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Growing Chatham NC Cooperative Extension ~ Chatham County ~ April 2022

This is not an April Fool's joke, your eyes are not playing tricks on you, the photos throughout the newsletter are slightly crooked. I apologize for this, it's a glitch with the software, which I was unable to correct.

Growing Chatham Video Highlights

Our office will be closed for Good Friday, April 15, 2022

Join the Chatham County Voluntary Agricultural District

Click on the video to see if you qualify

2022 Chatham County 4-H Summer Camp Registration Coming Soon!

Chatham County 4-H is offering both day and residential camp programs once again this summer! We’re excited to offer these fun educational learning opportunities for youth in the community, and thanks to the continued generous support of the United Way of Chatham County, we will be able to provide need-based scholarships to qualifying families as well. Registration information will be posted on April 8th. Stay tuned for more information to come soon!

BJP Open House

May 1, 2-6pm

BJP Celebration and Fundraiser: Betsy's Bash

May 21, 4-8pm

ALL FUNDS RAISED FOR THIS EVENT WILL BE MATCHED DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR UP TO $50,000!

Earth Day 2022

In honor of Earth Day 2022, try out the "recycle, garden, repeat" project!

Horsekateers Come Away Winners at 2022 State 4-H Horse Bowl and Hippology Contests

Chatham County 4-H Horsekateers at the 2022 State Horse Bowl and Hippology Contests, from left to right: Ruthy Vorder Bruegge (coach), Gracie Burgess, Savannah Byrd, Lily Webster, Sara Richardson, Caleigh Gantt, Victoria Smith, Sam Durham, Kyra Worth, Jadyn Clark, Mary Dickerson (coach)

The Chatham County Horsekateers 4-H Club traveled to Raleigh and came away winners in both the State Horse Bowl and Hippology Contests held on the campus of NC State University.

Hippology is a comprehensive competition of horse knowledge that includes a variety of phases, including an exam, IDs, judging, station identification, and a team problem. This contest allows participants to display their knowledge on a wide variety of topics such as anatomy and physiology, nutrition, and diseases and helps them to become a more well-rounded horse person. The Horsekateer Hippology Teams placed 1st and 5th overall and 1st and 2nd in team problem. Overall high individuals from the team included Jadyn Clark (14th), Victoria Smith (13th), Kyra Worth (7th), Sara Richardson (5th), and Sam Durham (2nd). The Top 10 Individual Placings in Judging included Caleigh Gantt (8th), Sara Richardson (4th), and Sam Durham (2nd); Stations included Victoria Smith (10th), Sara Richardson (9th), Sam Durham (5th), Jadyn Clark (4th), and Kyra Worth (3rd); and Exam/IDs included Sara Richardson (7th), Kyra Worth (4th), and Sam Durham (2nd).

Horse Bowl is a quiz bowl-style competition of horse knowledge on a wide variety of topics, ranging from physiology and genetics to horse industry standards. Participants learn the fundamentals of biology, nutrition, and equine health, as well as team cooperation and healthy competition. The Horsekateer Horse Bowl Teams placed 3rd and 4th overall with Caleigh Gantt placing 14th, Lily Webster placing 13th, Savannah Byrd placing 11th, Sara Richardson placing 10th, Jadyn Clark placing 7th, and Kyra Worth placing 1st high individual. Congratulations to all of these young ladies, and to Coaches Mary Dickerson and Ruthy Vorder Bruegge, on their exceptional performances, hard work, and great success that they had!

SAVE THE DATE: Explore the Haw River!

Save the Date!

WHEN: Thursday, April 14th

TIME: 1:00 - 4:00pm

Join Chatham County 4-H as we explore the Haw River during Chatham County Schools' Early Release Day. Participants will investigate the river’s health with hands-on methods of chemical and physical assessments of the water and search for macroinvertebrate critters whose pollution-sensitivity helps us to determine water quality. Registration information is coming soon! Space is limited to 20 participants ages 12 - 18.

