6.17.19 I plan on working Saturday, so I took a half day today. Used the morning to finish planning the dates and venues for my educational programs the rest of my 10 weeks here. After that I visited the home and garden of a Grow Wise participant to prepare for todays Grow Wise meeting.
Week 2 6.10.2019 Most of the morning was spent inside the office. I contacted a few people for some home garden visits for the afternoon. Went to two homes, the first garden was immaculate! The gardeners around this area really know what they are doing. She did however have trouble growing melons and wants to
Hello Everyone! My name is Joslyn and this was my first week as the summer intern at the Wise County Extension office. I moved to Virginia in January 2019 after graduating from Michigan Technological University where I studied ecology and environmental sciences. I grew up in Manistee Michigan, with Lake Michigan never more than 10
In April, we were able to take a group of our Market Growers to the Organic Crops Field Day at the East Tennessee Agricultural Research & Education Center in Knoxville. To see organic production on that scale was impressive, and we learned that a substantial percentage of what's grown on the site is marketed via
Once upon a time, Wise County was the third largest apple producer in Virginia. Today, we're down to one commercial orchard (or two if you count the 14 acres managed by the prison for their own use). Even though we no longer have this industry, home orchards can thrive, and our annual apple grafting workshops
Three of our Wise County Grow Appalachia families who are interested in commercial production were able to join us for a misty, end-of-the-season tour of a pumpkin farm in a neighboring county last week. We toured the farm of Amy Fannon, Extension Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources in Lee County, Virginia. A few of
Two of our Grow Appalachia family were in the office this morning to pick up fall cover crop seeds, and both made comments along the lines of "I was going to pull up my bean vines for the year, but they won't stop producing!" It's been a good bean year here in Wise County. Here
Here are a few scenes from our July Grow Appalachia activities and growers in Wise County, VA: Sue, a second-year participant and her tomatoes. We made the tomato cages last year from concrete reinforcement wire. One grower made good use of a small unplanted area in her garden with an impressive bed of borage. It's
I journeyed to Bledsoe, Kentucky this week to pick up some trapezoid hoes from blacksmith J.D. Napier. I gave our new participants the choice of a scuffle hoe or a trapezoid hoe and ended up requesting eight from Mr. Napier. While I was there, I was able to snap his picture with the 6500 anvil
At this point, our Grow Appalachia families in Wise County, Virginia have completed three of their mandatory classes, and they're planting away. There have been some challenges so far in the growing season, as I'm sure other sites have experienced as well. The weather has been a big one. One of our most involved families