The August 11th Master Gardener meeting will be another very interesting Zoom meeting. The meeting will begin at 10 am. You will need to register in advance for this meeting:
https://auburn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwrcO-hqzsqHdX-V2ZaZvoSiiR-4lYQwktx
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. At the time of the meeting, you can sign on, click buttons to share your camera and voice, so all of us can see and talk with each other.
The speaker, Trace Barnett, is excited to be able to present by Zoom.
Trace Barnett is the founder of The Bitter Socialite, a culinary and lifestyle blog that features creative and unique content about living a beautiful, well-balanced life while juggling a tight budget and a hectic schedule. Readers find easy, seasonal recipes, DIY projects, entertaining ideas, gardening tips, useful household how-to's, decor, and much more.
A popular guest on several television shows, Trace makes regular appearances on both "Good Day Alabama" on FOX 6 WBRC, and "Talk of Alabama" on ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. In Nashville, "Talk of the Town" on Newschannel5 WTVF. In Tupelo/ Columbus/Oxford, he appears on WLOV "This Morning" and WTVA "News at Noon." In Atlanta, both Good Day Atlanta and Atlanta and Co. Trace was a finalist on The Next Food Network Star on Food Network. He was also a finalist on Food Network’s series Comeback Kitchen.
His debut book, Tracing Roots, A Modern Approach to Living off the Land was published in 2018. It focuses on taking a modern approach to living off the land. A culinary journey through the seasons, the recipes emphasize using ingredients at their peak. Each chapter, highlighting seven growing seasons, features an engrossing collection of specially curated heirloom recipes with an Appalachian flair unique to the Alabama region where Barnett grew up. With instructional guides to beekeeping, raising chickens, planting, and foraging, in addition to more than 100 recipes, Tracing Roots simplifies homesteading tasks with a modern flair ideal for the urban or suburban gardener. Sumptuous photography transports readers to the rustic simplicity of North Alabama and marks the introduction of a refreshing new voice in cooking. You can find his book in our Birmingham Botanical Library. You can also purchase it from Amazon.
Trace's entertaining tips, gardening ideas, recipes, and DIY projects have also been featured in Good Grit Magazine, Birmingham Magazine, Alabama Magazine, Food Network Magazine, Foodnetwork.com, Southernliving.com, Stylehomepage.com, al.com, Newsweek County Living, Alabama Gardener, Tennessee Gardener, Virginia Gardener, Oklahoma Gardener, Mississippi Gardener, Kentucky Gardener, Arkansas Gardener, Georgia Gardener, and Louisiana Gardener.
You won’t want to miss the August meeting.
The Master Gardener meeting for September will be at 10:00 am on the 8th. The Zoom speaker will be Ansel Payne. whose topic will be Birds and the urban gardener: an evolving partnership. Dr. Payne will discuss the important role that urban gardeners can play in bird conservation, and the equally important contributions of birds to the aesthetics of the modern home landscape.
Ansel joined the Alabama Audubon staff as a naturalist in 2016, before becoming the organization’s first Outreach Director later that year; he assumed the role of Executive Director in May 2018. A graduate of Harvard (BA) and Tufts (MS), he earned his PhD in comparative biology at the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School, where his work on the evolutionary history of digger wasps led to field expeditions in the American West, Central America, and the Middle East. The author of several scientific papers and popular articles.
October’s Master Gardener Zoom meeting will feature Rudy Pacumbaba, whose topic will be “Ornamental Grasses, the other Grass in the Landscape.”
Rudy Pacumbaba is a State Extension Specialist in Horticulture for Home Grounds, Gardens and Home Pests with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Rudy also serves as the Co-Coordinator for the Home Grounds Program Team. He is assigned to the Urban Affairs Program Unit located on the campus of Alabama A&M University. His degrees and speciality are in: B.S. in Medical Microbiology, M.S. in Plant Science (Horticulture), Ph.D. in Plant Science (Plant Physiology - Horticulture).
Prior to joining Alabama Extension Rudy worked for 10 years in academia as an Assistant Professor doing research, teaching and faculty advisor to undergraduate and graduate students.
This year, we can continue to learn, grow and give back.
The Grow More Give More program has launched. You can be part of this very worthwhile program by going to the ACES Website to learn about the program. The online video and texts will be available to support Master Gardeners as well as novice gardeners in growing vegetable crops as successfully as possible The idea of the program is that every gardener will grow enough to share a little extra with an individual or an institution in need. ACES realizes that for some gardeners it may be easiest to carry a small bag of extras across the street to a neighbor, or take a box to their local school—others won’t be happy unless they’re delivering a harvest to a regional food bank.
We can donate extra fruits and vegetables:
HERE
Drop off extra vegetables to neighbors who are shut in by age or illness, or are affected by job loss and would appreciate fresh produce (and a kind note or a flower perhaps)
THERE
Reach out to schools, community centers and places of worship which you already know and see if there’s a new need you can help fill
EVERYWHERE
Statewide charities like Society of St. Andrews, a crop gleaning charity www.endhunger.org, and regional operations like Community Foodbank of Central Alabama www.feedingal.org, are positioned to coordinate donations, particularly in larger quantities.
The Grace Klein Community is gratefully accepting donated produce and vegetable plant seedlings. Please contact me at bethany@aces.edu if you can share seedlings and transplants of edible plants so I can let Grace Klein know when and what to expect. Donated produce, seedlings and transplants can be donated to Grace Klein Community on Tuesday afternoons from 1-4 at 2652 Old Rocky Ridge Road, Birmingham, 35216.
If you are on Facebook, please like the Alabama Smart Yards page as well as our own Jefferson County Master Gardener page. Please check these daily and share the Grow More Give More posts on your own pages. Encourage your family and friends to share, as well. Together we can make a difference.