who belongs to the Trailblazer Teens 4-H Club, 4-H is about such projects as playing music at nursing homes and helping to get shoeboxes filled with goodies for children in other countries at Christmas.

"I've always had a passion for community service," she said.

Yesterday, it was about playing guitar at the Dixie Classic Fair in the Forsyth County 4-H Acoustic Band to celebrate 100 years of 4-H clubs in North Carolina. The 4-H Birthday Bash was held at the Clock Tower Stage at the fair.

Read more from the Winston-Salem Journal.

Posted by Suzanne at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

Communication Services' writer is State Fair's Deep Fried Ambassador

Extension Online News is proud that the first Deep Fried Ambassador for the State Fair is Communication Services' very own Suzanne, author of pretty*swell blog. Follow her posts on the State Fair's Deep Fried Ambassador page.

Posted by Natalie at 09:34 AM

October 06, 2009

Third sheep, goat roundup is a success

In August, the third educational N.C. Goat & Sheep Producers Roundup was held in Greensboro at the Guilford County Cooperative Extension Center. The two-day conference was well attended by over 135 goat and sheep producers from North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina.

A special feature of the event was the “N.C. Chefs Cook-off of Lamb and Chevon.” Five high-end restaurants and chefs that participated include Spanky’s Restaurant of Chapel Hill; Taste of the Caribbean Restaurant, Greensboro; The Stock Pot, Winston-Salem; JuJube Restaurant, Chapel Hill, and Chatham Marketplace, Pittsboro.

Each restaurant was given a half carcass of both lamb and goat and could prepare it any way they desired for the competition. After the judging of the dishes by area food editors of newspapers and a sponsor representative, the wonderful food was served to the participants at the conference with rave reviews.

Continue reading "Third sheep, goat roundup is a success"

Posted by Natalie at 02:53 PM

ESP to hold annual meeting Nov. 19

Save the date -- Nov. 19, 10 a.m. til 2 p.m. -- for Epsilon Sigma Chi's annual meeting at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. The program will include an awards luncheon and motivational speaker. More information will be shared in the near future.

Posted by Natalie at 02:30 PM

October 01, 2009

Williamson helped make Wilkes County an ag leader

The late Dwight D. Williamson, Wilkes County extension agent from 1963 to 1974, has been inducted into the Wilkes Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Read more in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot

Posted by Dave at 04:30 PM