Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues on Finger Lakes Newsradio, it's 8.15, we're up to 54 under sunny skies. Frank Clark from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County joins me now. Frank, good morning. How are you, sir?
Frank Clark: Good morning, Ted. I am doing well. Thank you for having me.
Paul Szmal: Ah, wonderful. And good to have you on board, sir. Let's start by talking about some of the upcoming events that are happening here on the CCE Cayuga calendar, including a seed saving workshop on September the 13th. What exactly is seed saving?
Frank Clark: All right, so seed saving is the idea of, you know, you grow vegetables in your garden or you grow flowers in your garden, either for flowers just to look at because they're pretty or vegetables because you like to eat them. But you can also grow, you know, an additional plant or two to save seeds out of that fruit or vegetable you grow. And growing fruits and vegetables to consume is a little different than growing them for seed. Vegetables, typically we harvest them before their seeds are ready to be harvested and then used. So like if we were growing beans, we harvest those when they're green, we can eat them, but we need to let those wait probably another month until about now until they're dry, brown, they rattle around in the seed pod. That's when you'd want to use them for seeds. Very different than growing them to eat. And some seed saving, so like for tomatoes, you have to ferment the seeds to get them viable for next year to grow. So there's quite a bit that goes into saving your own seeds.
This is going to happen at the Moravia Garden Club, it's going to happen at the Powers Library. And at the Powers Library, in conjunction with the Moravia Garden Club, we're opening up a seed library, which is where there are seeds available for anyone who comes to the library to pick up seeds for their garden. And one way to add seeds to a seed library is to save your own seeds. So you take some seeds, save some seeds, donate them back. So everyone has seeds year after year after year.
Paul Szmal: That is fascinating. I had no idea that there was that significant difference in growing for harvest versus growing for seed. Now, I've learned something on the first question today. I learned quite a bit. I didn't know all this either.
Frank Clark: Oh, wow. Oh, fantastic. All right, well, let's continue on. The 4-H branch of CCE is going to be at the Auburn Tractor Supply Farmer's Market on September 13th. What are they going to be up to there, Frank?
Frank Clark: So 4-H is going to be there just talking about some programs we have there. The Tractor Supply in Auburn on Grant Ave very kindly asked us to be at this event. This is a national event for tractor supply. The Farmer's Market in Auburn is going to have around 15 vendors doing food, crafts, you know, your usual stuff you'd see at farmer's markets. And they asked us to be there. They wanted they believe in 4-H. They like what 4-H does. So they wanted us there to talk about our programs. And if anyone is interested or signing their kids up, we'll be there to help them out. We'll be there from 9 to 12.
Paul Szmal: My next question was, is it too late for kids to sign up for 4-H or is there still an opportunity?
Frank Clark: There's signups for 4-H are continuous. You can do it all year. It's really just the programming that varies on the time of the year. So like we just completed our fair. So a little late for fair stuff, but there's always next year. We're always doing 4-H programs. So anyone is ever interested in 4-H, they can call our office anytime. We'll be happy to talk to them, sign them up if they're interested, let them know what kind of programs we got going on.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Frank Clark from the Cornell Cooperative Extension's Keuka County office here on FLX Morning. The conservation field days are coming up at Emerson Park, September 16th and 17th. What is this program all about?
Frank Clark: So this is an event put on by the Keuka County Soil and Water Conservation District. We do that. They do this every year. CC has had a presence at this for three, four years going on now. So fourth and fifth grade classes from around the Auburn area, they come out to Emerson Park and there's about 40 different educators there talking about stuff from fish identification to maple syrup making to taxidermy. Really, we have DEC's there, Cornell Cooperative Extension's there, we have farmers there, we have the police there, firefighters are there. We really just have a huge range of educators there to just teach, you know, kids about certain areas of conservation.
Paul Szmal: Sounds like it will be a good program and certainly well-rounded having everything from fire and police to fish identifiers and the various other resources that are going to be available there.
Frank Clark: Yeah. Last year, I talked about manure. The year before that, I talked about soil science. We'll have one of our educators talking about insects this year. We cover a wide range of things and it's really fun to be out there with kids. Usually we have some good weather. It's a great event for us and I think for the students.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. And again, that's coming up on September 16th and 17th at Emerson Park. The next event we want to talk about is a garden cleanup workshop. This is going to be at the Seymour Library on October the 7th.
Frank Clark: Yep. So Seymour Library and CUGA-CC are continuing their partnership to hold education events. So October 7th, Tuesday at 4 p.m. With fall weather coming, we're going to talk about what to do with your garden now that fall is coming. You know, plan for next season. What to do now to keep your garden in good shape, like keeping a cover on your garden if you didn't plant any cover crops. What are some cover crops you could plant in the fall, although October 1st is a little late to plant anything. But, you know, how to manage your cover crops. If you did plant anything, what to do to prep for the winter. That'll make your start in the spring much easier. This should be a great event. We do lots of gardening stuff. So a good way to cap it off is how to finish your garden.
Paul Szmal: See, I remember when I was a kid, we had a garden at my mom and dad's house growing up. And I don't remember us ever planting cover crops. What's the advantage of doing that for springtime?
Frank Clark: I'll speak from personal experience here. This year, well, last winter, I forgot to plant a cover crop. Just time got away. And this is probably the weediest my garden has ever been. Usually I plant a winter rye cover crop, which I did do this year. And it's already about five inches tall. So what that's going to do is going to help smother out any weeds that germinate early in the spring. But it's also going to cover your garden from when we get some heavy rainstorms or when it eventually snows and melts. It's going to keep that soil right in your garden. The roots from the cover crops are going to build soil structure, which is great for drainage. It's great for root growth. And you'll be able to add some organic matter back into the soil, which is always good for plant health.
Paul Szmal: And so what happens in the springtime when you get ready to plant? Do you just till that winter crop under?
Frank Clark: That is an option. I choose to no till, but tilling is a great option for weed control. So what I do is I just I mow it down and then I just leave the straw on top and that will act as a cover for when I plant my seeds. And eventually that will decompose. But you can till it into the ground. You can mow it down. If you don't want to go through that hassle, you can grow a winter kale cover crop like oats. You'd have to plant that sometime in August, usually, but come November, those oats, once we get that first frost, those will die. Cover your soil for the winter. Come spring, you don't have to deal with terminating that cover crop.
Paul Szmal: Ah, OK, so so there are options, but it's dependent on when you actually plant.
Frank Clark: Yeah, there's lots of options that can fit. What are your needs for your soil? What are your management capabilities? We can kind of tailor it to whatever would work for you best, whatever you need. It's going to be a little late for that, but it's never too late to learn.
Paul Szmal: Right. And again, this workshop is Tuesday, October 7th, four o'clock at the Seymour Library. As always, Frank, I like to give out the website so that people can find out more information about any of the events that we've talked about this morning. You can find us at CCE Cayuga dot org.
Frank Clark: All right. Wonderful. Frankie, Frank, thank you very much.
Frank Clark: Thank you. I'm getting my words a little bit ahead of me here this morning. No one's called me Frankie since I was living at my parents.
Paul Szmal: There you go. Have a have a great day, sir. And we'll chat with you next month.
Frank Clark: You too. Thanks for having me.
Paul Szmal: All right. It is eight twenty five on FLX morning.
