Originally published by Naturally@UConn on December 16, 2014 Written by: Kim Markesich Fairfield County gardening programs teach nutrition, integrated pest management and life skills The Fairfield County Extension Center Demonstration Garden The Fairfield County Extension Center hosts a variety of gardening programs, and the season just past was a successful and bountiful one. With the support of […]
Agriculture & Farming
Ensuring a vibrant and sustainable agricultural industry and food supply
Controlled Environment Agriculture
CONNECTICUT FEDERALLY FUNDED STARTUP AIMS TO BRING OUT-OF-SEASON FARMING TO FINANCIALLY STRESSED NEW ENGLAND GROWERS; Connecticut Tech Business To Introduce Year-Round Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) To Area Strawberry Farmers; Recent CBS’ 60 MINUTES Segment Highlights California Drought Impact on Local Food Availability December 15, 2014 — As the outdoor farming season in New England is […]
Where to go for Food Safety Information?
By Diane Wright Hirsch UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety The late fall, early winter holidays can be a busy time for home cooks. Whether you are preparing a traditional holiday turkey, a favorite side dish of greens from your garden, or attempting something new like a goose or Connecticut oysters, the food safety implications of […]
NY Produce Show
UConn CAHNR students are at the The New York Produce Show & Conference in NYC with Agricultural Resource Economics Assistant Professor and UConn Extension Economist Ben Campbell. These are pictures of them talking with students from Newcastle University (UK) at the Global Trade Symposium, at the career networking event at the Show as well as pictures of them in Times Square NYC. […]
World Soil Day
Today is World Soil Day! Did you know? Soil is the basis for food, feed, fuel and fibre production and for services to ecosystems and human well-being. It is the reservoir for at least a quarter of global biodiversity, and therefore requires the same attention as above-ground biodiversity. Soils play a key role in the […]
A Better Way of Farming
Vegetable Farmers Switch to Reduced Tillage/Deep Zone Tillage By Jude Boucher, UConn Extension Educator In 2006, after several 4 to 6-inch rainstorms, and having to contend with 4-foot deep erosion gullies in his sweet corn fields, Nelson Cecarelli of Cecarelli Farm decided he needed a better way to farm the rolling hills of Northford […]
Buy Local When Gift-Giving
By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety No, I was not racing to the nearest “big box” or department store on Thanksgiving night to get in line for a 29 cent towel. I was, however, enjoying my family around a table full of Connecticut grown turkey dinner food. Apples from Hindinger […]
Growing Container-Grown Greenhouse Vegetables
UConn Extension is sponsoring, Growing Container-Grown Greenhouse Vegetables on Dec 16, 2014 at the Litchfield County Extension Center, 843 University Drive, Torrington, CT. The speakers featured at this educational program include: 9:00-9:30 Registration 9:30 – 10:30 Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes and Cucumbers in Soiless Media […]
UConn Extension Receives Farmland Preservation Pathfinder Award
The UConn Extension Agriculture Team was the recipient of the Farmland Preservation Pathfinder Education Leader Award at the Working Lands Alliancee Annual Meeting on Tuesday, November 18th at the State Capitol in Hartford. The award recognizes significant contributions in the area of educating the public about the importance of farmland preservation. UConn Extension connects […]
Extension App Challenge
The UConn Extension App Challenge is a contest to develop innovative apps that tie UConn’s research to real life. Students are invited to work with a UConn Extension faculty member to develop software applications for smartphones, tablets, or web browsers that create greater community access to UConn science, research, and information. Students developing the most […]
Safe Food Handling from Farm to Table
Written by Patsy Evans for Naturally@UConn and originally posted on October 14, 2014 Hearing the word ‘outbreak’ makes many people anxious. E. coliO157:H7, spinach, 2006. Salmonella, peanut butter, 2009. Listeria, cantaloupe, 2011. Diane Hirsch, UConn Extension educator for food safety, easily lists previous food-borne pathogen outbreaks. But, fear does not paralyze her. Instead, she works in classrooms and […]
Is your garden bursting with fall tomatoes?
