Extension Educator Honored

Boucher Receives 2015 AAUP Service Excellence Award It was recently announced that Jude Boucher will be receiving the Service Excellence Award from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) on April 6th at a ceremony in the Old Appropriations room of the State Capitol building in Hartford. Jude is the Extension Educator for vegetable crops […]

Gardens, gardens, everywhere…

….be sure to grow with food safety in mind By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator – Food Safety It is hard to believe that spring is just around the corner. Though we in Connecticut were all teased with 35-degree temperatures, we are quickly back in the deep freeze, surrounded by ugly, dirty […]

Congratulations PEP Graduates

Congratulations to our recent ‪UConnExtension‬ People Empowering People (PEP) graduates from Meriden and Putnam. A few graduates are pictured below, but many more were also recognized. 3 out of 5 graduates were able to make it to the graduation in Putnam, due to bad weather. Sherry Curran (far left) read a short description of each grad and what they brought […]

Get Ready to Guac and Roll!

By Catherine Hallisey FoodCorps Connecticut Service Member It all started with me holding up an avocado, screaming enthusiastically, “WHO IS READY TO GUAC AND ROLL?!” Unfortunately, my quirky pun did not elicit the response I had hoped for— instead students started groaning, “ewww that’s green” and “where’s the ranch?!” even “I am not touching that!” Although […]

10 Tips for the March Gardener

Make plans to attend the UConn Garden Conference on March 19, 2015. Go to http://2015garden.uconn.edu Send your soil sample to the UConn Soil Nutrient Analysis Laboratory before April 1st to avoid the spring rush. Add limestone, fertilizer or organic materials as recommended but wait until mid-April to fertilize the lawn. Start seeds of annual flowers […]

Creating a Birdseed Bag Tote

Photo & Article: Susan Pelton for UConn Extension   This has certainly been a very cold winter and so many of the feathered species that remain in Connecticut rely on backyard feeders for a good amount of their nourishment. If you are providing for the birds in your yard (as we are) you are probably […]

Spring Bedding Plant Meetings

The ‪UConn Extension‬ Spring Bedding Plant Meetings were held the first week in February in our Torrington and Vernon offices. We had good attendance of 35 in Torrington and 37 in Vernon, in spite of the weather! #UConnExtension’s Rosa Raudales spoke on Feeding Greenhouse Crops and Monitoring Water Quality. Yonghao Li of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station […]

Plant Defenses Against Insects

By Pamm Cooper for UConn Extension Historically, insects have been the most important bane of the plant kingdom. The fatal attraction that exists between plants and insects has woven an intricate balance between good and evil, survival and devastation, and benefits versus harm. While insects play a significant role in pollination, and while over 90% […]

Price Study of CSAs in CT

2014 Price Study of Community Supported Agriculture Operations in CT By Molly Deegan and Jiff Martin, UConn Extension extension.uconn.edu *For more information about this study, contact jiff.martin@uconn.edu Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): an arrangement whereby customers pay growers in advance of the growing season for a guaranteed share of the season’s harvest. Background: In summer 2014 […]

Master Gardener Signature Outreach Projects

The UConn Extension Master Gardener Program is an educational outreach program that started in 1978 and consists of horticulture training and outreach component in the community. Master Gardeners are enthusiastic, willing to learn, and share their knowledge and training with others. What sets them apart from other home gardeners is their special horticultural training. In […]

Connecticut Seeds for Connecticut Gardens

Photo and Article By Dawn Pettinelli About now, many of us gardeners have a stack of seed catalogs several inches high and have started combing through them acquiring all kinds of ideas and a long wish list. Before finalizing you orders, spend a bit of time going through any leftover seeds from the previous year. […]

10 Tips for the February Gardener

Visit our booth at the 2015 CT Flower and Garden Show, February 19th-22nd, at the Connecticut Convention Center. Bring ½ cup of soil for a free pH test and your gardening questions for free advice. Provide houseplants with increased humidity by misting often or placing plants over a tray of moist pebbles. Clean the leaves […]

