by Molly Jameson | Sep 18, 2017
The Garden Educator Training Series helps garden leaders start or improve their school or community garden. Photo by Molly Jameson.
By Tiffany Torres
Tiffany Torres is the Family Nutrition Program Northwest District Food Systems Specialist with UF/IFAS Extension.
With the cooler months of fall upon us, school gardens across the Panhandle are beginning to awaken from their summer slumber. Soon, students and teachers will begin to replenish the soil, plant their seeds, and dive into an engaging edible education experience.
For these schools and communities, gardens are much more than just a few beds of carrots. School gardens serve as outdoor classrooms, bringing academic concepts to life in new and exciting ways, while also encouraging environmental stewardship. In addition, school gardens can expose students to lifelong healthy eating habits by inspiring them to try new fruits and vegetables. In time, the school garden can become a facet of school culture and pride, ultimately reinforcing an overall healthier school food environment for students, teachers, parents, and the broader community.
School gardens can inspire students to try foods, impacting their eating habits long-term. Photo by Molly Jameson.
To help support teachers and other school garden stakeholders on this journey, specialists at the University of Florida IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program developed a seasonal school and community garden training. The “Garden Educator Training Series” provides teachers and volunteers with tools for improving school garden education, enjoyment, and long-term outcomes. This monthly education and networking opportunity welcomes teachers who want to start and sustain school gardens, college students who want to volunteer with local gardening projects, and other garden enthusiasts, such as Master Gardeners, who want to lend their time to ensure the success of school and community gardens.
Each session includes three engaging components: 1) seasonally relevant, hands-on gardening skills; 2) curriculum and education connections; and 3) community organizing strategies to build team commitments. Sessions also include an opportunity to share successes and challenges amongst fellow attendees, resulting in a stronger school and community garden network. Each garden project leader will build a “Living History Binder,” which they will fill with resources throughout the series and use with their team to help organize their garden projects.
Through the Garden Educator Training Series, it is our hope that everyone involved will gain tangible and valuable skills to launch or improve their school or community garden projects. The program will give educators the tools necessary to design their gardens to be outdoor classrooms; promote health and wellness through gardening; facilitate community engagement; and teach students valuable life skills such as teamwork, cooperation, focus, and patience – inspiring the next generation of “garden leaders, not just garden weeders.”
The Series provides teachers and volunteers networking opportunities and tools to improve school garden education. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Interested in participating in the Garden Educator Training Series? The Series is free of charge, and will take place at the Leon County Extension Office (615 Paul Russell Rd, Tallahassee, FL). Fall sessions are 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on September 14th, October 12th, November 9th, and November 30th. To register, visit the UF/IFAS Leon County Eventbrite website (https://leongetsfall2017.eventbrite.com).
For further information, please contact the UF/IFAS Extension Office at Leon County by calling (850) 606-5200.
by Matt Lollar | Jun 2, 2017
The Jackson County Master Gardeners are hosting a Mead Making Workshop on Saturday, June 17 at the Jackson County Agricultural Center Classroom, 2741 Penn Avenue, Marianna, FL. Registration opens at 8:30 AM (Central Time) and the event will end at 2:00 PM.
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermenting honey. Mead is described in various writings from Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and in the epic poem Beowulf. This workshop will teach you everything you need to know in order to make your own mead at home! You will go home with a small carboy, airlock, honey, and yeast.
The registration fee is $35.00 and covers lunch and all materials and equipment to make your own mead. The workshop is limited to 24 participants. For more information, please see the Mead Making Workshop Flyer. You can pay at the door, but we do ask that you call the Jackson County Extension Office to RSVP at: 850-482-9620 or email mlollar@ufl.edu.
by Molly Jameson | May 11, 2017
If you are a farmer, you have most likely heard about the Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA, by now. If you are not a farmer, you probably do not know that food safety regulations are going through a big change. The FSMA, which was passed in 2011, is considered the largest update to food safety regulation in over 80 years.
The proposed produce safety rule under the FSMA is very robust, establishing the minimum standards for worker training, health and hygiene, agricultural water use, animal soil amendments, on-farm domesticated and wild animals, equipment, tools, buildings, and sprout production.
But this new rule will not apply to all farmers. The commodities they produce and the value of their produce sold will ultimately dictate whether they will need to comply.
First, the rule does not apply to produce that is not a raw agricultural commodity, or commodities the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified as “rarely consumed raw.” Secondly, if a farm has an average value of produce sold of $25,000 or less within the previous three years, they are also exempt.
If the farmer produces an agricultural commodity in which the rule applies and the value of their produce sold is over $25,000, it is still possible the farm will be exempt from most of the requirements.
Fresh cucumbers, for example, are considered a raw commodity. But cucumbers that will undergo further processing, such as for pickling, would be eligible for exemption from the produce rule. Photo by Molly Jameson.
For instance, if the average annual monetary value of food sold directly to qualified end-users was more than the average annual value of the food sold to all other buyers within the previous three-year period, the farmer would meet the first half of exemption eligibility.
What is a “qualified end-user”, you ask? They are considered the consumers of the food, or restaurant or retail food establishment, located with the same state as the farm that produced the food (or no more than 275 miles).