By: Diane Wright Hirsch, UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety It has been a great year for growing tomatoes in Connecticut, but the season is rapidly coming to an end with the change to cooler temperatures. As much as we love our delicious vine ripened summer-red tomatoes, it is time for a reality check—summer is over. […]
Farm to School Programs Create New Opportunities for Farmers
Weekly Column: Farm to School Programs Create New Opportunities for Farmers By USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack This October, just like every other month during the school year, school menus will feature an array of products from local and regional farmers, ranchers, and fishermen. Kids of all ages will dig up lessons in school […]
Grower’s Nation Brings Citizen Science to the Farm
Knowing what to plant and when is vital information both for farmers and for gardeners who want to grow their own fruits and vegetables. The Growers Nation app, officially released last Friday, provides this information as well as other vital details in an easy-to-use format designed for both small-scale gardeners and farmers in developing countries. […]
UConn Extension Centennial Video
UConn Extension Ties Research to Real Life for citizens of Connecticut every day. Join us as we take a tour of some of our UConn Extension programs.
UConn Students Learn About Canning
UConn Extension‘s Diane Hirsch held a workshop for 12 students from the UConn Spring Valley Farm and the UConn EcoGarden Club as well as others. The focus was on pressure canning as the Spring Valley Farm students hope to purchase a pressure canner in the near future. Julia Cartabiano, the farm manager, made the arrangements so […]
Biological Controls for Greenhouse Growers
UConn Extension hosted a workshop on Thursday, July 31st at the Tolland Extension Centeron Biological Controls for greenhouse growers. The workshop was attended by a diverse group of 80 greenhouse growers, retailers and educators from across the state, and organized by Leanne Pundt of UConn Extension. Dr. Rose Buitenhuis from the Vineland Research and […]
What Every CT Resident Needs to Understand About UConn Extension
I wish UConn Extension was not the best-kept secret in the state. It’s time everybody knew what a tremendous resource Extension is. Congress established the Cooperative Extension System as a national network in 1914 to tie university research to real life. UConn Extension programs have evolved over time, and as our state has changed, so […]
CT 10% Campaign Celebrates 1 Year
UConn Extension with CitySeed of New Haven and its BuyCTGrown.com project are excited to celebrate their first full year growing the ‘buy local’ movement. Since its launch in August 2013, the CT 10% Campaign’s consumer and business pledgees together have tracked over $800,000 spent on locally grown (raised and caught) products. With over 400 consumers and 100+ business partners, the movement is […]
New Guide to Help Fish, Shellfish and Seaweed Growers Manage Risks
New Guide to Help Fish, Shellfish and Seaweed Growers Manage Risks GROTON CT—A new 285-page illustrated manual, the Northeastern U.S. Aquaculture Management Guide, has just been published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Northeastern Regional Aquaculture Center. Edited by Tessa L. Getchis, Connecticut Sea Grant and UConn Extension aquaculture specialist, the manual is a […]
Fighting the Good Food Fight
Connecticut Farmers, UConn Fighting The Good Food Fight By Jessica Griffin On August 24, 2014 As processed foods loaded with fat, sugars and salt, become increasingly cheap and convenient for Americans, the fight to maintain health and nutrition becomes more and more relevant. In the spirit of spreading awareness for the importance of making good […]
Scaling Up Farm Visits
UConn Extension’s Scaling Up Team visited Southbury Farms on July 10th. Left: Kip Kolesinskas checks soil. Center: Kip, Cam Weimar of the Department of Agriculture, and Eero Ruuttila of UConn Extension look at a soil sample. Right: Kip goes over a soil map with the Scaling Up team.
Urban Agriculture Program
A group of 13 Hispanic adults from Danbury and Bridgeport are participating in an Urban Agriculture program. This UConn Extension program has been designed in a way that students learn the science behind agriculture (botany, soils, vegetable production, integrated pest management, etc.), apply their knowledge by producing vegetables, and promotes entrepreneurship by allowing students sell their […]
Cohen Contributes to Tolland County 4-H as State Corn Yield Contest Winner
Ellington, CT – Harris and Louise Cohen of Ellington have contributed $150 to the UConn Extension Tolland County 4-H program as a result of winning first place in the state of Connecticut 2013 National Corn Growers’ Association’s (NCGA) Corn Yield Contest. The contribution was provided by DuPont Pioneer on behalf of first-place winners. Sanford Cohen […]
Should I eat that?
When what your garden produces is less than perfect: Should I eat that? By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator, Food Safety It is common practice for the supermarket shopper and the farmers’ market customer to pick up every pepper and head of lettuce for closer inspection. When we buy produce, we do not […]
Women Honored for the Work in Agriculture and Conservation
Tolland, CT –The spotlight was on 12 remarkable women Thursday, June 19th at the State Capitol as Connecticut’s Conservation Partnership recognized them for their work in agriculture and natural resources conservation. This year’s theme was Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment: Stories of the Extraordinary Determination of Women, and honored the exceptional and often […]
UConn Wins!
