UVM Extension Maple Specialist George Cook and colleagues were happy to participate in the Campus and Community: Public and Land-Grant Universities program at the 46th annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. A large interactive exhibit was constructed, teaching folks world-wide about pure maple syrup production and research. This event took place June 27 to July 8, 2012, on the National Mall, surrounded by the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the museums of the Smithsonian Institute. More than one million visitors attended. Campus and Community was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
VT AgrAbility Project was featured in the summer issue of Vermont's Local Banquet, a quarterly magazine that illuminates the connections between local food and Vermont communities. Their stories, interviews, and essays reveal how Vermont residents are building their local food systems, how farmers are faring in a time of great opportunity and challenge, and how Vermont's agricultural landscape is changing as the localvore movement shapes what is grown and raised here. In short, they offer a bird's eye view of the transformations taking place on farms, within communities, and inside kitchens and gardens throughout the state. Read story
Janis Moore attended the UVM Youth Safety Camp, held on the University of Vermont campus, as a guest instructor. Eighteen pages of farm safety checklists were handed out to the students and an explanation of all on-farm hazards (and solutions) were discussed as they were discovered on the UVM farm tour. It was a successful learning experience and several "unlisted" hazards were also found, by students, while investigating safety issues.
Submitted by Janis Moore