Month: November 2018

Georgia 4-H Scott Site Garden thrives on community support and heirloom seeds

PR

The heritage garden at Rock Eagle 4-H Center’s Scott Site is more than a teaching tool, it’s a living museum.

Over the last two years, environmental educators at the center worked with gardeners from across Georgia to transform the garden. Garden managers and students planted heirloom and older commercial varieties of Southern garden staples to document crops grown and farming methods used by 19th- and early 20th-century Georgians.

Now, the garden helps environmental educators teach students about heritage gardening practices and, in turn, the history of the Southeast.

Robert Clemmer, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension education program specialist and 4-H center garden manager, put out a call in 2016 for heirloom or family-favorite seeds to showcase in the garden. Thanks to seed swaps, seed saving and donations, the garden saved money on seeds. Organizations like UGArden, PlowShare in Crawford, Georgia, and Master Gardener Extension Volunteers also donated seeds.

“We accept whatever seeds anyone is willing to give us,” Clemmer said.

So far, the garden includes Southern classics such as ‘Red Ripper cowpeas’; Ed Teague purple-hull cowpeas, named for northern Georgia’s two-finger banjo picker; night-blooming moonflowers; sunchokes; tromboncino squashes; Tennessee dancing gourds; and unique, yellow-fleshed watermelons grown from seeds donated by Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black.

Some heirloom vegetables are susceptible to disease. Fusarium wilt killed the garden’s heirloom tomatoes in past growing seasons. This year, the garden includes some disease-resistant varieties, which should be ready for planting in April.

With heritage gardens, like the one at the Scott Site, gardening practices must stay as close as possible to 19th- or early 20th-century methods, which means no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, Clemmer said. Instead, cover crops, like cowpeas, add nitrogen to the soil, and garden personnel amend soil with dining hall waste and mulch with shredded leaves. They collect seeds from plants with a proven history of thriving in Georgia gardens.

The Scott Site garden was planted in 2014. Each year, it provides between 500 and 2,000 pounds of produce to the Rock Eagle Dining Hall and helps to educate thousands of Georgia students.

For more information about the garden or to donate seeds, contact Clemmer at reagle@uga.edu.

Originally published: http://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story.html?storyid=7510&story=Rock-Eagle-Garden

Award-winning chef, farmer Dan Barber to speak at UGA on the future of food, sustainability

PR

Dan Barber, chef and national farm-to-table and sustainable food systems advocate, will deliver a lecture, “What Kind of Menu will Meet the Challenges of the Future? Exploring a New Recipe for Good Food from the Ground Up,” at the University of Georgia’s Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries on Tuesday, April 10.

Barber has received multiple James Beard Foundation awards and built a reputation as a chef and farmer. He is a co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, the latter of which was recognized by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy as No. 11 on their list of the world’s best restaurants. He is also the author of “The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food” and has been featured in documentaries “Chef’s Table” and “Wasted! The Story of Food Waste.”

Long intrigued by the link between the growing conditions on farms and the flavors he coaxes out of meat and produce, Barber has made it his mission to educate the public about the close relationship between cooking and agriculture.

Barber works with crop breeders and farmers to develop better tasting, more nutritious vegetable and grain varieties by bringing together heirlooms and the disease and insect resistance found in modern varieties. He founded Row 7 Seed Company, which brings U.S.-produced, certified organic, non-genetically modified and unpatented seeds to home gardeners or small- to midscale farmers at reasonable prices.

“Athens has been known for decades as a place where great bands are born and music thrives. Today, Athens has a growing reputation for innovative chefs and good food,” said Sam Pardue, UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences dean and director. “Americans are now intently interested not just in fine food, but how their food is grown, processed and cooked. We are fortunate to have Dan Barber join us on campus to share his perspective on the future of our food system.”

The college will host the lecture from 2-3 p.m. on April 10 at the UGA Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Library, 300 S. Hull St., Athens, GA 30602.

For more information about the lecture, contact Regina Fitzpatrick at regina@uga.edu or 706-542-5046. To register, visit https://events.attend.com/f/1383784074.

More information about Row 7 Seed Company can be found at row7seeds.com.

Originally Published on UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Media Newswire