Who won the Big Scoop Award at the American Society of Animal Science’s Joint Annual Meeting? Contenders were Kansas State University, South Dakota State University, UConn, University of Missouri, and Washington State University. UConn wins!!! Congrats to Mike O’Neill in #UConnExtension for proposing Centennial Caramel Crunch to celebrate Extension’s 100 years of growing Connecticut […]
Biological Controls in Greenhouses
More Connecticut greenhouse growers and retailers are using biological controls to manage insect and diseases (Photo of greenhouse). Here you can see a variety of spring plants for sale that were grown using biological controls (beneficial insects and mites, and biologically based fungicides). As an example, this yellow gerbera daisy flower was grown using biological […]
Watch Out for Basil Downy Mildew
Photo and article: Joan Allen, UConn Extension Basil downy mildew, a damaging disease of sweet basil plants, has been confirmed on plants at big box store garden centers (non-locally grown plants) in the Northeast. The major symptom is yellowing of the leaves, often between the veins. Dark, sooty-looking spores of the fungus-like pathogen (Peronospora belbahrii) are […]
Farming with Technology
UConn Extension has taken delivery of a new manure spreader. This spreader is not your typical manure spreader. This spreader has gone hi tech with integrated scales, computer and GPS. Unlike a typical spreader which requires the farmer to guess how much manure is being loaded, and keep handwritten records of how many loads went […]
Monitoring the Weather – For More than 125 Years
By Sheila Foran for UConn Today Every day at 8 a.m. for the last 45,625 days (give or take a day or two), weather information at UConn’s Plant Research and Education Facility on Agronomy Road has been recorded and sent to the National Weather Service. That’s every day for 125 years. It’s a long time […]
Egg Safety
Take Care With Eggs—No Matter Where You Buy/Gather Them By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety Spring is here (at least officially) and it is always a good time to remind ourselves of how to safely handle eggs. Whether you are hard-boiling them for an Easter or Passover celebration, or looking forward […]
Community Gardens
By Jiff Martin – Extension Educator Sustainable Food Systems All this talk about checking out the latest seed catalogues, de-wintering the garden and predicting the date of the last frost can be frustrating for the land-poor gardener wanna-be. If you are an apartment dweller, a condo resident or simply garden-plot deprived, you may not be […]
Pest Forecasts Come to Connecticut
It hurts when codling moths riddle your apples, powdery mildew blasts your grapes, or anthracnose takes over your turf. But it’s really nettlesome when growers or groundskeepers mere miles away get off without a snag. Blame it on the weather: on a multitude of variables that we barely notice. Sophisticated weather stations can pick up […]
Build Your Network, Grow Our Future Event
How do we build our networks and help grow the potential for success in the future food economy? By bringing together farmers and service providers to meet each other, ask questions, listen and discuss. On February 19th, the New CT Farmer Alliance (NCTFA) did just this, in collaboration with several organizations and agencies: UConn Extension, […]
Eat locally grown, even in winter….
By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator, Food Safety Photo: Tomatoes at Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford. Credit: Jude Boucher, UConn Extension After a food-filled holiday season (including, I must confess, raspberries, grown somewhere in South America, in a fruit salad…), it is time that many of us resolve to eat healthier and, perhaps, to attempt […]
Pruning Blueberries
By Mary Concklin, Visiting Associate Extension Educator – Fruit Production & IPM I have heard the question many times, when is the best time to prune blueberries – fall, winter or spring? To answer that question let’s take a look at what is going on with the plant at these different times. I am […]
Reba Wishes Extension a Happy Birthday
We’re celebrating Extension’s Centennial in 2014! It’s going to be a great year, stay tuned for more details.
Build Your Network, Grow Our Future
Wednesday, February 19, 2014 8:30am – 1:30pm East Windsor, CT Scout Hall Youth Center Admission Fee: Free A networking event to strengthen Connecticut’s agricultural community. This program is designed for farmers in their first ten years of commercial production. The program is a cooperative effort of UConn Extension, the Connecticut New […]
2014 Vegetable & Small Fruit Grower’s Conference Draws Crowd
UConn Extension’s Connecticut Vegetable & Small Fruit Growers’ Conference was held at Maneeley’s in South Windsor on Thursday, January 16th. The annual event is co-sponsored by UConn Extension, UConn’s Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) and USDA. Over 260 vegetable and small fruit growers from throughout New England […]