UC Blog
Local food blazing a trail on Napa County map
Responding to Napa County's higher-than-average interest in healthy foods, sustainable principles and wellness lifestyle, the board of supervisors last year created a Local Food Advisory Council. Now the council is looking for citizen input to pursue new initiatives, according to a blog on the Napa County Register website.
Monica Cooper, director of the Napa County University of California Cooperative Extension, is an ex-officio member of the council. Cooper is the county’s viticulture farm advisor and a big champion of expanding local food production, according to a previous article in the newspaper.
“It’s important to have more crop diversity,” Cooper was quoted in the story, and she sees that in small plots, not wide swaths of the county.
Napa's Local Food Advisory Council has identified three priority areas and is seeking volunteers to serve on subcommittees for:
- Education and Outreach: Help design communications networks to encourage public involvement and information sharing, such as advocacy programs, printed materials, events, website, social media, etc.
- Local Food Production and Distribution: Help develop mutually beneficial food supply systems linking local farmers to community kitchens, markets and residents;
- Food Policy: Help influence and communicate county rules, regulations and fees for growing, selling and/or donating food products by both home and commercial producers.
Napa's soil, climate, natural resources and culture position the community to make a positive impact promoting locally grown food and healthful consumption.
Imperial resident wins gold for third time at State 4-H Field Day competition
A click of a mouse, a love for fishing and a fearlessness in public speaking helped Imperial resident Steve Johnson II add more gold pins to his crowded 4-H hat at the State 4-H Field Day at the University of California Davis.
Out of the 700 to 800 participants present at the Memorial Day weekend event, Johnson competed against about 60 of California’s top public speakers utilizing his PowerPoint presentation on fishing in the intermediate audio-visual category.
This marks his third year of winning a gold medal in a state competition where the 4-H students are only allowed to compete in one presentation or judging event per year, said local Star Route 4-H Club community leader Mary Ann Smith.
“The PowerPoint one is the easiest to travel with but the hardest to do,” Smith said.
“Audio-visual is basically a production. You can’t have any other props, no pointers, no anything,” she said. “If you click through it … should stand alone.”
Steve said even though he qualified for state in his first regional competition he didn’t go to the state competition that year “because I didn’t know what it was” four years ago.
Since then the 12-year-old has taken home gold in an illustrated presentation on rocketry and an illustrated presentation on fishing in the previous two state competitions.
“So far that makes me feel really good,” he said. “I just feel accomplished as a public speaker. Now I know what I’m doing.”
“It was really, really competitive,” his father, Steve Johnson I, said.
“There were a lot of kids with a lot of presentations and at this level he had to really come through and shine, and he did,” Johnson said.
“I think I’ve achieved quite a lot for being only 12 years old,” Steve said.
And he plans to go back to state next year, his last in the intermediate category.
“I’m starting to think again about what I’m going to do next year,” he said.
“Hopefully I do make it again,” Steve said.
Staff Writer Roman Flores can be reached at 760-337-3439 or rflores@ivpressonline.com
Mary Harmon retires as Imperial County 4-H adviser leaving behind a legacy
Through the countless volunteer leaders and few county advisers in the last three decades, perhaps no one embodies the 4-H program in Imperial County like Mary Harmon.
“This county program is awesome and a lot of it has to do with her,” Carla Paradise, president of the local 4-H Leaders Council, said.
Harmon retired as the Imperial County University of California Cooperative Extension 4-H adviser June 29 after 16 years in that position on two separate occasions (1978-1990, 2007-2011). Yet Harmon has been involved in 4-H throughout most of her life.
“I was a 3-year-old tag-along with my older brothers and sisters,” Harmon, a longtime Brawley resident, said. “When I was old enough to join 4-H I had a fun career myself.”
After attaining the rank of 4-H All Star in her high school years, Harmon continued volunteering with 4-H until graduating from university and working as a 4-H intern at the University of California Cooperative Extension office in San Diego County.
When the position for 4-H adviser opened in Imperial County in 1978 she applied, was hired and held that position until 1990, according to a press release.
“The 4-H adviser was someone I had worked with and he knew that this was something that I could do,” Harmon said. “I’ve been really lucky in a sense since I’ve always had people say, ‘Well I know you can do this so why don’t you apply?’”
In the position as county adviser, Harmon found that “working with adults in leadership development was where I could do the most good,” effectively training adults to become volunteer leaders who then lead their respective 4-H communities/children.
