Anyone who uses Maine’s beaches — from surfers to business owners — is invited to attend the 2013 Maine Beaches Conference to share information with other stakeholders.

The latest on erosion, weather and water quality at Maine’s beaches, as well as the importance of tourism and property rights, will be discussed Friday, July 12, 2013 at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland.

The conference aims to share data from the state’s beach monitoring programs, as well as provide a forum for communication among beach stakeholders, such as property owners, recreational users and managers.

The 7:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. event will include multimedia sessions and exhibits, presentations and a walking tour during lunch.

Session topics will include the effects of Superstorm Sandy, erosion control, tourism promotion, water quality, pollution, ecological values and property rights.

Representatives from several organizations including the Maine Geological Survey, National Weather Service, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Office of Tourism and Maine Beaches Association will present during the sessions.

The conference is coordinated by Maine Sea Grant and a steering committee of public and private partners.

Steering committee members representing conference stakeholder groups are responsible for designing and implementing the event, according to conference coordinator Kristen Grant, a marine extension associate with Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension based at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.

The first Maine Beaches Conference was held in 2000 and emerged from Sea Grant-funded research by UMaine faculty Joseph Kelley and Daniel Belknap who developed a volunteer beach erosion monitoring program in response to recommendations of the Southern Maine Beach Stakeholder Group, according to Catherine Schmitt, Maine Sea Grant communications coordinator.

“Even in that first year, it was clear the interest in that information extended far beyond the monitoring volunteers,” Grant says. “Because beach stakeholders in Maine represent a diverse range of interests, the conference has always sought to provide continuing opportunities for communication and exchange of the most current information among these stakeholders.”

Grant says participants continue to return to the conference because they say it provides up-to-date information and many opportunities to learn and network.

“They also appreciate the chance to meet resource people face-to-face, the sharing of diverse perspectives and new ideas, and the action-orientation of the conference,” Grant says.

For more information or to request disability accommodations, call Grant at 207.646.1555, ext. 115.

Registration information, program details, speaker biographies and session and exhibit descriptions are available online.

Contact: Elyse Kahl, 207.581.3747

Saturday, June 22, 2013 from 9am-12pm
UMaine Extension Cumberland County office, UMaine Regional Learning Center
75 Clearwater Drive, Suite 104, Falmouth, Maine  04105

Fee: $30 for the general public and $25 for MPGA members.

Deadline to register is June 19th! Enrollment is limited to 20 participants.

Please click here to register online or to download a registration form.

For more information about becoming a member of The Maine Poultry Growers’ Association
(MPGA) please go to: http://www.mainepoultrygrowers.org

If you have any questions about this workshop, please call UMaine Cooperative Extension, Cumberland County office at 207-781-6099 or 1-800-287-1471 (in Maine).

Photo by Amy Witt

Maine Harvest for Hunger is urgently seeking gardeners who would be willing to plant an extra row of fruit or vegetables this growing season, and then donate the harvest to local food pantries in the area.

Enrollment for the Maine Harvest for Hunger is currently open online and easy to do!

To enroll in the program, click here. Or, contact Amy Witt at amy.witt@maine.edu

Help feed Maine’s hungry! Your garden could make a difference.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of UMaine Extension Master Gardener Norm Steele last Sunday. Norm was such an integral part of our Extension family for the last 25 years and we will miss him.

He never tired teaching others how to make seed tape, heading up the Plant-A-Row Program (now Maine Harvest for Hunger) or raising seedlings with Elementary students in Portland. Norm was in the first class of Master Gardeners in our county and did so much to make the program as successful as it is today.

Our condolences to Norms family.

Norms Obituary

Norm Steele teaching about composting at the 2009 Backyard Locavore Tour

fresh strawberries

Date: June 18, 2013
Topic: Preserving Low-Sugar Strawberry Jam
Location: UMaine Regional Learning Center, 75 Clearwater Dr, Falmouth
Time: 5:30 – 8:30 PM
Cost: $15 (scholarships are available)
To register: Call Lois Elwell at 207-781-6099 or 1-800-287-1471 (in Maine) or register online

Come learn how to preserve those freshly picked strawberries! Kate McCarty, Community Educator and Master Food Preserver Volunteers are offering a hands-on low-sugar strawberry jam canning class. Bring a pot holder with you as the take home product will be warm to the touch.

Make this your year to learn how to preserve all of your garden produce! Check our website often for current  Preserving workshops

Teams of Master Gardener volunteers from Cumberland County are engaged in the horticulture education programs at the farm, where youth and adults learn best practices for growing fruits and vegetables. Purchased locally, the tractor will also be used in Extension’s Farm Tractor Safety classes in which youth and adult drivers gain skills and knowledge for the safe operation of tractors.

The pledge is the lead gift kicking off the 2013 campaign to raise an additional $10,000 to purchase farm tractor implements and gardening supplies for the educational programs in response to the increasing public interest in growing fresh produce and feeding Maine’s hungry. The long-range vision for UMaine Extension at the farm is to offer expanded educational and cultural programs year-round for the public.

Since arriving at Tidewater Farm in 2011, UMaine Extension has worked closely with the Tidewater Conservation Foundation, local neighbors, town officials and organizations, such as Cultivating Community and the Center for African Heritage, to create an agricultural learning center offering popular gardening and horticulture programs throughout the growing season.