Chatham County 4-H joins Chatham County Parks and Rec at their Annual Easter Egg Hunt!

How to Become an Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Chatham County

Information session for prospective Chatham County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers

Extension Master Gardener℠ volunteers work with NC State Extension to provide gardeners with unbiased, science-based information on sustainable garden, lawn, and landscape practices. Under the guidance of N.C. Cooperative Extension Agents, volunteers complete an intensive (but fun), hands-on training program, pass an examination, and complete a 50 hour internship with N.C. Cooperative Extension in Chatham County. To remain active in the program volunteers must log a minimum of 30 hours of volunteer service and 10 hours of continuing education each year.

This webinar will explain the processes and expectations for becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer in Chatham County, NC.

Self-Paced, Online Plant ID Classes

NC Extension Gardener is pleased to be partnering with Longwood Gardens, one of the premier botanical gardens in the world, to offer the following fully online, self-paced, plant ID courses

Annuals, Perennials, Vines, and Groundcovers

Houseplants, Succulents, and Cacti

Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Nuts

Through brief lectures, online fact pages, course e-books, flash-cards, vocabulary games, mystery plants, and hundreds of beautiful images, you will learn the key identifying characteristics of the species covered in the courses and how to use them in the landscape, while gaining the skills to identify other plants you’ll encounter outside of the class. Complete the optional assignments and quizzes to earn Certificates of Participation and Mastery.

Pricing:

General Public: $189 ($179 early bird discount)

Master Gardener Volunteers: $98 (with discount code, ask your county agent)

JC Raulston Arboretum Volunteers: $98 (with discount code)

Extension Professionals: $59 (with discount code)

Plants Do That: Health

Eco Tower Educator Workshops

Educators are welcome to join us for an hands-on exploration of ecology concepts that can be used for engaging environmental youth programs. What happens if you leave a pile of leaves or logs to rot in your yard? What happens if you rake them up? The Eco Tower is a teaching tool that asks young people to explore the questions of human activities and the environment. Modeled after the game, Jenga, youth pull a game piece from the Eco Tower that poses a question of ecosystem resilience and builds youth critical thinking around topics of soil systems, native plants and agriculture cultivation, insect and other animal organisms, fresh and maritime waters. Easily integrated into existing programs, this fun, interactive workshop is just in time for spring and summer youth programs! Bring your own lunch, dress for outdoor adventures and activities and be ready for fun!

Chatham Farmers Featured in New Book!

Look who is featured in the new book Black Flora: Chatham County growers Taij and Victoria Cotten! Author Teresa J. Speight profiles 22 black flower farmers, florists, artists, and entrepreneurs across the U.S. and we are so proud to have the Cottens representing North Carolina. Debbie remembers meeting Taij and Victoria for the first time years ago when they visited me in my office to discuss their farming goals. They eventually landed at Perry-winkle Farm where they developed a beautiful partnership with Cathy Jones and Mike Perry, who they consider their farm-ily. I love that they are benefitting from Cathy and Mike’s 30+ years of farming experience, and Cathy and Mike are benefitting from their ideas and perspective. Check out the book if you want to feel inspired!

Tomato Disease Diagnostic Video Series

Anyone who grows tomatoes in North Carolina, from homeowners to commercial growers, eventually finds their crop is affected by disease. There are several fungal and bacterial plant pathogens that attack tomato in our state and sorting out which disease or diseases you find can be a challenge. Yet, correct diagnosis is critical to implementing effective management strategies.

A new video series has been developed to help growers, county and area agents, agronomists, crop consultants and homeowners to identify the most common tomato diseases encountered in North Carolina. Each video is approximately 2-3 minutes long and includes information on features that help distinguish the disease from other common diseases.

To find the videos, please visit the Tomato Diseases page in our Vegetable Portal. More videos will be uploaded in the coming months!

