- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Mark Gaskell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Santa Barbara County, is credited in the Santa Inez Valley Journal for helping a retired couple start a new business. Gaskell is an expert in small-scale farming.
The article said Leonard and Nancy Morrell were unsure what to do with their 2.5-acre farm in Solvang after their kids were raised and they retired from their jobs. Leonard read a research paper by Gaskell that suggested the area provided excellent conditions to grow blackberries and raspberries.
“It just seemed like something that I’d like to do,” Leonard said of his initial...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Several years ago, Jay Ruskey of Good Land Organics and UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Mark Gaskell started an experiment to see how well coffee plants would grow in Santa Barbara County's temperate coastal climate, reported Sara Cole on the website Eat Drink Explore. After harvesting and processing the beans, they were pleasantly surprised by the results. They found that coffee plants tolerate a temperate climate as long as they are protected from extreme weather like frost, wind and high heat.
"Fifteen years ago this would not...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California small-scale farmers have an ally in their corner when it comes to specialty crop production - UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisors, noted a recent article in Capital Press.
In Fresno, UCCE small farm advisor Richard Molinar is working with Southeast Asian farmers on such crops as Chinese long beans, gailon, eggplant and jujubes, the story said.
He's also helping growers produce Uzbek-Russian melon, which is said to be more flavorful than cantaloupe or honeydew. And for the past seven years, he's been experimenting with miniature watermelons, another specialty crop well suited for small-scale...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When President John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961, he not only sent thousands of Americans to serve the cause of peace in the developing world, he set them on a course of service that continued when they returned to the U.S. A significant number came to work for UC Cooperative Extension.
One of them is Jim Grieshop, a now-retired UCCE community education development specialist, who was profiled in an article in the February issue of Alaska Airlines Magazine marking the Peace Corps' 50th anniversary.
Acceptance into the Peace Corps helped Grieshop achieve his personal goal...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is tentatively scheduled to review a UC Cooperative Extension funding request at its July 27 meeting, according to an article published yesterday in the Lompoc Record.
The county had approved $111,700 for the programs and staff expertise provided by UCCE, but at its budget hearings in June, $68,000 in additional funding was requested. On June 22, the Board of Supervisors couldn’t get the four votes needed for approval.
For the article, reporter Sam Womack spoke to Don Kingborg of UC ANR...