Paul Szmal: Welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It's 8.15. Happy to be joined now by Frank Clark from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County. Good morning, Frank. How are you this morning?
Frank Clark: Good morning. I'm doing pretty well. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing great. Enjoying the sunshine streaming through the window here this morning. The first thing I'm going to mention here, people are probably going to kind of do a double take on and be like, well, wait a minute. Why are you talking about something that has a weigh in on October the 18th? But fact of the matter is, if you want to be a part of the annual youth pumpkin growing contest that starts kind of early in the growing season. Yes, our weigh in may be in October, but you got to start thinking about starting seeds inside or getting that garden ready, you know, within a couple of weeks. If you want to grow that giant pumpkin last year, we had a pumpkin close to 150 pounds. So if you want to compete, you got to get started soon. You got to register online at our website, cckayuga.org. Our weigh in is October 18. It's going to be at the Ward O'Hara Ag Museum. It's going to be on their old fashioned Halloween celebration. We had a great time last year. We're hoping to get a few more kids this year and see a bunch more giant pumpkins.
Frank Clark: Yeah, well, we mentioned youth here, Frank, off the top of your head. Do you remember what the age groups are?
Paul Szmal: Anyone 18 and under.
Frank Clark: Oh, OK. So it's open to a wide variety of folks to be able to participate in that.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, just about anybody 18 under can participate. Last year we had a school class grow pumpkin at their school together. We also have individuals who grow pumpkins together. The only real rule is you have to use a specific variety of pumpkin called the big moose. We picked that variety because it can get rather large, you know, 150, 175 pounds. But it's still manageable for us. We don't want people growing the Atlantic dills, which can get close to a ton in weight. I wouldn't be able to handle that.
Frank Clark: Yeah, I was going to say that that'd be a little bit difficult for anybody to handle, regardless of age. The next gardening and compost demonstration is coming up April the 22nd. What can you tell us about that, Frank?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, so that's going to be at Seymour Library. We've partnered up with Seymour Library quite a bit this year. We just had our seed library. And now I will be doing a container gardening and compost demonstration at the library on Earth Day, April 22nd at 4 p.m. You do have to register for the event. You'll have to call the library to do that. But if you do come to the event, you will receive a free grow bag to allow you to grow your own vegetables. Even if you live in an apartment, you can grow it on your balcony. If you have limited space, you'll have a bag. You can grow a couple of vegetables in and then we'll demonstrate how you can compost at a small scale. We're really focusing in on small scale gardening, making it accessible for anybody who is interested.
Frank Clark: I'm sorry to interrupt, Frank, but I've got to think that with with prices rising for fresh produce, the idea of being able to grow your own even in a small environment or on a small scale is becoming more appealing.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and it's quite rewarding to plant and watch your own food grow. It tastes better when you've grown it yourself. You pick it, you eat it. It doesn't transport here. It doesn't sit on the shelves. You're eating it at its peak freshness. I was just going to throw in registration does cap at 15. So if you are interested, I would get on that as soon as you can. And by the way, the library number, if you want to register for that is 315-252-2571. That's 315-252-2571.
Frank Clark: Cornell Cooperative Extension has entered into a kind of a unique partnership with the Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau and the Sheriff's Department.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we're this is our third or fourth year of doing the Share the Roads program and initiative, like you said, cooperating with Farm Bureau and the Sheriff's Department here in Cuyahoga County. It's a campaign really just to get people to share the roads with ag equipment. As weather starts to get warmer, you're going to see some of the larger ag machinery on the road. And really, we're just trying to push for safety. We want everybody to get home, get to work, get wherever they're going safely without issue. We're really pushing. Be patient. Wait until it's safe to move around an ag vehicle. Most of the time, they're not driving far distances. So odds are they're going to peel off into a field rather soon. So really, patience. Be safe. If it's going to add an extra couple minutes, that's OK. We want everybody to get where they're going safe and happy.
Frank Clark: Yeah, I started to see some of the fertilization vehicles already out and about here in Ontario County taking care of some of the farm properties.
Paul Szmal: Yep, same going on in Cuyahoga. The first cut monitoring of alfalfa stands in the moth trapping network. This sounds like a pretty interesting whole situation that's going on here. What can you tell us about that?
Frank Clark: Yep, so that me and my partner, Ron, this is with the South Central New York team with Cornell that we team with. We go out starting in a couple of weeks. We measure alfalfa heights and we do this to help inform growers when alfalfa stands are at peak or optimal height for farmers to make their first cutting. Most of the time, oftentimes, your first cutting is going to be your largest yield of the year and your highest quality forage of the year. And the moth trapping network that goes on all summer. It's going to start pretty soon. We do that to monitor some pests that fly in that can cause some damage to our crop growers out here. So when we see some high counts, we can alert our farmers here to be on the lookout because there may be some pest problems within the coming week or so after we count a big count.
Paul Szmal: And that alfalfa crop, what are some of the main purposes for that?
Frank Clark: That, at least in this county, serves as a forage item, so food for our dairy and livestock.
Paul Szmal: That's what I thought. I just wanted to double check and make sure. You are participating with the Auburn YMCA in their Healthy Kids Day coming up.
Frank Clark: Yeah. So this is going to be our SNAP ed educator and our nutrition educator. They're going to be at the community health fair that's at the Auburn YMCA Saturday, April 26th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's a free event. There's going to be a lot of community partners there. Cornell is going to be there promoting nutrition and just healthy eating for parents and kids. I would go check the YMCA's website to see what else they're offering at the event.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that sounds like it'll be a good time. And also the fruit and vegetable prescription program is opened up. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Frank Clark: Yeah. So I just wanted to throw that out again this month. So either you're a doctor, you can chat with your doctor. They can recommend you for this program. Or you can call yourself if you think you would benefit from this. You'll want to call SNAP ed New York. That's 585-478-1480. And if you get approved for the program, you have to attend six classes on healthy eating. For every class you attend, you get a $15 voucher to purchase fruit and vegetables. This is really just to help promote healthy eating in the county, get people moving more towards fruits and vegetables, adding that to their diet. And as always, it's always great to be able to buy local product with that too.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. All right. Frank, thanks so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it as always.
Frank Clark: Thanks for having me, Paul. I appreciate the opportunity every month.
Paul Szmal: Thanks. All right. We'll chat with you again in a month. It is 824 on FLX Morning.
