Our 2009 Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners in New York State report is out and available from www.gardening.cornell.edu (right column below the vegetable picture is a link)

2009 Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners in New York State

Also remember that our Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners web-based project aims to recruit gardeners to share their opinions on how well varieties are performing in their NYS gardens. To date we have over 900 NYS gardeners registered on the site and they have collectively submitted more than 1,000 reviews. These reviews are already helping shape our recommended list especially with regard to tomatoes. We need your gardeners to weigh in to make Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners the premier tool for vegetable growers to looking to find something that tried and true or new.

Though our on-line library of vegetable variety descriptions is approaching 6,000 gardeners continue to bring to our attention varieties they are growing (and want to review) that we don’t yet have in our list. Registered gardeners have also offered a number of features they would love to see added to the site. Our resources are limited but we have managed to add a few features including images to some of the varieties thanks to seed companies who have sent us their photos. We have nearly 6,000 varieties so we hope many more seed companies are able to share their photos with us. Gardeners can also share their photos of specific varieties with us through the rating form.

How evidence-based growing beats relying on old

wives’ tales.

By Constance Casey

Confronted with huge, uncontrollable forces, we tend to fall back on magical thinking. Say a goat was sacrificed on the volcano rim last year and lava did not engulf the village. It must follow that this year some poor goat is doomed.

To garden is to encounter forces of nature less threatening than molten lava but still bewildering. Weird weather, chewing insects, trees mysteriously dying-these can make a gardener as superstitious as the villagers.

Perhaps every April, your great-aunt Sophie poured beer on the earth around her lilacs, and in May the flowers bloomed profusely. Your family may acknowledge that a belief in beer as flower-inducer is inconsistent with the known laws of science, and yet they will follow the custom, open the bottles, and pour on the brew.

With a similar vulnerability to irrational arguments, we, too, eagerly buy pesticides and fertilizers that we probably don’t need, and that may not work, from marketers pushing fast cures for bug damage or underperforming trees.

Enlightenment is available…

Find the full article Posted Friday, Nov. 28, 2008 on Slate.com

Let’s learn from each others success and mistakes to identify effective approaches in our CCE volunteers programs.

On Thursday December 4th we had an open conference call to share programs approaches related to rewards and recognition of volunteers Minutes here.

In October we talked about Master Gardener Volunteer reference checking so I can work to establish some guidelines based on what people are already having success with. Notes from that call are at this site.

I aim to schedule conference call monthly on subject matters most pressing to your needs. Go to this survey to share your preference on when we should schedule these calls. It is nearly impossible to find a time all are available so likely I’ll rotate around the best times.

A specific date for our January call has not yet been set but the topic will be

Volunteers leading public workshops: how you make it happen with success

Our interested group is growing but you can still get in before we schedule our first time to conference call (likely January).

If you might be interested email lori (bushway@cornell.edu) and here a bit more about the certification…

Certified in Volunteer Administration (CVA) is the only international professional certification in the field of volunteer resources management. Originally developed by the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) several decades ago, the program is now sponsored by the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA). The CVA credential reflects mastery of the knowledge required of practitioners in this field as measured through an exam and peer assessment process. Full details at this website: http://www.cvacert.org

You can still get in on this…call Lori ASAP

Facilitating Meetings and Building Teams Training

Friday December 12th from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This is a must attend training especially for your staff in Community Horticulture and Plant or Environmental Science 4-H Youth Development.

This training will help you plan and conduct meetings so you build effective teams to maximize your county programs impact.

This training is at the DEC Stony Kill Farm facility just south of Poughkeepsie so county associations in the Hudson Valley, Capital District and Long Island are especially encouraged to attend but it is open to CCE staff from across the state.

Participants will walk away with new strategies to immediately apply in our extension work.

Education and fun all rolled up in one!

Got volunteers? Got a educational program for youth or adults?

Here’s a jeopardy game from Texas Extension related to insects that could be used to assess knowledge.

Go to this site advanced to slide two and just click on any number.  Save this pdf and you can use without internet.

The Entomology Game

Also remember that our colleague Anna from Westchester CCE also share with us the Botany jeopardy game.

here it is again:

The Botany Game

This publications is from University of MN Extension.

It looks to be a nice complement to our Cornell Guide to Growing Fruit at Home which has the basics but not as much details on diseases and pests as this guide for home growers.

Cornell Guide to Growing Fruit at Home (CCE web publication)

Integrated Pest Management for Home Apple Growers (MN extension web publication)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is pleased to announce a new call for proposals (CFP) for Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities, a national program whose primary goal is to implement healthy eating and active living policy- and environmental-change initiatives that can support healthier communities for children and families across the United States. The program places special emphasis on reaching children at highest risk for obesity on the basis of race/ethnicity, income and/or geographic location.

Under this CFP, RWJF will award approximately 60 grants to community partnerships across the United States, each of which will receive up to $360,000 total over four years. All grantees must secure a cash and/or in-kind match equal to at least 50 percent of the RWJF award over the entire grant period.

Partnerships from all states are encouraged to apply. The Foundation will, however, give special consideration to proposals from 15 states where rates of childhood obesity are particularly high: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Approximately half of the grants under this CFP will be awarded to communities within these states.

The deadline for brief proposals is February 3, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. All proposals must be submitted electronically through the RWJF Grantmaking Online system.

Go to www.healthykidshealthycommunities.org to download a copy of the CFP, review frequently asked questions (FAQs), register for an applicant conference call, and access the RWJF Grantmaking Online system.

Thank you for your interest in this important initiative to improve the health of our nation’s children.

*                       *                       *                       *                       *                       *                       *

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The national program office is housed at Active Living By Design, which is part of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Active Living By Design creates community-led change by working with local and national partners to build a culture of active living and healthy eating. Established in 2001 as a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Active Living By Design now serves funders and community partnerships across the nation.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. Helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need—the Foundation expects to make a difference in our lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.

Gardening  projects especially community-based or food gardening may be good candidates for funding.

Established with the goal of creating a positive, long-lasting impact on the communities BJ’s serves, the mission of BJ’s Charitable Foundation is to enhance and enrich community programs that primarily benefit children and families. BJ’s Charitable Foundation funds projects in communities where there is a BJ’s Club, for store locations see http://www.bjs.com/locations/

The majority of BJs Charitable Foundation is focused on organizations that:

• Promote the safety, security and well-being of children and families
• Support education and health programs
• Provide community service opportunities
• Aid in hunger and disaster relief

For more information see http://www.bjs.com/about/community/charity.shtml

If the weekend paper insert Parade magazine says something is a national trend isn’t that mainsteam and so?

Did you see the article?  Note what is in paragraph 4 (quoted below)?

What America Really Eats