Once a hallmark of extension programming through Tomato Clubs for girls, canning and other home food preservation techniques had largely fallen out of favor with consumers in recent years. But this year, Cooperative Extension centers are reporting enrollment in canning workshops is up, and many extension agents are adding classes to accommodate demand.

Cabarrus County has scheduled nine workshops, up from the usual four, and all filled quickly. Several television news groups taped the Cabarrus workshops to use as on-air instructional pieces. Five workshops will be offered in Lee County, including one focusing on canning green beans and two on canning tomatoes. In Buncombe County, workshops are scheduled throughout the summer produce season on canning strawberry jam, dill pickles and relish and tomatoes, along with several lectures on home canning.

Come join the Chatham County Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the Chatham County Beekeepers’ Association for the third annual celebration of National Pollinator Week on Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on The Lawn at Chatham Mills in Pittsboro.

The purpose of National Pollinator Week is to teach pollinator-friendly practices and raise public awareness of the importance of the bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, birds and bats that are needed to produce 80 percent of our flowering plants and one third of our human food crops. The National Academy of Sciences has reported that there is direct evidence of the decline of some pollinator species in North America. And recently, Colony Collapse Disorder of honey bees has alarmed the agricultural industry.

The Business Development Files include:
1. Evaluating a New Business Idea
2. Estimating Income and Cost: Calculating a Price
3. Researching Your Market: Identifying Your Customers
4. Researching Your Market: Evaluating the Competition
5. Estimating Market Potential: Is There a Market?
6. Legal, Regulatory and Insurance: Checklist for North Carolina
7. Product, Price, Place and Promotion

While North Carolina strawberry growers looked forward to a bumper crop of berries in May, second graders at Swift Creek Elementary School in Raleigh also were watching their small crop come in. Though the school’s berries arrived a few weeks later than those of commercial growers, the students and their teachers have gained a wealth of knowledge from their year-long study of strawberries and how they grow.

The project started last fall as a collaboration between Dr. Gina Fernandez, small fruits specialist and associate professor of horticultural science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Swift Creek second grade teacher Megan Sedaghat. Fernandez’s daughter, Anya Yencho, was a student in Sedaghat’s class this year. When Sedaghat learned of Fernandez’s expertise with strawberries, she asked if Fernandez would help students grow and study strawberries.

As farmers’ markets attract more and more consumers in search of nutritious, high-quality foods, many of those same consumers are looking for ways to prepare and preserve what they buy at markets. A new resource from the N.C. State University Program for Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture at the new N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis offers help.

The Produce Lady video series tells farmers and consumers the wonders of locally grown fruits and vegetables – the nutrition they provide, the delicious meals or snacks families can enjoy with each vegetable or fruit and how to prepare them as tasty meals and snacks or freeze them to use throughout the year. The Produce Lady is Brenda Bryan Sutton, the new N.C. Cooperative Extension director in Rockingham County, who served as family and consumer sciences Extension agent until recently. The Produce Lady’s recipes and videos are available in two sites: www.theproducelady.org and www.youtube.com/user/TheProduceLady.

How would you build local food economies for North Carolina communities? About 400 farmers, food service buyers, health professionals, county government officials, chefs and university representatives came together at the Farm to Fork Summit held in N.C. State’s McKimmon Center in May to ask that question as they develop a State Action Plan. The conference included remarks and pledges of support by Gov. Beverly Perdue, U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, former U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton and other dignitaries.

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), directed by Dr. Nancy Creamer, hosted the summit, which took place after more than a year of planning and conversations. Last fall, CEFS hosted six regional summits to learn what was happening regionally to build local food economies and to identify opportunities and obstacles. Other dignitaries offering support were Dr. Jon Ort, director of N.C. Cooperative Extension Service at N.C. State University, Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, administrator of N.C. Cooperative Extension Program at N.C. A&T State University, and Maurice Totty of the Compass Group, the world’s largest food distributor.

Follow the signs to the historic Person Place on Main Street, downtown Louisburg, and visit our Hospitality Tent. Starting at 10 a.m., you can purchase a farm tour button for $5/adult, children under 13 free. While there, make sure to enjoy and purchase local heritage arts and crafts, such as wrought iron garden gates, paintings, pottery, hand-made quilts and much more. Pick up the brochure/map with descriptions of the nine farms on the tour. Any tours you miss on Saturday, you can visit on Sunday from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Also, “support local farms” tour buttons and brochures will be available at each of the farms. Don't forget to bring your cooler and purchase farm fresh eggs, produce and meats directly from the farmers at their farms.

“You never think it will happen to you.”

That was the haunting refrain behind the safety messages delivered at the Farm Safety 4 Just Kids workshop at the Johnston County Extension Center March 12. There an audience of more than 80 participants heard about farm safety and health programs for children, youth and families at the event coordinated locally by North Carolina Cooperative Extension, N.C. Agromedicine Institute/AgriSafe North Carolina, N.C. Farm Bureau and Ashe/Alleghany Rural Community Safety 4 All Seasons. The workshop was sponsored by USDA Risk Management Agency through a grant to the Farm Safety 4 Just Kids (FS4JK ) organization.

-T. Leith

Read more from Perspectives Latest News

People in North Raleigh will soon have a new place to go for fresh produce and local goods.

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension and an advisory board of local residents have decided to develop a community farmer's market at Falls River Town Center off of Durant Road.

The extension surveyed about 4,000 neighbors about the idea, and discovered overwhelming support for a market.

Read more from NBC 17.

Almanac Gardener begins its 26th season on Saturday, April 4 at noon on the statewide UNC-TV network. The Saturday show will be repeated at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Almanac Gardener is a half-hour home horticultural program telecast for 20 weeks from April through August. Almanac Gardener is one of the longest running series on UNC-TV and is a co-production of UNC-TV and Cooperative Extension at N.C. State University.

Viewers send questions to Almanac Gardener and horticultural experts from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service answer them on the air. The show also airs how-to horticultural features that are produced in the field.

Bogue Sound watermelon production is taking off faster than the juice that rolls down your chin when you bite into a slice.

In 2007, the total number of Bogue Sound watermelons produced rose by 35 percent over the previous year. The melons are now available, for the first time, in major grocery chains throughout North Carolina and across the United States. And the Bogue Sound Watermelon Growers' Association, a co-op formed just three years ago, recently won $400,000 in grants to fund a new storage and distribution facility.

Times are good, says Carteret County farmer and co-op president Billy Guthrie, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

“Farm to Fork” is the theme of this year’s Small Farms Week, set for March 22 to 28 and sponsored by The Cooperative Extension Program at N.C. A&T. The experts who will work with farmers during the Small
Farms Week activities include food, nutrition and farm experts from Cooperative Extension as well as faculty with the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. Both departments are part of the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at A&T.

At the Farm Safety 4 Just Kids Workshop March 12, Extension agents and others can learn how to make training programs come alive on farm safety and health programs for children, youth and families. Hear and share success stories. Discover resources. Learn the latest on ATV, pesticide and farm machinery safety.

The workshop will be held at the Johnston County Cooperative Extension Center in Smithfield, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration is free, and lunch will be provided.

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