But even if farmers meet the above exemption eligibility standards, they must also meet the second requirement. That is, the average annual monetary value of all food sold during the three-year period must be less than $500,000, when adjusted for inflation.
If this all sounds confusing, you are not alone! This is why the FDA developed a chart to help farmers determine if they will be exempt: Standards for Produce Safety – Coverage and Exemptions/Exclusions for Proposed 21 PART 112.
Whether farms will be exempt from the FSMA produce safety rule or not, it is always a good idea to follow good agricultural practices and to have a farm food safety plan. To learn more about food safety on farms, view the EDIS document Food Safety on the Farm: An Overview of Good Agricultural Practices.
If you are a farmer, or know someone who would benefit from having a food safety plan, the UF Small Farms Academy Extension Agents are offering a Building Your Own Farm’s Food Safety Manual Workshop in Tallahassee to help growers develop their own food safety manuals.
The workshop is tailored to fresh fruit and vegetable farms, fields, or greenhouses and is partially supported by a grant through the Florida Specialty Crops Block Grant program from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service.
The registration fee is $35 for the first person representing a farm and $15 for an additional attendee from that farm. The workshop is limited to 20 farms on a first come, first serve basis.
The workshop will take place at the Amtrak Station, County Community Room, 918 Railroad Ave, in Tallahassee, FL, on Tuesday, May 23, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Register on Eventbrite by following this link: https://farmfoodsafetymanualworkshop.eventbrite.com
Please note, this class will help farmers develop their farm’s food safety manual, but it does not fulfill the new FDA FSMA one-time training requirement.
by Matt Lollar | Apr 7, 2017
The Jackson County Master Gardeners are hosting “Permaculture: An Introduction” on Saturday, April 29. Join us from 9AM to 2PM on Saturday, April 29 at the Jackson County Extension Office (2741 Penn Ave., Ste.#3, Marianna, FL) to learn the basics of permaculture. What is permaculture you might ask? Basically, it is the utilization of edible plants in your landscape to create a food forest. The workshop is $20 and includes lunch. To register or for more details please contact Matt Lollar at mlollar@ufl.edu, (850)482-9620, or come by the Jackson County Extension Office.
by Molly Jameson | Jan 26, 2017
Are you an avid gardener and looking to step it up a notch? Are your gardening eyes bigger than your dinner plate? If you have ever considered selling your bounty for market, you will certainly need to do your homework! One such step you can take is to attend the UF/IFAS Panhandle Extension Team’s So You Want to be a Farmer? Workshop Series.
There’s a lot to know if you want to get into this business! This series aims to introduce new or potential farmers to innovative and environmentally safe production practices, concepts of soil and water management, integrated pest management, how to grow for a farmers’ market, and farm financial management.
Agricultural professionals are actually in high demand. There is an estimated 60,000 highly skilled jobs in agriculture available annually, but only about half of these positions are being filled by graduates in agricultural fields. Additionally, Florida’s farmers are an aging group, and there was an 8% decrease in the number of farms and 26% decrease in acres of cropland from 2002 to 2012.
Fortunately, demand has greatly increased in recent years for locally produced specialty crops, meats, and dairy. There has also been an increase in the number of direct marketing opportunities and small farmers have been able to adopt new technologies, such as season extension techniques and local online marketing, to generate more revenue on small acreages.
The UF/IFAS Extension Panhandle Agriculture Team is hosting the So You Want to be a Farmer? Workshop Series to assist beginning or novice farmers as they navigate the many challenges of getting started.
If you are interested in attending, please register on the So You Want to be a Farmer? Eventbrite page. The cost is $10 per session, with sessions at multiple locations within the east Florida Panhandle.
Please see workshop dates and further details below:
by Gary Knox | Sep 28, 2015
The University of Florida/IFAS presents Art & Garden Fall Family Festival, October 3, at the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC), Quincy Campus. Join us that day and discover creative ways to explore visual art and the art of gardening through demonstrations and fun activities for the whole family. Speak with experts about all your gardening questions or purchase unusual, hard-to-find, top-performing plants for our area. Take a tour of the Gardens or a trolley ride highlighting fruits and nuts that can be grown in our area. Locally grown produce and garden plants as well as arts and crafts will be for sale along with food and refreshments. Children’s arts and crafts activities will take place in a huge “Kid Zone” located in a shaded, garden area.
The Art & Garden Fall Festival is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 3.
The festival takes place in Gardens of the Big Bend, located in Quincy at I-10 Exit 181, just 1/8 mile north on Pat Thomas Highway (SR 267). The Gardens are located on the campus of University of Florida/IFAS, North Florida Research and Education Center, off Pat Thomas Parkway, SR 267 at 155 Research Road, Quincy, FL. Located just north of I-10 Exit 181, 3 miles south of Quincy.
Presented by the University of Florida/IFAS, North Florida Research and Education Center in collaboration with the Gadsden Arts Center, Gardening Friends of the Big Bend, the Quincy Garden Club and other area garden and arts organizations.
For more information: http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/art-and-garden/ or 850-875-7100.