See RED on Valentine’s Day

By Alice Henneman, MS, RDN Nebraska Extension Educator   See “Red” on Valentine’s Day and throughout the year. Red fruits and vegetables contain many health-promoting phytochemicals including lycopene and anthocyanins. This color group may help promote: A lower risk of some cancers A healthy heart Memory health Urinary tract health Red fruits and vegetables include: […]

Privacy and Mobile Devices

By German Cutz, Ed.D. for UConn Extension   Your Private Information: At Risk on Mobile Devices With easy access to mobile devices your personal and private information are at risk. Ninety five percent of Americans use one or more cellular phones, tablets, laptops, GPS (Global Positioning System), and other mobile devices. Most cell phone users […]

EAB Quarantine Extended to All of Connecticut

The quarantine for the invasive, non-native emerald ash borer (EAB) was extended to include all eight Connecticut counties effective December 5, 2014. This was in response to the detection of EAB in Middlesex and New London Counties. EAB is already established in numerous towns in New Haven, Fairfield, Hartford, and Litchfield Counties. The movement of […]

Climate Adaption Academy Looking for Input

The Climate Adaptation Academy (CAA) is developing a list of challenges that municipalities and residents are facing as a result of climate change and we need your help. CAA is a partnership between Connecticut Sea Grant and UConn’s Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) and was developed after talking to a variety of […]

Reducing Storm Damage to Your Greenhouses

By John W. Bartok, Jr. Agricultural Engineer, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. 2013 39 pounds per square foot – That’s the weight of snow I had in my yard in Ashford after the January 2011 snow and rain storms. The Connecticut Building Code calls for a design load of 30 pounds per square foot (psf) […]

Soil Workshop

UConn Extension‘s Richard Meinert and Dawn Pettinelli attended a soil workshop on the west coast in November.  Dawn writes: the 2014 International Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) was in Long Beach, California. The theme of this year’s […]

International Year of Soils

The U.S. Department of Agriculture kicked off its celebration of the International Year of Soils  to highlight the importance of healthy soils for food security, ecosystem functions and resilient farms and ranches. “Healthy soil is the foundation that ensures working farms and ranches become more productive, resilient to climate change and better prepared to meet the challenges of […]

Trees Rock

The town of Hamden was a recipient of a weather station available through a partnership with UConn Extension, as part of a pilot program that UConn is developing for school grounds managers. Middle school science teachers were excited to hear about the weather station and asked if they would be able to access the weather […]

Three Connecticut Projects Selected for RCPP Funding

“More than 600 pre-proposals were submitted nationwide. With so many strong proposals, the project selection process was extremely competitive,” said Lisa Coverdale, Connecticut State Conservationist for the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service. “We are so very proud that three from Connecticut have been selected for funding. This is such an amazing opportunity to work with some […]

10 Tips for the January Gardener

1.      Check out the Garden Master classes that are available throughout the state at http://mastergardener.uconn.edu/. Most classes are open to both Master Gardeners and the general public. 2.      If driveways or sidewalks have been treated with a de-icer that contains sodium chloride do not pile this snow on plants or in areas where the melting […]

Vegetable Workshops

UConn Extension will offer two workshops on pests and diseases of vegetable crops this February.  These workshops will cover common and important pests and diseases of four vegetable families: Cucurbitaceae (cucumber, squash, melon and pumpkin), Brassicaceae (cabbage family), Solanaceae (tomato, potato, pepper and eggplant), and Fabaceae (legumes/beans and peas).   The emphasis will be on identification […]

State’s Aquaculture Industry Nets Benefits from Changes in Federal Plan

By Sheila Foran for UConn Today Commercial shellfish farmers who use the ocean to grow their crops off the nation’s coastline now have the same kind of protection against crop losses as do people who farm on land, due to a recent change in federal policy. The new language providing coverage was added to the […]

4-H FANs IM Family Night

The 4-H FANs IM program has created this great video on Family Night that showcases what the program is all about.   Connecticut Fitness and Nutrition Clubs In Motion, is a 4-H Afterschool program designed to reduce obesity rates in children ages 9 to 14, through sustainable interventions surrounding food and fitness.  The program is a […]