Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues at 8.16, and I am joined by Sarah Wagner from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County. Sarah, good morning. How are you this morning?
Sarah Wagner: I'm doing great. Lovely to be here. Yes, thank you for being here. Much appreciated.
Paul Szmal: I wanted to start off talking about something that, well, it kind of starts now because it takes a while to bear fruit, pun slightly intended, and that would be the Great Pumpkin Growing Contest.
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, so this is our second year for this contest, and it's open to all youth who are interested in participating. They can register on our website and get seeds, and we're going to have a big weigh-in at the Ward O'Hara's old-fashioned Halloween party in October.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that is coming up, I believe, on October 18th?
Sarah Wagner: Yep.
Paul Szmal: Okay, and do we know, do we have an idea how big the pumpkins are going to get? I know the seed strain that's being used is not the one that'll grow something that weighs several hundred pounds.
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, we didn't want to have to rent a crane for our event, so these top out, if you're truly working hard, a little over a hundred pounds.
Paul Szmal: Oh, well, that's, well, that's still pretty hefty, but...
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, oh, absolutely. Most people will get something closer to, like, 60 pounds. You should be so very proud of a 60-pound pumpkin.
Paul Szmal: What will happen with the pumpkins after the contest?
Sarah Wagner: They go back home with folks. We do encourage youth to decorate their pumpkin for the event, as long as those decorations can be taken off for the weighing. So it's a nice thing to show off at your house.
Paul Szmal: Ah, there you go. So you get multiple uses out of it.
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, absolutely.
Paul Szmal: Fantastic, fantastic. I also know that you want to talk about sharing the road this time of year. This is something that, unfortunately, we have to remind people of every year when the farming season really kicks into high gear.
Sarah Wagner: Absolutely, and this goes nicely along. We just finished teaching a tractor safety course for youth, so now we ask adults who are drivers to practice safe driving around farm equipment, which can be slow and have pretty poor sight lines, and sometimes takes unexpected left turns, because farming equipment will head into fields and down little roads that you, as a driver of a car, may not even realize is, like, a possible turn.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. You've got to keep your eyes open while you're on the road this time of year.
Let's talk about some of the 4-H programs and workshops that are coming up. We're talking with Sarah Wagner from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cuyahoga County here on FLX Morning. The workshop that's coming up on June 17th has an intriguing title. It's called a Pollinator Workshop.
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, and the Pollinator Workshop is open to adults as well. That is going to be at the Seymour Library and really just focus on how you can grow a garden that supports native pollinators, and they're going to have some materials for that as well.
Paul Szmal: When we talk about pollinators, can you kind of expand on what we're talking about there?
Sarah Wagner: Oh, sure. We often think of bumblebees and butterflies as the main pollinators, but really there's such a wide variety of pollinators that don't get a lot of love, but lots of smaller insects, things that are flies, things that are bees that are giant, big, cute bumblebees, moths do lots of pollinating, and they're all very important to the health of our ecosystem. So even these less charismatic bugs, we've got to show some love.
Paul Szmal: Part of that, of course, will be learning how to start your own pollinator garden at home, which is a neat idea.
Sarah Wagner: Absolutely.
Paul Szmal: The 4-H Youth Fair is coming up in June as well.
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, the Youth Fair will be in the last weekend of July into August, but we are registering for fair now. So any youth who's interested in being part of fair should contact our office. And if they're not a 4-H member, we'll get them to be 4-H members and get them all signed up.
Paul Szmal: And the Youth Fair, that is encompassing a lot of the stuff that we would see at a county fair at a 4-H building, right? Animals and plants and other things.
Sarah Wagner: Absolutely. And our fair is growing in this county. So it's now three days instead of two days. And you'll see lots of livestock, poultry, rabbits. And then we're having an exhibition for sheep herding. Lots of exciting stuff going on.
Paul Szmal: And my particular favorite whenever I go to a county fair and I'm wandering through and going through the 4-H displays is always the rabbits.
Sarah Wagner: Yes, and there are some very lovely rabbits at our fair.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I can't believe how many different types and species there are that are usually on display and always well taken care of by the 4-H kids for sure.
Sarah Wagner: Absolutely.
Paul Szmal: The Outdoor Education Workshop series is going to be focusing on some pretty neat topics here. Starting off, the first one looks like it's coming up on May the 25th.
Sarah Wagner: Yeah, we're doing this in conjunction with Seneca County CCE. So youth and families can attend either set of workshops. The same workshops will be offered in each county. So the first workshop on using a compass will be either on May 25th or June 9th, whichever is easier. Other classes will cover identifying wildlife. And we'll have a number of like pelts and skulls and footprints and things like that to help. Using hand cutting tools that you might use if you are camping or doing like wilderness survival. And then foraging wild edibles. So it's an exciting mix of outdoor skills.
Paul Szmal: Which is going to wrap up with a skill-a-thon at the youth fair.
Sarah Wagner: Oh, that's a chance for people to demonstrate and show off their skills in a competitive environment?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. And you don't have to take the classes to come to the skill-a-thon, but they are a great way to prepare for it.
Sarah Wagner: I'm particularly intrigued by the identifying and foraging for wild edibles program.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that is something we haven't had a chance to offer in our county before. So that's breaking new ground for us. By the way, registration for these is $5 for enrolled 4-H members. Unenrolled youth can enroll in 4-H in the class for a discount of $20. And pizza is served as part of the activity as well.
Sarah Wagner: One other program we wanted to mention. And that is the livestock photography workshop that you have coming up.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, so we have a 4-H volunteer who has done this in her career. And she is excited to share it with local youth. Livestock photography is a very specialized way of presenting your animals. And it's pretty important in the livestock industry. So this is a really interesting opportunity for youth who are interested in photography to learn a particular skill. And youth who are in livestock to learn how to present their animals professionally and at their very best. So we're going to be on a farm. It's going to be an opportunity to actually handle and photograph sheep and goats. And we have materials to support any kind of camera you bring. Film, digital, phone cameras, it's all great.
Sarah Wagner: And how would people register for any of these or become a 4-H member?
Paul Szmal: You can hop on our webpage at ccekayuga.org. And just find yourself the 4-H page. All of our events are on there. The way to contact us is on there. And we're always very interested in helping people get connected to 4-H and CCE.
Paul Szmal: Sarah, thank you for the information.
Sarah Wagner: Pleasure to speak with you this morning.
Paul Szmal: Alright, have a great day. It is 825 on FLX Morning.
