News Stories - Page 385

It’s sweater weather again, and that means Georgians are going to be building fires in their fireplaces and at campsites. As you gather up the wood for your fire, remember those perfectly seasoned logs may still be home to all sorts of six and eight legged friends.

Despite a bumper crop of high-quality pecans this year, Georgia’s growers will probably make fewer profits from their harvest. However, consumers can expect to pay about the same price for the tree nuts as they did last fall.

Organizers of the 2013 Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest are looking for a few new jams, confections, barbecue sauces, cheeses, popsicles, granolas, soups and any other products that are exceptionally edible.

Growing and eating collards, turnips and other greens are a Southern tradition. But home gardeners often complain of spots on the leaves of homegrown greens.

The National Association of Extension 4-H Agents honored Diane Davies, known as the founder of the environmental education program in Georgia, by inducting her into the National 4-H Hall of Fame on Oct. 12 at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Md.

Spring flowering bulbs, such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses, add lots of color and visual enjoyment to early spring flower beds. These bulbs are among the first flowers to appear in spring and signal that cold weather is on the way out and warmer days are just around the corner.

Many a gardener has spent a sunny October afternoon admiring his mums only to wake up the next morning to a winter wonderland and frostbitten flowers. Georgia’s first frost usually hits in the middle of November, but sometimes it sneaks into the state a little earlier. When it does, it is good to have some supplies on hand and a game plan.

For the past 12 years, the University of Georgia has tapped its own talent to help keep its dozens of Athens based building safe from termites.

Daniel Hillel, the 2012 World Food Prize Laureate and a 1950 graduate of the University of Georgia, spent the better part of his career perfecting arid- land farming methods in Israel and sharing them with farmers across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. On Nov. 8, Hillel will return to Athens to deliver the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ 2012 D.W. Brooks Lecture at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Every year around this time the national news is filled with stories of monument-sized pumpkins from places like Maine and Michigan, but Georgians are no slouches when it comes to giant produce.