The 2022 Southeastern Virtual Muscadine School

The Southern Regional Small Fruits Consortium is sponsoring the 2022 Southeastern Muscadine School, a webinar series on muscadine production that runs February through November with monthly sessions on different aspects of muscadine production.

The webinar series will be hosted by NC State University in participation with several specialists throughout the southeast. You can participate in live webinars and/or watch recordings of the webinars. Details for each session and links to join are on the website.

Join the Chatham County Youth Livestock Team

The 2022 Chatham County Horse Health Clinic was a Success

The 2022 Chatham County Horse Health Clinic was a success! On March 12th, in collaboration with Dr. Natalie Cochrane with Chatham County Mobile Vet Services, we provided much need vaccines and tests to 15 horses. This program saved these equine owners around $892 total. If you missed us this year, check out our Extension website next year around February for our Horse Health Clinic 2023!

Submitting a Soil Sample

Getting nervous about fertilizer prices this year? The first step to good soil management is submitting a soil sample! Soil analyses will allow you to know exactly what your soil needs and give you fertilizer amount recommendations based on the grass or crop you are growing. Starting April 1st, soil samples can be analyzed by the NCDA&CS at no cost to North Carolina residents. Not sure how to collect and submit your sample?

2022 Forestry Taxes Series Webinars are Available On-Demand

Did you miss one of the recent 2022 Forestry Taxes Series webinars? Not to worry - they're available on-demand now!

Many forest landowners pay more taxes on their timber than they should. Accountants can help to calculate taxes, but forest landowners need to understand how timber expenses should be reported and how they are taxed. Saving money on timber taxes starts by keeping good records and knowing how tax rules will affect your bill.

Since it's April, that means it's tax season!

In case you may have misplaced the "Tax Tips for Landowners for 2021 Tax Year" bulletin, here's a copy to help you plan accordingly with the tax filing deadline looming:

Map Your Broadband Speed

NC Broadband Survey- Over the recent months, the residents of North Carolina have become kingly aware of their internet speed and reliability. There is an opportunity to provide information about your internet connectivity or lack thereof. The North Carolina Broadband Office has developed a Survey (and promotional materials) which you can take to provide them with internet speed information at your location. There is even a way to take the survey to indicate you do not have internet access at your residence. The FCC is currently redoing broadband coverage maps. It is important for North Carolina residents to take the survey so there is better data when funding opportunities become available. Please participate in the survey so our data shows the need for funding here in North Carolina.

Take egg-stra care this Easter with proper food safety

By Sage Barnard for CAES News

Easter is right around the corner, and while this holiday can mean different things to different people, many celebrate it with egg dyeing, Easter egg hunts and family meals.

That means food safety needs to be part of these springtime traditions too.

It’s important to consider how dyeing eggs or leaving food out might affect how edible these Easter goodies actually are. University of Georgia Professor and UGA Extension Food Safety Specialist Elizabeth Andress has some tips for keeping Easter healthy and happy.

Since we are on the subject of Easter, enjoy a few Easter recipes that are available to download.

From NCSU's Homegrown Channel

Selecting the Best Tomato Varieties for Your Garden

5 Ways to Save at the Pump

from Consumer Reports

The Land Before Your Time, Your Property’s History

You finally found the perfect home, in the perfect neighborhood, but have you ever stopped to think about the history of your property? You may have a new house, but your home may not be the original home on your property. Many older homes have been demolished to make way for new homes. Family farms are disappearing rapidly due to the amount of people moving into the area. Subdivisions are replacing the fields where crops were grown, or cattle grazed at one time. The stories that lie beneath the soil can be fascinating if you dig deep enough.