“I really strongly believe that adults have the responsibility to give back to their community and they can do it through 4-H and heading (its various) programs,” Harmon said. “It does get you excited,” she said. “It’s been a great job. It’s been more a way of life for me.”
Other 4-H leaders have always taken notice.
“She’s been a mentor to a lot of people,” Carol George, local 4-H livestock coordinator said. “She’s had a real knack for motivating kids.”
“When we go to the fair or events she knows every single child by name,” Paradise said.
“Even when she took her leave to raise her kids she was still involved as an active 4-H volunteer leader,” George said. “I think 4-H to her is not a job, it’s a family.”
“She was always like our second mom,” 4-H Leaders Council Vice President Sherry Robertson said.
But Harmon can’t leave 4-H behind as she plans to volunteer in leadership development during her retirement.
“(4-H) really is part of how I define myself. It’s been a great job,” Harmon said.
Staff Writer Roman Flores can be reached at 760-337-3439 or rflores@ivpressonline.com
Newspapers cover retiring advisors
The Imperial Valley Press ran a feature on 4-H advisor Mary Harmon, who retired after 16 years in that position on two separate occasions (1978-1990, 2007-2011). Harmon has been involved in 4-H throughout her life as a participant, advisor and volunteer.
Setting a melancholy tone for the Hollister Freelance article, Breen noted that long-time UCCE advisors are retiring around California, where the number of county-based advisors has dropped from 400 in the 1980s to about 180 today.
Wednesday was the last day for 12 UC Cooperative Extension 4-H, farm, and nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisors. Some advisors will be replaced. In April, Dan Dooley, vice president of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, announced that five academic positions were approved for recruitment. The positions are:
- Delta crops resource management advisor - San Joaquin, Sacramento, Solano, Yolo and Contra Costa counties
- Livestock, range and natural resources advisor - Kern, Tulare and Kings counties
- 4-H youth development advisor – Central Sierra Multi-county Partnership - El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties
- Urban integrated pest management advisor - Bay Area - Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties
- Youth, families and communities advisor - Humboldt, Del Norte, Lake and Mendocino counties
“I really strongly believe that adults have the responsibility to give back to their community and they can do it through 4-H and heading (its various) programs,” Harmon was quoted.
The Hollister Freelance article said Coates was the expert farmers from around the Central Coast would call with questions about the walnut husk fly or black line disease in walnuts. His research has ranged from methods to reduce the amount of pesticides to ways to control pests that can devastate crops.
Coates, like many of his retired UCCE advisor colleagues, won't turn his back on his life's work during retirement. He plans to update a publication on home fruit gardening in San Benito County, write a report on the county's climate and continue three major research projects – spotted wing drosophila, walnut husk fly and blackline-resistant walnut varieties.
“I would like to continue to develop new research and assist local growers as my time allows," Coates said.
Harmon also won't leave 4-H behind. She plans to volunteer in leadership development during her retirement.
“(4-H) really is part of how I define myself. It’s been a great job,” Harmon was quoted.
Garden writer streams advice on toxic plants
In a 1,500-word stream of consciousness, Bakersfield Magazine gardening writer Lynn Pitts warned her readers about the dangers of certain "toxic plants."
Sprinkled among personal experiences, trivia and witticisms, Pitts presented the 10 most common toxic plants found in local gardens: Oleander, tomatoes, potatoes, rhubarb, delphinium, boxwood, pyracantha, fig, foxglove and castor bean.
Among her words of wisdom:
- Oleander cuttings shouldn't be disposed of in green waste cans.
- Almost everything on tomato and potato plants are poisonous, expect the tomato and potato.
- Rhubarb leaves are toxic.
- The leaves and sap of fig trees cause dermatitis.
- Foxglove is the source of the heart medicine digitalis.
- Nefarious people have concocted the poison “ricin” from castor bean.
UC Cooperative Extension enters the story in a tangent close to the end, when Pitts writes about a time a wind storm left she and a neighbor flush with fresh olives. Pitts says she called the local University of California Cooperative Extension office for information on home olive curing.
"It wasn’t difficult, but time consuming; changing the brine constantly, rinsing, re-brining over and over. After the last brining, we packed them with fresh herbs and olive oil into sterilized glass canning jars," Pitts wrote. "We thought we’d have plenty of jars to give away as gifts, but, honestly, we ate most of them ourselves!"
Garden writer steers readers to UCCE for olive curing advice.