Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

Have you received any questions related to grapes and dogs? This might help you answer those…

Apparently some dogs are sensitive to eating grapes (about 15 g per kg of dog can be toxic). The mechanism is unknown, but the toxicity has been documented for seeded, unseeded, wine pressings, and raisins. Heavy metals and pesticides have been ruled out. This paper provides some more details.

The Department of Natural Resources has 19 people engaged in Extension programming with the explicit mission to apply science-based knowledge to solve societal problems and it is largely accomplished through direct collaborations and interactions between faculty, staff, and diverse stakeholder groups. Here’s their newsletter to give you a quick overview of what our DNR-CCE group is doing.

Heads-Up! What’s Up and Coming from the Department of Natural Resources Extension Team (pdf)

What do you think of this would it be valuable to receive a similar newsletter from the Department of Horticulture extension folks? What might you like to find in one from the Department of Horticulture?

This summer Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County began its Turf Love Program, a county-wide program designed to get participating homeowners to protect water quality by learning and using lawn care IPM principles. The program consists of: * Lawn Site assessment by Master Gardeners

(click here for site assessment survey and here for lawn survey questionnaire)

* Soil nutrient analysis

* Turf Love Journal - a homeowner diary

* Best Management Plan

* Kick-off Saturday Workshop for participants

* Mid-summer contact by Master Gardeners

* Super Turf Saturday workshop at end of September .

They hope to expand the program next year to other counties.

If you are interested in being part of the expansion let us know.

For more information, contact:

Dianne K. Olsen

Environmental Horticulture and Natural Resource Educator

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County
1 Geneva Rd., Brewster, NY 10509
845-278-6738

Here’s the “save the date!” flier for an informative one-day event devoted to early childhood and the garden. This will be a Cornell and SUNY Cobleskill partnership, which I’m particularly excited about! Please forward, and/or print and share with potential participants. Stay tuned!

Marcia Eames-Sheavly, Senior Extension Associate
Cornell Garden-Based Learning Program
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl

Flier (word doc)

New on-line and hard copy Publication from the Department of Horticulture:

High Tunnel Raspberries and Blackberries
Northeast growers can capture more of the lucrative local market for fresh berries by growing brambles (raspberries and blackberries) in high tunnels, according to researchers at Cornell and Pennsylvania State Universities.

These relatively low-cost, usually unheated, plastic-covered hoop houses can help growers fill late-spring and late-fall gaps in the market. Instead of mid-June, high-tunnel berries can be harvested in May. The field-grown season for brambles usually ends in early October. But growers using high tunnels continue to harvest berries through November.

Other benefits of high tunnels include:

• Floricane-fruiting raspberries and blackberries can over winter in climates where they would otherwise be killed by cold temperatures.
• Primocane-fruiting blackberries ripen where the growing season is otherwise too short.
• Berry yields from tunnels can be two to three times greater than field-grown, and the berries can be significantly larger.
• Tunnel-grown berries also have longer shelf-life with reduced pesticide inputs.

The publication, High Tunnel Raspberries and Blackberries, is available online at http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/berry.html or to order hard copies contact Max Welcome of the Horticulture Department at mw45@cornell.edu

Let the schools that you work with or want to work with know ….

New York Ag in the Classroom will be offering the Kids Growing Food and Bluebird Project grants once again this year.

These grants provide funding for student-based experiential learning that directly promotes agricultural literacy and awareness. They also enable teachers to teach math and science concepts that meet the NYS Learning Standards in a real world setting. Both grant applications are due by November 6, 2007. Your school is eligible to receive a grant in either category but only one time. .

The grant applications can be found at the following web address:

www.nyaged.org.

Please feel free to contact Vincent Lalli with any questions you may have about this program.

Vincent Lalli
Agriculture Literacy Specialist
New York Agriculture In The Classroom
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607 255 9253 w
607 255 7905 fax
val2@cornell.edu

Looking for a reason to partner with your CCE nutrition folks on a garden-based food or activity project? How about $10,000? General Mills Foundation will award 50 grants of $10,000 for community-based projects promoting Healthy Kids.

General Mills Foundation Invites Applications for Healthy Kids Grant Program

Deadline: January 15, 2008

The General Mills Foundation http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/commitment/foundation.aspx ,
in partnership with the American Dietetic Association Foundation http://www.adaf.org/ and the President’s Council onPhysical Fitness http://www.fitness.gov/, is accepting applications for the Champions for Healthy Kids grant program.

This national program will award fifty grants of $10,000 each to community-based groups across the United States that develop creative ways to help youth adopt a balanced diet and physically active lifestyle.

Applicant organizations must be nonprofit or not-for-profit organizations and have 501(c)(3) or 509(a) status. Local organizations that work with youth are encouraged to apply because their programs are more likely to be sustainable. These may include park districts, health departments, government agencies, Native American tribes, municipal organizations, churches, schools, YMCAs, Boys & Girls clubs, and so on.

The target audience must be youth between the ages of two and eighteen. A registered dietitian or dietetic technician must either be directly involved or serve as an advisor to the program, and the proposal must have at least one nutrition objective and one physical activity objective.

Visit the general mills Web site for complete program information and application procedures.

RFP Link: http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10009349/generalmills

Registration and agenda Please register by Thursday October 18th.

More details on topics.

October 23 & 24, 2007 (Tuesday 11 a.m. to Wednesday 1 p.m.)

Lawn care for community horticulture educators, featuring Cornell’s turf grass experts.
CCE educators report that up to 50% of all home care inquires their county offices receive are about lawn care; for many counties that’s more than 800 lawn related questions per year. This in-service provides an opportunity for educators to hear first hand form the Cornell turf experts how to best address homeowner questions with the latest research findings. Participants will then be able to practice applying that knowledge in hands on activities guided by experienced practitioners. Participants will also be eligible to receive funds to organize regional lawn care trainings for other educators and Master Gardener Volunteers in spring 2008.

The results of a study conducted by Cornell Waste Management Institute and the Department of Horticulture are available at: http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/composttv.htm.

The site provides links to a fact sheet, two articles in BioCycle, and a final report.

This Food Citizen column

first published Sunday, October 7, 2007 is written for the Albany Times Union by Jennifer Wilkins a Food and Society Policy Fellow at Cornell University.

Read the full article here

For locavores, this a great time of year. The seasons seem to be colliding, to spectacular cornucopian effect for those who eat local foods.

Fresh tender greens, reminiscent of spring, brush up next to hardier kale, chard and collards. Baby patty pan, yellow squash and zucchini say hello to larder-worthy acorn, butternut, and spaghetti squashes promising health, satiety and pleasure through the coming winter.