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| Urban Agriculture Production, Small-Scale, and Beginning Farmer Program
Colleen Hanley, Assistant in Extension, Urban Agriculture Production, Small-Scale, and Beginning Farmer
Two new Program Coordinators have joined our team! We are excited to welcome Sharrona Moore and Sara Hipperson. Both new team members have extensive expertise in urban agriculture and come from farming backgrounds.
The onsite People’s Demonstration Farm (PDF) has kept us busy, filling up sandbags, tarping for Bermuda grass, and putting up insect netting to protect our crops from grasshoppers. We harvested our first round of crops; Sora Radishes, which are crunchy, spicy, and delicious!
Our Urban Ag Field Day on April 27th at the Coldwater Coop was a great success attended by farmers, non-profits, USDA-NRCS and FSA staff. Attendees enjoyed farm-to-table food while seeing an irrigation demonstration, touring the quarter acre urban farm with farmer Jhonny Flores, and hearing from the Program, FSA and NRCS Leaderships.
We have hosted two virtual events since our last update. The Urban Ag Hour featured a talk on the Upscaling of Indigenous Agriculture with Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson, and a presentation on NRCS EQIP with NRCS Team Leader Phillip Jacquez. May’s Urban Ag Hour Featured a talk on Small Farms Cost Estimator with Dr. Trent Teegerstrom and FSA Farm Numbers and resources with Arizona FSA Beginning Farmer Rancher Coordinator Santa Murillo.
Our team also had the pleasure of traveling to Douglas, Arizona to attend the 2nd Annual Small Minority Farmers and Ranchers Conference at Stewart Pastures. Time was spent connecting with producers, and the event featured speakers from Rural Development, AZDA, NCAT, and FSA. We also travelled north to Eager, Arizona to visit Arizona’s first mobile slaughter and processing facility, Little Colorado Meats, where we got to meet with founder Karalea Wiltbank and learned about the process to USDA Inspection, as well as her goals for increasing capacity for our local protein supply.
Finally, the program is awarded two grants with a total of $1.6 million. One is with the Arizona Specialty Crop Block Grants for two years to establish programs for beekeeping, honey production and pollination for small-scale and beginner farmers. The other award is a 5-year agreement with the USDA-FSA for Building Capacity for Urban Agriculture Production for Arizona Small-Scale, Beginning and Underserved farmers.
Want continual updates? Follow us on Instagram @urbanandsmallagproduction!
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Smartscape Program
Kirti Mathura, Program Coordinator, Senior, Smartscape
The Smartscape program had a busy spring season. We began with our basic Smartscape course. Immediately following that, all current and past graduates of the course had the opportunity to expand their knowledge by attending our new Advanced Smartscape: Urban Forest Management course.
We worked with Pima County Smartscape to update and expand a course they formerly offered. The four-part course covers all aspects of working with trees in our urban settings. Hands-on activities and group reviewing of a variety of participant’s experiences and challenges were valuable components of the classes. This course follows the Smartscape goal of educating participants to approach all facets of landscaping to maximize water efficiency in our desert environment.
Next, our established Advanced Smartscape: Irrigation course gave basic Smartscape graduates an in-depth understanding of best approaches to ensure that their irrigation systems are as water-efficient as possible. This includes an entire class of calculations to properly design a system (for sprinklers or drip), as well as a variety of hands-on practices rounding out the other classes.
Our basic Smartscape in Spanish (Smartscape en Español) is currently underway.
Another basic Smartscape in English is scheduled for July. Whew!
For more information on our courses, or if you have suggestions on ways to promote Smartscape, please contact Kirti Mathura.
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SNAP-Ed Program
June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month!