As a history buff, I enjoy metal detecting. A few years back someone shared an online link to historicaerials.com. They mentioned that this was a great website when trying to locate old home sites, schools, churches and so on, places that folks like to metal detect. Since finding this website, I have used it frequently not only for metal detecting, but to see what properties used to look like sixty years ago. historicaerials.com is free to use, but there is a watermark logo on the search map since their material is copyrighted. Since the wording “Copyrighted Material” was posted on the maps, I reached out to the folks at Historic Aerials, and they did give me permission to highlight their website in Growing Chatham.

With the assistance of historicarials.com, I’d like to share with you the story of the Chatham County Agricultural and Conference Center, The Land Before Your Time, Your Property’s History.

As I log into historicarials.com, I click on the viewer button. I then click on aerials, from there you can choose the year you would like to view, I chose 1955. On the left-hand side there is a compare button. I like using the compare function using the slide option. Here we can compare 1192 US 64 West Business from 1955 and 2018 side by side. As you can see a lot has changed since 1955.

Side by side comparison
The Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center property in 1955
The Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center property in 2018

If you look at the 1965 map below you can see several structures that I have highlighted. The highlighted areas are the guest house, which appears to have stood about where the Cooperative Extension offices are located. Next you have the main house, it stood near the front entrance of the Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center. Then you have the barn area, which was located at the end of the conference center’s East side parking lot.

Notice the buildings that were standing in 1965

Digging Deep into the History

This property has an interesting story and thanks to the Chatham County Historical Association for digging deep into this property’s rich history to bring that story to life.

"For several months, volunteers researched and documented the history of the property and the structures and remaining ruins. The earliest owner shown in Chatham County records was Mary Watters, daughter of Continental Army General James Moore, and wife of Colonel William Watters, who also served in the Continental Army. In 1825 Mary Watters sold the 99-acre property to her son-in-law, Frederick Jones Hill, a physician, planter, and legislator known for his early legislation to establish public schools in the state. Raised in New Hanover County, he, like several other wealthy Wilmington families of the period, had ties to Pittsboro. Hill, his father, and three uncles owned elaborate summer homes in and around Pittsboro. The records are unclear whether Frederick Jones Hill built his summer home, “Kentucky,” on the parcel he purchased from his mother-in-law Mary Watters, or whether it was built prior to his purchase of the property. The Kentucky property was eventually inherited (in 1874) by William H. Moore, a presiding elder of the Methodist Church, and to whom both Hill and wife Anne had family connections. Until the property was purchased by Chatham County in 2012, it had been handed down in the Moore family through several generations." (From: chathamhistory.org)

The only surviving building from the original structures on the property is the smokehouse. "The Chatham County Historical Association recovered, restored, owns and maintains the early 19th century smokehouse located on the property of the Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center in Pittsboro. CCHA’s smokehouse project had its start in mid-2014, when the Chatham County Historical Association was granted access to the parcel in Pittsboro on which Chatham County’s new Agricultural Center was to be built in order to assess and document the various structures and ruins on the property. Over the summer months, volunteers, including two local professional archaeologists, Paul Webb and Linda Carnes-McNaughton, made several visits to the property to assess the various structures and ruins discovered there. These visits eventually resulted in the discovery and restoration of a mid-19th century smokehouse by the Chatham County Historical Association." (From:chathamhistory.org)

I hope that I have piqued your interest in your property’s history. You never know what you may uncover when you start digging into your property’s history!

NC State University and N.C. A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity and prohibit discrimination and harassment regardless of age, color, disability, family and marital status, genetic information, national origin, political beliefs, race, religion, sexual identity (including pregnancy), and veteran status. NC State, N.C. A&T, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating. Persons with disabilities and persons with limited English proficiency may request accommodations to participate by contacting Ginger Cunningham, County Extension Director, at 919.542.8202, ginger_cunningham@ncsu.edu, or in person at the County Extension Office at least 30 days prior to the event.

Created By
Tiffany Hancock
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Credits:

Created with images by silviarita - "easter egg background" • janeb13 - "computer pc workplace" • phpetrunina14 - "A hand holding a wallet full of cash near opened fuel car tank"