- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners played a key role in establishing a vibrant garden behind a church in Livermore that has produced 8,000 pounds of vegetables for the church's food kitchen, reported two MGs in a column published in the San Jose Mercury News.
What was unused vacant land only three years ago has spurred the creation of an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called Fertile GroundWorks. Fertile GroundWorks has pilot projects under way to help organizations establish and operate new community gardens. The Alameda County Master Gardeners are playing an expanded educational role, the article said.
- Author: Brenda Dawson
Trevor Suslow, UC Cooperative Extension food safety specialist at Davis, was told by the farm owner that they believed the postharvest system used in conjunction with the outbreak was an improvement over their previous methods — though Suslow disagrees. He acknowledges, however, that the FDA does not make a definitive statement in its growing guidelines on the safest method of cleaning, cooling or packing cantaloupe.
Agricultural program helps keep youth out of gangs
An Associated Press article by Gosia Wozniacka profiles volunteer work by Manuel Jimenez, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Tulare County. The article was published by news outlets such as the Fresno Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, ABC News, Fox News, CBS News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and others.
He and wife Olga teach life skills and farming techniques to youth on a 14-acre garden in Woodlake, Calif.
"We want to grow kids in our gardens, because we've seen what violence, drugs and alcohol can do," Jimenez told the reporter.
The article also includes comments from youth volunteers in the program, past and present.
"Everything Manuel did was interesting to me," said Walter Martinez, who is now a UC Cooperative Extension field assistant and also served as a volunteer at the garden through middle and high school.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Called "The Growing Experience," the garden supports a Community Supported Agriculture program, which supplies weekly boxes of fresh produce to families who pay a subscription fee.
“The box of food contains seasonal produce,” said garden coordinator Jimmy Ng. “Right now, we have a lot of collard greens, summer and winter squash, apples, herbs, basil, beets, turnips and we also have eggs.”
The Growing Experience also sells food to gourmet restaurants.
Deadly oak scourge threatens Burlingame Hills trees
Michele Ellson, San Francisco Examiner
Burlingame Hills homeowner Steve Epstein is on a quest to eradicate the Sudden Oak Death in this densely forested canyon enclave of 426 homes west of Hillsborough.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Writer Eve Kelley of the San Diego Reader contacted UC Cooperative Extension horticulture advisor Vincent Lazaneo when she was bent on a conducting a soil text to diagnose her garden failure. “When someone tells me they want to have their soil tested, I first ask, ‘Why?’” Lazaneo said. The UC advisor suggested some alternate approaches for getting a garden to grow, gave reasons gardeners would resort to a soil test and explained how to collect samples.
If you decide to submit your sample to a lab, Lazaneo told the reporter, “Make sure they will provide an interpretation of the results. A number, just by itself, doesn’t really tell you anything. It can vary, depending on what substance the lab used to extract the various nutrients from the soil.”