Marina Gallardo, MS | SNAP-Ed
The AZ Health Zone SNAP-Ed program is all about encouraging youth and adults to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, not only as we celebrate this special month, but year-round. Many of our partner schools participate in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a federally assisted program that provides free, fresh fruits and vegetables to children at eligible elementary schools during the school day. This snack program has several goals including introducing youth to new fruits and veggies, increasing acceptance and consumption, improving health, and promoting nutrition education. Schools currently participating in the National School Lunch Program are eligible to apply with special priority given to schools with the highest percentages of students participating in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. The snacks are given at least twice per week to all students outside of breakfast and lunch hours. Schools are also encouraged to be creative and purchase in-season fruits and vegetables from local farmers, making it a win-win for schools and local agriculture.
Our SNAP-Ed program can help support schools by providing nutrition education, fun activities, and even connecting them with local farms. Another way we celebrate fruits and vegetables is by providing support to school gardens where students get to experience growing their own favorite fruits and veggies and then taste them! We hope you also fill your plates with a rainbow of fruits and vegetables this June and always!
Photo source: American Heart Association www.Heart.org
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Urban Horticulture Program
Michael Chamberland
Assistant Agent, ANR/ Urban Horticulture
Our Spring Semester 2023 Master Gardeners trainees graduated in May. Fifteen trainees graduated as Certified Master Gardeners, while sixty-three graduated as Master Gardener Associates. We also presented certificates of completion to twenty-six students who completed our Home Horticulture Course.
May was also a time for celebration and recognition of Master Gardeners who are active with our Program. Recognition Awards were presented to those who have been active for five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five years. We offered Special Recognition Awards to Dan Costello, Pam Perry, Pam Shields, and Cheri Czaplicki for extraordinary service to the Master Gardener Program.
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Field Crops Integrated Pest Management Program
Dr. Ayman Mostafa, Area Programmatic Agent and Regional Specialist
The Field Crops IPM team is currently in the planning stages for two “Tent Talks”. These signature Program events are in their 13th year. They will be on-the-farm, in person, events that will highlight grower specific relevant topics for the low desert region including agronomy, pest management, plant pathology, soil health, economic aspects of field crops, and much more!
The team held our annual New Technologies Workshop for Agriculture in Arizona on May 3rd at the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension’s Palo Verde Room. The workshop was well received and well attended by the program’s clientele, and discussed topics related to new technologies for agriculture, like new agronomic, water and pest management practice, and their potentials for Arizona and the southwest.
The program also conducted multiple field alfalfa pest efficacy trials as well as multiple pest focused bioassays to address a growing concern of insecticide resistances, as well as the effect of these pesticides on the natural enemy populations. Some of these are annual trials and some are a part of a recently funded project by the USDA-NIFS to better understand the relationship between pest populations, their natural enemy predators, and the decision-making practices of growers on which pesticides offer the most pest protection while also preserving the natural enemy populations.
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Interim Director CutDr. Ayman Mostafa
Temperatures are increasing, as well as activities and program deliveries of Maricopa County Cooperative Extension. On May 17th, we held our first annual Employee Appreciation Lunch to celebrate our MCCE personnel who contribute so much to the success of our programs. We ate delicious food, played fun games, and recognized milestones and achievements. Among recognized personnel was Kaley Necessary, who won the Employee of the Year award for her distinguished efforts and exceptional contributions towards the efficiency of operations, as well as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. We also celebrated Dr. Ed Martin, who has been appointed Associate Vice President and Director of UArizona Cooperative Extension, and Traci Florian Armstrong, who was promoted to the rank of full Agent. The dedication of our team to making MCCE a valuable resource for the community are amazing and worthy of celebration everyday!
Our MCCE is establishing and increasing collaboration with many of our partners, like the Maricopa County, Maricopa County Farm Bureau, the USDA-NRCS and FSA and many others all over the County, the State, and nationally.
Our Maricopa County Cooperative Extension personnel are busy with a variety of programming that continues to address the challenges and opportunities of county and state residences. The Programs are doing so by providing educational opportunities, applied research, and seeking sources of funding to meet the growing needs of our communities. I invite you to read about what is happening at MCCE, follow our social media accounts for the office and programs, and as always, please stop by and see what’s new at the office.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support of Maricopa County Cooperative Extension!
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