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
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
Just yesterday I
visited the
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
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
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
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
108 Agriculture Hall
517-355-2308 (voice)
517-355-6473 (fax)
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