Watch our monthly Growing Chatham!
We are so excited to announce that our popular Chatham County Spring Ag Fest is back!
Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 25, 2023, for this event celebrating Chatham County agriculture, forestry, and natural resources.
Visit Cooperative Extension's website for more information about the 2023 Spring Ag Fest. Full details will be released early in 2023. We hope to see you there!
Exhibitors and Vendors Apply today for Spring Ag Fest 2023
Chatham County will be holding our third annual Spring Ag Fest at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center (CCACC) on Saturday, March 25th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The 2023 Spring Ag Fest is a celebration of Chatham County’s agriculture, forestry, and natural resources. The event will offer something for everyone: livestock, exhibits, demonstrations, food trucks, and more. Over 3,000 people attended the 2019 Spring Ag Fest.
There is no cost associated with being an exhibitor or vendor at this event. Please note, all exhibitors/vendors must be related to agriculture, forestry, and/or natural resources. A table and two chairs will be provided at each space. There will be three exhibit areas: inside (indoor exhibit hall), outside (outside area behind the building), and in the livestock arena. Please note, indoor spaces cannot be guaranteed due to space limitations. Outdoor exhibitors/vendors may want to bring a pop-up tent.
Live farm animals are allowed outside of the building. Vendors may sell their agricultural related items (some restrictions apply). Sampling of food or drink products is not allowed. Vendors selling pre- packaged food is permitted; packaging cannot be done onsite. Promotional items, decorations, signage, etc. are allowed so long as you stay within your booth space. Some vendors/exhibitors choose to do giveaways/raffles.
Applying does not guarantee a spot at Ag Fest. All vendor/exhibitor applications are subject to approval.
The deadline to apply is Monday, February 6th. This deadline will allow us time to advertise all exhibitors and vendors on our event page. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Brandy Oldham.
From Spring Ag Fest 2019
What is Ag Fest?
It's time for 4-H Open Enrollment!
Hands on Learning at Mosaic
The weather did not stop our Chatham County 4-H and its volunteers from participating in this year's Mosaic Festival. 4-H presented an opportunity for kids and their families to learn more about our organization and partake in one of 4-H's STEM based activities. Youth and their families participated in creating a bird seed roll. Youth were challenged to think outside of the box when asked to identify what happens to undigested seeds that birds eat. How do these undigested seeds affect our environment? Birds ingest the seed's pulp which will move through the birds’ digestive systems which will be passed out along with their droppings. The bird dropping gives seeds a small dose of fertilizer which will help them to germinate as they begin to grow. Learning By Doing! We are so happy that we can provide educational materials to our community. Thank you so much for your support!
Chatham County's Clover Creators attend Winterfest
Youth from Chatham County's Clover Creators attended this year's North Central District Winterfest, held at the Guilford County 4-H office, where they learned leadership skills and took part in public speaking exercises. Pictured above, left to right, are: Santos Vazquez Quiquivix, Kenia Uribe, Briseydi Nava Zarate, and Vladimir Vargas Zarate.
Matt Jones recently recognized
Matt Jones, Horticulture Extension Agent in the Chatham County Center, was recently recognized as a graduate of the inaugural Academy to Advance Leadership within Extension (AALE) Program at NC State University. Nineteen professionals graduated from this initial cohort in a ceremony held on-campus on Dec. 9th. This elite leadership program, which spanned the course of 15 months, aimed to strengthen and enhance leadership skill sets within program participants whose work further enhances and promotes the success of Extension and its endeavors. Congratulations, Matt!
Tree Identification in Winter
Extension Gardener Workshop
Join Matt Jones (Extension Horticulture Agent) and the Master Gardener℠ volunteers of Chatham County for a lecture and hands-on workshop on winter botany for landowners, landscapers, farmers, park managers, naturalists and anyone curious about trees. Participants will learn about the types of tree characters used for identification, as well as how to use free, online tools (such as dichotomous keys) from NC State University. Gain experience through both guided and individual practice identifying provided native tree samples.
Two identical sessions of this workshop are available to accommodate your schedule:
- Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, 9:30 a.m.– 12:00 p.m.
- Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, 5:30 p.m.– 8:00 p.m.
The workshop costs $15 per person, which includes a 10x hand lens and light refreshments for all participants. Registration and fee payment is required by Jan.11th, 2023. Select a date and click on the REGISTER link. Additional classes may be offered if there is sufficient demand. If spaces are full, add your name to the waitlist on the registration page.
Vegetable Seed Starting
Growing your own vegetable transplants from seed can give you a head start on the growing season and access to varieties not commonly found as transplants at garden centers.
Join Matt Jones (Extension Horticulture Agent) for a hands-on workshop on planting and establishing vegetables from seed. Participants will learn about seed biology, vegetable variety selection, growing media, containers, growing conditions, and diagnosing common problems. Following the lecture, participants get to practice planting seeds and transplants to take home.
Two identical sessions of this workshop are available to accommodate your schedule:
- Tuesday, Feb. 14th, 2023, 9:30 a.m.– 12:00 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 15th, 2023, 5:30 p.m.– 8:00 p.m.
QUESTIONS? Contact Matt Jones at matt_jones@ncsu.edu
Extension Master Gardener Volunteers Go Back to School
All NC State Extension Master Gardener volunteers must take at least 10 continuing education hours annually to maintain their certification. The requirement helps ensure they are equipped with the best tools to fulfill the program’s objective of providing research-based information about gardening and environmental stewardship to individuals and communities across North Carolina.
Often, continuing education takes place at the county level. But this year some 130 volunteers from 24 counties fulfilled the requirements at a statewide conference. The Extension Master Gardener College took place Oct. 27-29 at the James B. Hunt Library on NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh.
“It’s rare that we get to meet as a statewide group,” said Matt Jones, Extension Agent for Agriculture and Commercial Ornamental and Consumer Horticulture in Chatham County. “Most volunteer programs are coordinated at the county level. This statewide conference allows us to get together and we can provide the volunteers with more intensive continuing education training.”
It also solidifies the relationship between the volunteers and the source of the Extension Master Gardener program.
“Since we held it on campus, it reinforces their connection to the university and the land grant mission,” Jones said. “The instructors are mostly Extension specialists and professors, Extension agents, and other Extension staff, and so they get this direct connection to university faculty.”
Fall Chores in the Pollinator Garden: Leave the Leaves and Save the Stems!
Lots of folks have been planting pollinator gardens to benefit bees and butterflies and other insects. Did you know that how you maintain your garden after planting has a big impact on the benefits it provides to wildlife?
January Chatham Conservation Partnership Webinar
The January Chatham Conservation Partnership (CCP) meeting will focus on Celebrating Milestones in Conservation: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going.
A few of our Chatham County conservation organizations are celebrating milestone anniversaries! Please join us on Thursday, January 19, 2023 from 9–11:30 a.m. for a virtual meeting where we will look back at at what these organizations have accomplished and what they plan to focus on in the future.
Calling All Farmers: 2022 Census of Agriculture
The Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Even small plots of land – whether rural or urban – growing fruit, vegetables or some food animals count if $1,000 or more of such products were raised and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year. The Census of Agriculture, taken only once every five years, looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income, and expenditures. For America’s farmers and ranchers, the Census of Agriculture is their voice, their future, and their opportunity.
The response deadline for the 2022 Census of Agriculture is February 6th, 2023.
2023 Black Perigord Truffle Field Day
This event will take place Friday, January 20th, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at NC State University’s research truffle orchard at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, NC.
Growers will learn about the history of NCSU’s research truffle orchard, truffle orchard planting and maintenance, and observe a truffle-hunting demo showcasing a trained Lagotto Romagnolo “truffle dog.”
Women in Ag Day: Register now! February 1st, 2023
Save the Date for the Piedmont Beef Tour & Piedmont Regional Sheep & Goat Conference
2023 NC Junior Hereford Association Judging Contest
The Chatham County Youth Livestock Team will be participating in the 2023 NC Junior Hereford Association Judging Contest on January 28th. Members will judge several classes of livestock including sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle and will have to present their reasoning behind their placings to a judge. Wish us luck!
