Read with a Farmer Recording Available

Did you miss the live Read with a Farmer event?

We now have a pre-recorded session available. Brent Ashurst, a local beekeeper, reads The Beeman by Laurie Krebs.
Visit our website to view the recording and the supplemental educator's guide. http://ucanr.edu/Readwithafarmer/
**Recordings of the live Zoom sessions will be available soon**

About our reader: Brent Ashurst is a 4th generation beekeeper in the Imperial Valley who's family has been in the industry for over 100 years. Brent graduated from Brawley Union High School in 2001 and went to work in the family business immediately after. In 2004 Brent purchased 900 of his own bees from a local beekeeper in the Imperial Valley and started Ashurst Apiaries. Since then he has grown his bees from 900 up to 2500-3000 colonies. Brent is active in the California State Beekeepers Association where he is currently finishing his 2nd term as President. While serving as President he also currently holds a board position on the California Apiary Board and was appointed by Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Ashurst Apiaries' goal is to provide strong bees for pollination of crops in the Imperial Valley, San Diego, Riverside, Kern, and Tulare counties for seasonal crops requiring bees. My fondest memory of working with the bees is either catching swarms with my Grandpa, Delvin Ashurst, or working with our employees; many of which have been with us for 40+ years. I have always enjoyed their knowledge and love for the bees.

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(Below is the newsletter at a glance)

 AG in the Classroom

Grant Deadline: Friday, October 30, 2020

Don't forget to submit your grant applications by October 30, 2020. 

Send all applications to scwills@ucanr.edu

 or

APPLY ONLINE HERE

KID WISE
 DESIGN AN AD PROGRAM

View Kid Wise Flyer

What is Kid Wise?
Each quarter IID's Environmental Mitigation Section teams up with Imperial Valley Alive! Magazine to get into a 3rd-grade classroom to implement the Kid Wise –Design an Ad Program. An environmental specialist from IID and an advertisement specialist from Alive! Magazine will come into the classroom and speak about a local environmental topic or issue, advertisements and how to design an ad. Each student then designs their own ad to submit and 4 winners are selected and featured in the next issue of Imperial Valley Alive! Magazine.

IID is now offering a virtual Kid Wise- Design an Ad Program.  Please contact Jessica Humes at JLLHUMES@iid.com or 760-427-6190 for more information.

October 26th is National Pumpkin Day!

Celebrate the season with this delicious pumpkin recipe
View the Recipe Online

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) chicken broth
• 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions: In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Remove from the heat; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in the broth, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cream; cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.

Nutrition Facts
1 cup: 212 calories, 19g fat (12g saturated fat), 65mg cholesterol, 427mg sodium, 10g carbohydrate (5g sugars, 3g fiber), 3g protein. 

https://mailchi.mp/ec944395bcde/farm-smart-fall-programs-registration-open

Explore Imperial Valley Agriculture with Farm Smart this Fall.  Whether its interviewing ag professionals or taking a field trip to various ag operations across the valley.  Register now to join in on these interactive live zoom sessions.  All sessions will be recorded for later viewing.

Ag Careers Explorer (7th-12th Grade)

Virtual Field Trips (k-6th Grade)

View all programs

If you are involved in agriculture and interested in hosting a Q&A or Field Trip, please contact Stacey Amparano at scwills@ucanr.edu or (760)356-3067

Through the generous donations of the Imperial County Farm Bureau, Imperial County Vegetable Growers Association, Farm Credit West, Imperial Valley Water, and California Women for Agriculture-Imperial Valley there are a limited number of grants available to Imperial County Educators! Educators who attend the 2020 Free Virtual CA Ag in the Classroom Conference on September 25-26 are eligible to apply for the available grants.

These grants are to support the integration of agriculture into regular classroom instruction or after school programs with an academic focus. May be used for initiating new projects or to expand existing projects that promote ag literacy in Imperial County. Grants can be used to fund innovative lessons, activities, classroom resources, guest speakers, outreach programs, field trips, and other projects. For more information and a link to register for the conference, please visit http://drec.ucanr.edu/farm_smart/grant/