Steve Bennish of the Dayton Daily News reports on a new project aimed at helping honey bees and other pollinators. A partner on the project is CFAES’s outreach arm, OSU Extension.
Month: June 2015
Small-Plot Market Farming Master Class: Sustainable Farm Tour Series
Next in the 2015 Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series: Small-Plot Market Farming Master Class, June 21, at Carriage House Farm in North Bend in southwest Ohio. “This class,” the series brochure says, “is well-suited for serious gardeners looking to start a business or small-scale market growers interested in fine-tuning their operation.” For full details, click here and scroll to p. 20.
‘Ohio State was well represented and appreciated’
CFAES’s Office of International Programs in Agriculture recently co-convened a three-day international conference on climate change and sustainability through the Innovative Agricultural Research Initiative, or iAGRI, a Feed the Future Project in Tanzania funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Steve Slack, director of OARDC, CFAES’s research arm, is pictured giving some of the conference’s opening remarks. Read the story.
Solar electric workshop: Sustainable Farm Tour Series
Next in the 2015 Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series: A five-day solar electric workshop at OEFFA’s office in the Ohio Lumbermen’s Building, 41 Croswell Road, Columbus. The focus: In-depth, hands-on lectures and labs on designing and installing a photovoltaic system for your home or farm. “At the end of the week,” the tour blurb says, “you will have the opportunity to sit for an internationally recognized certification Level 1 examination offered by the Electronic Technicians Association, which allows you to receive a respected industry credential demonstrating your knowledge.” There’s a sizable (but should be worth it) cost for this one. For details, click here, scroll to p. 19.
Dairy goats and soaps: Sustainable Farm Tour Series
Next in the 2015 Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series: Dairy Goats and Soaps Tour, June 13, at Pine Lane Farm in Batavia in southwest Ohio. Martha Fix and family raise Saanen and Toggenburg goats, which give milk for making cold-process soaps and body care products. For details, click here and scroll down to p. 33. Read more about the farm at its website.
All about beneficial predatory insects
CFAES scientist Mary Gardiner has a new book out called Good Garden Bugs: Everything You Need To Know About Beneficial Predatory Insects. Diana Lockwood talked to her about it for a recent story in the Columbus Dispatch …
Details aflutter
Two recent stories in the Youngstown Vindicator, both by experts with ties to CFAES, talk about Ohio’s butterflies and specifically about its monarchs. (Photo: iStock.)
Steps to save monarch butterflies
James F. McCarty writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the Monarch Wings Across Ohio project:
“As recently as three years ago, migrating monarch butterflies covered the trees at Wendy Park on Whiskey Island in the fall as they sought shelter on their epic migratory journey southward toward Florida or Mexico.
“Last year, the huge flocks of orange-and-black butterflies had disappeared from the lakefront park — anecdotal evidence of the monarch’s declining population caused, in part, by the loss of milkweed.”
CFAES’s Bee Lab is one of many partners on the project, which aims to plant milkweed and other plants needed by the butterflies. Read the story. (Photo: iStock.)
What goes in must come out: How to save water and money in the process
“Property owners who want to save money, water and energy now have many new options available in the state, thanks to the new Household Sewage Treatment System rules,” writes CFAES scientist Karen Mancl in Ohio’s Country Journal. Read about those options …
‘I believe in the fundamental goodness of milk’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls4BcVzpS8w
Learn more about Snowville Creamery, the June 6 stop in the 2015 Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series, in the video above.