Shop for Local Meat with MeateSuite
Shop for local meat on MeatSuite! Enter your zip code and find farms nearby with all kinds of locally grown meat for sale.
Erosion Control During Timber Harvests
Check out the following article from Richard Cristan (Auburn University, 2022) who discusses how nonpoint source pollution (NPSP) can be a concern on active and recently completed timber harvests. While erosion is the top NPSP pollutant associated with timber harvesting, the most critical areas to control erosion are forest roads, skid trails, stream crossings, and streamside management zones (SMZs), as these areas can have direct access for erosion to reach waterways.
Can Prescribed Fires Assist with Ecosystem Restoration and Tick Management?
A recent paper in Ecological Applications asks, "Can restoration of fire-dependent ecosystems reduce ticks and tick-borne disease prevalence in the eastern United States?" (Gallagher et al., 2022). The authors describe how fire affects tick populations and how prescribed fire may be used to manage the prevalence of ticks in an area.
PBS NC Highlights the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker and Its Dependence on Longleaf Pine
Many folks are aware that the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) is truly a conservation success story here in the Southeast, but many don't realize that the RCW still needs our help to continue gaining ground in this variable ecosystem. In this video produced by PBS NC, research being done in the Sandhills Game Lands is highlighting the interdependent relationship of the RCW, Longleaf Pine, and prescribed fire in an effort to help sustain conservation efforts for many years to come.
Happenings at Chatham County Parks and Recs
The FCC Wants to hear from you
Join the Chatham Internet Discussion
Mobile nursing clinics serve N.C. communities
In counties near UNC-Chapel Hill, students learn public health nursing and help people move toward health equity.
Written by Scott Jared, The Well
It’s 9:33 a.m. on a chilly October Monday, and a line of vehicles snakes through a parking lot, waiting for Pittsboro’s CORA Food Pantry to open at 10 a.m.
Nearby, four UNC School of Nursing students and Associate Professor Jean Davison are putting up a tent and unpacking supplies for a mobile health clinic. The parking lot is one of the school’s three mobile clinic sites at which students ask people if they will complete an anonymous health assessment form that might indicate a health problem such depression or diabetes.
The other clinics are held at the UNC Farm at Penny Lane in Chatham County and in Wake County at Dorcas Ministries. Fourteen undergraduate students rotate through the Chatham County clinics. Sixteen more students rotate through the Wake County clinic.
UNC’s Wellness on Wheels mobile clinic will be offering free services on Mondays, from 10am-2pm, beginning January 23rd in Pittsboro.
Safe Plates for Food Managers Class & Examination
- Who: Anyone needing Food Manager Certification or Re-certification for their retail position
- What: Two days of interactive instruction, followed by a two-hour certification examination on the third day.
- Where: Ag & Conference Center, Cooperative Extension Teaching Kitchen in Pittsboro.
- When: February 6th & 7th, 9:00am-4:00pm and February 8th 9:00-11:00am
- Cost: $110 (includes the cost of the book and exam)
Deadline to register is January 17th.
Small Farm Boot Camp
Are you interested in farming and want to take your first steps? Did you just buy a few acres and want to start growing something? Do you want to sell at a local farmers’ market? Are you within your first couple years of farming and need some help? This upcoming January, we will be offering our new Small Farm Boot Camp program, which is designed for new and beginning farmers, market gardeners, and homesteaders to help their increase knowledge and skills in local food production and to collaborate and build fellowship with other new farmers in the area.
Save Money with Unit Pricing
Easy Steps Towards Better Financial Health In The New Year
BREAKING BAD SPENDING HABITS
The beginning of a new year is a good time to examine your finances and put the brakes on bad spending habits.
