Gardening at Cooperative Extension

[FriedaKateM]

To add my own opinion, in regard to maple syrup.....I much prefer the real thing, and the last I purchased around here was at our local flea market. It was local to Indiana, and it was really good. It tends to be much thinner than the old "Log Cabin", or "Aunt Jemima" syrups. I have memories as a kid of eating buckwheat pancakes with Log Cabin, & drinking milk, and feeling rather queasy from the combo. (didn't like that!) So the real is much better. Joan

[miolchu]

Real maple syrup on oatmeal (steel cut not rolled) and life is good.

[miolchu]

I became a Master Gardener six years ago with the intention of having an opportunity to ramp up my tree projects and to have a vehicle for creating therapeutic horticulture projects for some of the individuals I work with out of my office. The Master Gardener program dates from the 1970's and was intended to train cadres of volunteers who perform community service and function as a lay supplement to county cooperative extension service staff who are frequently understaffed and in need of extra hands when responding to community requests for horticulture information and assistance.

I had been germinating tree seedlings on a small scale at home and was able to expand the scale of my projects at cooperative extension. I have finally exceeded the community's capacity for my projects and have more seedling needing to be outplanted than locations to plant them. It is rather unfortunate because I have some of the best stock this year after two summers of above average moisture.

I work with adults who often live in poverty and whose live's have been complicated by psychiatric conditions. A few of them have benefitted from this program and have since been able to return to employment, some on a part-time basis, others full-time.