Greetings Michigan
farmers and friends,
I would like to share
this with you if you have not seen it already. This month’s MSU Extension
newsletter features several farmers including an new farmer in the UP selling greens
from his new hoop house.
Read on and enjoy
Vicki
From: MSUE ALL
EMPLOYEES [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Coon, Thomas
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 1:34
PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: MSUE Spotlight - June 7,
2007
June 7, 2007
MSU Extension Spotlight
Let’s
garden!
It’s hard to go
anywhere or talk to anyone this time of year without gardens creeping into the
conversation. Drive down any road and you’ll likely see flowers blooming,
people hoeing and some leafy greens starting to pop out of the soil.
These images always remind me of the many hours I spent with my father in our
family garden, working from the time he got home from his job until
bedtime. It’s a wholesome experience—preparing the soil,
planting the seeds, nurturing with watering, going on bug patrol and weeding
until the crop was ready to harvest. And then—the best
part—enjoying the fruits of your labor in a salad during dinner or making
a BLT for lunch with a REAL tomato that soaks the toast with juice.
In the past few weeks,
I’ve had several opportunities to learn about others’ gardening
experiences. And, of course, all of them have an Extension connection.
The first was a visit
to Senator Irma Clark-Coleman, who lives in an historic district in Detroit. In the
process of establishing the historic registration, she and her neighbors
converted an old alley behind her house and two adjacent lots into a long,
narrow green space. After we discussed important policy matters, I
mentioned something about gardens and our conversation quickly turned to the
unique garden she put in along that green space. She describes it as being
“two feet wide and three lots long” on a raised bed that took
“ten truckloads” of soil to fill. She spoke of the pleasure
she takes in spending every free moment in her garden, clearly serving as nourishment
for the soul as well as for the body. She also spoke of her appreciation
for the work MSUE staff members are doing to help youth in Detroit learn the pleasures of gardening (see
pages 6-7 of our latest MSUE Report to Our
Partners).
More recently, I
visited Mike Mulders, whose family farms 480 acres near Essexville, and
produces a variety of vegetables for fresh markets. It was fascinating to learn
how their business has grown and expanded as they have found ways to market not
only through their own family farm market, but also through a number of
groceries across central Michigan.
Mr. Mulders is clearly an entrepreneur—a risk-taker, a deal-maker and a
very market savvy producer. I often speak about how sophisticated farmers
are today—many of whom have advanced degrees and tap deeply into
information technology. Mr. Mulders is a great example. It’s clear that
MSUE has some great opportunities and challenges in working with growers like
the Mulders as we seek to make our educational programming as current, relevant
and accessible as possible. One issue that intrigued me was the challenge
of how MSUE can work with Michigan Department of Agriculture and Michigan’s vegetable growers to access markets
beyond Michigan
and beyond the north central region. Southern state markets often lose
access to fresh produce in August and September, just when Michigan fields are most bountiful.
There may some great opportunities for us in these fields.
Just yesterday I
visited the Moore
family. They grow salad greens YEAR-ROUND just outside Engadine, a small town
just off Route 2 in the UP’s Mackinac County. The Moores partnered with the C.S. Mott
Sustainable Agriculture Group to assess the feasibility of growing fresh
produce all year using hoop houses—those clear plastic-shrouded greenhouses
that we see popping up across the state. Walking through their hoop house was
the ultimate memory jog for me. They have row after row of fresh
greens—spinach, black-seed lettuce, romaine lettuce and this beautiful
mix of red, yellow, rust and green leaf lettuces that reminds me of the first
crop my father harvests from his garden each year. The simple technology of the
hoop house allows them to have fresh lettuce to harvest through the coldest
winter months. They just finished their first growing season in the new
hoop. It started last October and ended in March. It’s probably too early
to measure the feasibility of the operation, but when I see the plants they
have grown and hear that the produce manager at the grocery in Newberry tells
them, “I’ll take as much as you can bring me,” I can’t
help but think that this is definitely going to be feasible. David Conner
and others with the C.S. Mott Group, along with Chippewa County CED Jim Lucas
have helped with funding for this feasibility study and with information to
help develop the production system.
From all three of
these encounters, what lingers strongest in my memory is the passion that each
person had for their “gardening” ventures—whether it was the
Senator and her pleasure in losing herself in her garden, Mr. Mulders’
drive to find and open new markets for his high quality produce, or the Moore
family’s immersion in the business of building raised beds and
trouble-shooting those funny-looking louvers on the end of the hoop house.
There’s something special, wholesome and familial about working with the
soil that connects us all. And it’s a delight for MSUE to be a part of
it.
Kids,
cameras and history – what a great combination!
It’s always nice
to take a gander at something guaranteed to make you smile. Recently, 4-H
teamed up with the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries (HAL), Michigan History for Kids magazine and the
Michigan Barn Preservation Network for the 2007 Michigan Week Youth Photo
Contest.
This event is sponsored by the Michigan 4-H Global, Cultural & Arts Education
Program with more than a helping hand from five 4-H staff coordinators
including Sheryl Schrot (Menominee) Barb Duvall (Leelanau), Dave Thomas (Midland), Connie Lange (Branch) and Judy See (Monroe County).
Here are the results.
Enjoy!
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17447_18630_23112-168865--,00.html
New site helps
manage wildlife damage
Some of you may
remember Dr. Glenn Dudderar, who was MSU’s extension wildlife specialist
for many years and a good friend and colleague for me. Glenn defied the
term “specialist” in that he was expert in many different facets of
wildlife management. By far, his most common calls were for expertise on
wildlife damage to crops, landscaping, house siding, electrical wiring and many
other human artifacts. With Glenn’s retirement nearly 10 years ago,
we’ve not had that kind of expertise available in MSUE on managing
wildlife damage.
We now have two
alternatives for seeking assistance on wildlife damage management. One is
the Michigan office of the USDA Wildlife
Services, located at 2803 Jolly Road in East
Lansing, and available at 517-336-1928. They are
very helpful and customer-friendly.
The other alternative
is a new Community of Practice (CoP) site at eXtension.org. You may
recall from an earlier Spotlight that eXtension is the national web portal that
is under development for use by individuals seeking Extension information on
the internet. The University
of Nebraska Cooperative Extension
serves as the host for the Wildlife Damage Management CoP, but it includes
resources from Extension programs across the nation. It gives consumers
instant access to research-based solutions for helping humans and wildlife
coexist. It includes a series of illustrated pages featuring 65 wildlife
species that are a nuisance or cause damage in North
America. The interactive site allows you to navigate through life
histories, behavior, damage identification, economics and legal issues, and
offers a complete list of methods for managing wildlife damage.
It’s an
excellent resource to pass on to clients. To take full advantage of the site,
register at www.extension.org and
choose Wildlife Damage Management.
Thomas G. Coon, Director
Michigan State University
Extension
108 Agriculture Hall
East
Lansing, MI 48824
517-355-2308 (voice)
517-355-6473 (fax)
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