If you’re like many Americans, you spend on average $3 per day for a cup of coffee at your local convenience store. Add your favorite fancy pastry, and it’s another $2. Now multiply that by 252 workdays in this leap year, and you’ll end up spending $1,260 for your coffee and donut fix. And if you want to indulge your taste buds with premium options at pricier coffee shops, then spending that $5 per day for a white chocolate mocha latte will cost you $1,260 a year. And what about lunch? If you spend $6 to $10 a day for lunch, that’s another $1,512 to $2,520 annually, and even more if you factor in the junk food that somehow finds its way into you shopping bag.
Of course, you have to eat, but what seems like small insignificant purchases – if left unchecked - can add up in the long run, and lead to money management problems.
“Often we don’t know how much we spend on restaurants, coffee and junk food,” says Dr. Larry Connatser, family resource management Extension specialist at the Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia State University. “You should have a spending plan and track your expenses so you know where your money is going.”
Wishing you and your family a great and prosperous New Year!
How World War One changed the way we farmed
Someone mailed this editorial to the Siler City Grit way back in December 1918. While I was reading this editorial, it's hard to believe that the future that this person was writing about is our reality.
World War One had come to an end. Families were thankful to be together again for the holidays, some were remembering loved ones that never returned home for the holidays. The World War brought many changes to families in so many ways, including the way that we farmed.
The above editorial was like a prediction of the future, but it was slow to take off. Farmers did not have the funds to purchase these fancy new tractors or had other opinions about this new technology.
Below is an excerpt from NC State Libraries: Special Collections, which gives us a little more history about these new tractors and why farmers weren't running out to purchase them.
From the NC State Libraries: Special Collections
The solution to higher production demand and lower labor supply, at least according to the Extension Service, was technology—in the form of tractors. During the 1910s, tractors were not yet fixtures on North Carolina farms, and “horsepower” literally meant power provided by horses and mules. During the war, however, it was thought that tractors could make North Carolina farmers more efficient and productive. In addition, replacing animals with equipment meant less land needed for pasture, resulting in more land for cultivation.
Extension began promoting tractor use during the summer of 1918. Extension Farm-News published articles on the machines, and they were used on the farms at NC State College. They were a big draw at the Farmers’ and Farm Women’s Convention in August of that year. Two thousand farmers attended the tractor demonstration on August 28, twice the total convention attendance of 1917. In fact college President Wallace Riddick, in his annual report to the Board of Trustees, claimed there had been no previous convention with such high attendance. Twelve or thirteen makes were displayed, and that probably included Fordson, International Harvester, and Moline models. Extension Farm-News reported “many of those present stated that this was one of the most valuable phases of the entire Convention.” Riddick exclaimed, “those present cannot have failed to gain much valuable information.”
As the pictures show, the 1918 tractors were not the same machines we know today. They were rudimentary and difficult to use. They look as though they would have torn up the fields if not handled property, and they certainly weren’t ergonomic!
Despite the high interest in tractors in 1918, North Carolina farmers did not rush to purchase them. The cost was too high compared to typical farm incomes, and only a small number of people could afford them. When the war ended (less than three months after the 1918 convention), demand for agricultural products sank, prices plummeted, farm incomes shrank, and the efficiency imperative evaporated. While the number of farmers using tractors gradually increased over the next few decades, it wouldn’t be until after the next world war before they became the standard equipment on farms.
Mechanization on the Farm in the Early 20th Century
Credits:
Created with images by DimaBerlin - "Light full spectrum phyto light lamps for plants growth in the winter time in the greenhouse. Exterior glasshouse in cold season. Artificial lighting of plants in short daylight conditions" • Jiří Tashi Vondráček - "Insect hotel made of bricks, stones and wood" • Vera Kuttelvaserova - "a sheep herd (breed - valaska) close up in winter" • psynovec - "Sunset in the wood in winter period" • Chanyanuch - "Silhouette of happy teamwork standing and touch 2023 text on beautiful sunrise backgroud celebrate business success and growth to year 2023." • vectorfusionart - "Healthy New Year against vegetables at farmers market" • Deemerwha studio - "Hand place wooden cube 2023 on top stack of coins with sky blue background and copy space. saving money and financial plan concept for investment in new year 2023." • knowlesgallery - "Red barn on a farm winter Idaho"