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It’s that time again. Everyone at Franklin County Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is preparing for August 3rd and the official start of 168th annual Franklin County Fair. Extension staff, 4-H youth, and committed volunteers are working diligently toward making every fair-goer’s visit to the 4-H youth building and the livestock barns meaningful, educational, and wholly enjoyable.
Yes. The fair is great shows, carnival rides, and food. And there will be a midway full of rides, games and attractions, and a wide variety of commercial exhibits and concessions. But the Franklin County Fair is about much more than carnival rides, music, fried dough, French fries, and trying to win brightly colored stuffed animals. » Continue Reading.
You know it’s hot outside when you stop by a friend’s home on the 4th of July, he’s got a growler of Township 7 Raspberry Haze ale and a half-gallon of Stewart’s butter pecan ice-cream on the kitchen counter, and he’s making himself a craft-beer float. “Try one!” he said. Let’s just say it’s an acquired taste.
I don’t actually remember the first time I saw single-serving bottles of water for sale. But I do remember thinking that it was crazy! Who would pay for water?
Farmers’ markets have existed as a part of American society, business, and trade since 1634, when the first farmers’ market in the new world opened for business in Boston, Massachusetts. And throughout much of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, outdoor market places were vital centers of commerce in both American cities and rural communities.
They hang around on finely spun strands of silky string; blue-black caterpillars parachuting ever-so-slowly to earth, landing in yards, crawling around on decks and porches; even finding their way into homes. Over the past few weeks, several people have asked me about them. Some have been coping with large numbers of them. And one person asked if they were the same worms that make their webs in apple trees.
If you’re like me, you enjoy the beauty of colorful flowers and love eating fresh fruits and vegetables. You recognize that many of the medicines and supplements we use come from plants. And you realize that the astounding diversity of ornamental, food, and medicinal plants that we grow or forage would not exist, if not for the interdependent synergy (referred to in biology as ‘mutualism’) that exists between flowering plants and their pollinators (bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies). 
It’s spring. Days are getting longer. The weather’s getting warmer. The sun is sitting higher in the sky. And, as I write this, the persistent snow in my yard is finally giving way to bare ground.
As farmers across the state get ready for the 2018 growing season, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is preparing to oversee a second year of industrial hemp field trials across New York State.
How do you know when spring has begun? Is it the flow of maple sap? The first crocuses coming up through the snow? Ice out on local lakes? The arrival of the first red-winged blackbirds? The clamor of peepers? Apple trees and/or lilacs blooming?
As I write this at my home, there’s snow on the ground. But spring is almost here. In fact, as I opened the door to leave my house this morning, I was greeted by a sure sign of spring; the patently pungent smell of skunk! And I couldn’t help but wonder if the little stinker, indeed, missed or misted its adversary.
Northern New Yorkers are definitely not strangers to cold winter weather. But most of us would rather have not had to deal with the brutally relentless cold that gripped much of the nation during December and January.
Valentine’s Day. The day when, more than at any other time of the year, people declare feelings of romantic interest, love, and adoration for one another. This is most-often done with a card. Approximately 150 million Valentine’s Day cards will be exchanged in the US, this year; 2.6 billion worldwide (according to the Greeting Card Association).
In this age of global markets and marketing, more often than not, the food we eat is grown on large industrial farms; then shipped across the country, or from central or South America, or overseas, to huge distribution centers, where it’s sorted, packaged, processed, and then trucked to chain supermarkets, convenient stores, and fast food outlets.
I’ve been asked on four different occasions, recently, how tick populations will be impacted by the December/January below-zero cold. Some of those asking had heard reports, apparently claiming that tick populations would be decimated, if not eradicated, by the prolonged period of extremely cold weather.
There’s an old Irish toast: ‘To long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer and another one!’ I can think of no better way to bring in the New Year than raising a glass of frothy-delicious craft beer from a homebrewer friend or relative, or small, independent craft brewery.
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