With the support of the Master Gardener volunteers, in collaboration with UMaine Extension staff, the gardens generated more than 500 pounds of fresh produce for area food pantries in the last growing season, with plans to increase that number in coming years. According to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, 23 percent of Maine’s children are food insecure, meaning they do not have enough food to eat on a regular basis. Educational programs at Tidewater Farm are part of UMaine Extension’s statewide Harvest for Hunger program that collects and distributes more than 209,000 pounds of fresh produce annually. A portion of that annual harvest is distributed to area food pantries and through the Good Shepherd Food Bank, one of UMaine Extension’s key partners in addressing hunger in Maine.

To become involved as a donor or volunteer at Tidewater Farm, contact the UMaine Cooperative Extension Office in Cumberland County, 207.781.6099. More information is online (extension.umaine.edu/cumberland).

In this picture from left to right: Program Administrator Lisa Phelps, Horticulturist Amy Witt and Extension Educator Dick Brzozowski.

The number of sheep producers is growing in Maine and beyond. The Maine Sheep Breeders Association, in partnership with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, has developed a 30-month long project known as the “Outreach to Emerging Maine Sheep Entrepreneurs”. The project’s purpose is to equip new sheep producers with knowledge and skills for a successful sheep enterprise. Leah Hoenen is a participant and has volunteered to write about her experiences and share them with the UMaine Extension Community. In this installment she writes about attending UMaine Extension Beginner Shearing School 2013 at Wolfsneck Farm in Freeport:

    A sheared sheep wears a certain look of confusion and shame. His companions don’t recognize him, he’s a little cold and a little dazed. The shearing process is quick and efficient; demonstrating it is slightly less so. The unfortunate sheep chosen as the demo sheep on a recent rainy Saturday morning bemoaned his bad luck. Made to topple over a few times just to show the technique of unbalancing a sheep, he sat stiff-legged and stoically through a slow shear, only to suffer the indignity of being written on with a thick, green crayon (to remind prospective shearers of the direction in which a sheep is shorn). Then, they took his picture, digitally preserving his embarrassment for all time.

Watching the first of dozens of sheep to be shorn for the day, I felt pity. Reliably, I’m a bleeding heart, but I’m a practical one. I felt sorry for the sheep in the same way I feel sorry for my Beagle when she reeks of old gym sock and I plop her in the kitchen sink for a bath. She whines, cries and otherwise oozes misery, but I still wash her. Sheep have to be shorn and I get that. But, they do have a very sad countenance. They played me, and I bit.

Standing in the barn at Wolfe’s Neck Farm on a painfully damp and cold morning, I told Karl I was halfway to a David Foster Wallace moment. He thought it was poetic and weird. Sheep after sheep skidded its way across the wet concrete and was ingloriously plopped onto its rump, sitting awkwardly on its bottom like a changeling bear. Some laid limply, others quivered, from cold or muscle stiffness, who knows.

The methodology of controlling the sheep and manipulating its body for maximum effectiveness remains hazy to me; having recently been separated from my wisdom teeth, I was instructed to avoid “exerting” myself, so I didn’t practice. Figuring that wrestling an animal which weighs more than me would be on my surgeon’s list of things to avoid, and taking into serious account the relentless throbbing in my jaw, I decided it was Karl’s turn to shear a sheep and I shamelessly egged him on. Sometimes living vicariously is the best a girl can do.

Out walked the sheep, a lovely brown sheep. The instructor asked, “Whose sheep is this?” Karl raised his hand, and walked over. She was on her bottom before I knew what was happening. I read this as a good sign. But, it pretty much went downhill from there. She didn’t want to be on her bottom and she certainly did not want to be sheared. It takes a while to shear when you’re not a pro. This animal did not look kindly upon the learning curve. At every turn she was kicking, thrashing and twisting, on her feet as much as she was off of them and she and Karl were quickly bloodied in the process (no permanent damage to either party). Standing back and appreciating the show from a safe, uninvolved distance, I found it fascinating. She worked him over like any wry five-year-old would a substitute teacher, seeking every possible opening and taking each one. It was genius. And impressive. So often, people accuse sheep of being stupid. That is not true. I’m never in favor of someone hurting or frustrating my husband, but I admired her tenacity. She knew what she was in for and she said, “No, thank you.”

The exercise is not simply to rid the sheep of its fleece. You do need to do that, but the trick is to take the fleece off such that the majority of it is in a sellable, solid piece – easier said than done, especially when the critter in that coat of wool is wriggling for all it’s worth. The shearer’s goal is to keep the sheep off balance so he can’t get back on his feet: you’ll see shearers tuck their toes under the sheep’s hips or shoulders and squeeze the animals between their knees to help keep them still. The shearing all done in a specific order, moving the sheep’s body around the shearer so that the undesirable wool (the belly wool) is eliminated first and the good stuff comes off in a contiguous mass. After the belly, one shears down the right side of the animal, down the back and then diagonally across the left side, remaining still while moving the sheep and positioning the animal so that its mass presses against its skin, filling out and stretching the skin for easier shaving. Thankfully, there’s a chart.

Shearing is a skill to have in your back pocket for the spring when the shearer can’t come to you or you can’t get to him or her. If you’re raising sheep for fiber, however, like we hope to, it’s probably a job for the pros. There is the fear of skinning the sheep instead of shearing it and the concern about trashing the fleece. You might also consider the health of your back. This is not a task for the faint-hearted or the unfit, but it’s one of those off-the-radar skills that is fun to try on a lark, says the girl who didn’t shear.

Ever wonder how to preserve all those great garden vegetables? University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s hands-on food preservation workshops will teach you the basics of canning and freezing, including how to use pressure canners and water bath canners to preserve pickles, jam, and vegetables. Learn from the experts. We will provide fresh produce and canning jars. For a current listing of upcoming food preserving workshops go to: http://umaine.edu/food-health/food-preservation/hands-on-workshops/