Spartanburg EFNEP has been partnering with the Bethlehem Center to bring nutrition education to their afterschool groups this school year. The second-grade class enjoyed a six-week series learning the Show Me Nutrition curriculum.
During this time, the children were introduced to MyPlate by playing games with the five food groups and diving deeper into each category each week. The class enjoyed tasting a myriad of recipes including a fruit smoothie, colorful fruit skewers, food group sandwiches, and more.
Over six sessions, the children studied how to build strong bones, power up with protein, eat a rainbow of fruits and a variety of vegetables in addition to moving their bodies more. They enjoyed playing games and creating their own personalized MyPlates to set healthier goals for themselves.
These students are ready to tackle all that the remainder of the school year has to bring with healthy and active mindsets!
The world of horticulture is as dynamic as it is rewarding. Every day presents new opportunities to learn, grow, and connect with nature—and the more I immerse myself in this field, the more I discover how much there is to explore. Moving continents certainly accelerated the learning curve—Switzerland, with its colder climate, presented far fewer pest challenges compared to the Upstate!
As the Horticulture Agent for Spartanburg County, my mission is to serve our community by continually expanding my own knowledge. The more I learn, the better I can support and empower others to grow and thrive in their own gardens and landscapes. One of the questions I’m often asked is, “What native plants should I grow here in the Upstate?” This led me to create a native plant identification program for Wofford College’s Lifelong Learning program. In the course, we explored botanical terms like lenticels and sepals and examined 50 plant species that are native to our region. This project not only deepened my understanding of local flora but also allowed me to teach others about the beauty and benefits of these plants, all while expanding my own botanical vocabulary.
In addition to my work with local plants, I’ve had the privilege of advising St. Luke’s Free Medical Clinic on their journey toward growing food and developing a teaching garden. Through this collaboration, I’ve learned more about vegetable gardening in the Upstate—no small feat, given our unique growing conditions. These insights have allowed me to better assist clients with their own home gardening questions, offering advice that is both practical and regionally relevant.
I’m also excited to be working closely with our local Master Gardeners, who play an invaluable role in our community. Their outreach efforts continue to inspire me, and I look forward to collaborating with them on an upcoming class, set to launch in Fall 2025. Together, we’ll empower even more people to grow their knowledge and skills in horticulture.
On the horizon, I’m working on something I’m particularly excited about: the Backyard Homesteading classes. Many homeowners are eager to become more self-sufficient, and I’m thrilled to offer them the tools and guidance to do just that—even with a small backyard. From planning your property to raising and butchering poultry, from canning to beekeeping, and even eating your weeds—there’s so much potential in small spaces. It’s my goal to help homeowners reclaim their food sources and find joy in their gardens in ways they may never have imagined.
As I continue to grow in this role, I am incredibly grateful for the guidance and support I receive from my fellow agents and supervisors.
Nicole Goodman – County Consumer Horticulture Agent
It will soon be time for our 4th annual Peach Country Livestock Expo! This partnership between Spartanburg and Cherokee County 4-H provides a much-needed opportunity for our area youth to exhibit their animals during the spring season.
Each year the event has seen growth in youth participants, species exhibited, and community sponsors. For 2025 we have added a Dairy Goat Show and a Horse Show! Last year we hosted almost 70 youth exhibitors and hope that with the addition of two new species that we are able to increase that number to 100 this year!
The show is open to the public and there is no charge for admission. Please join us to cheer on our 4-H and FFA youth!
The schedule is as follows:
Friday, March 21st at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds
6:00pm – Market Swine Show
Saturday, March 22nd at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds
11:00am – Beef Cattle Show
2:00pm – Rabbit Show and Chicken Show
5:00pm – Dairy Goat Show
Saturday, April 26th at Croft State Park
Time TBA – Horse Show
For more information about the show (to attend, enter, or sponsor) please contact Laura Haddon by email at lhaddon@clemson.edu or by phone at (864) 596-2993.
Plans for this very popular summer camp began in January
when a team of four Spartanburg teens attended the South Carolina 4-H Cooking
Like a Chef Summit in Chapin. The four teens
cooked through recipes from a set of six menus.
They learned basic knife cuts, how spices can completely change a dish,
and a variety of different cooking techniques.
In
July, these teens shared their skills and love for cooking with 15 of our
younger 4-H members. Spartanburg
Community College Culinary Arts Department provided our group with the use of
their classroom kitchen. Our youth felt
like true chefs as they chopped, mixed, seasoned, and sauteed in a real
commercial kitchen!
The teen
leaders chose their favorite recipes from their experience at the Summit and
developed themes for each day of our three-day camp. Tuesday was for tacos, Wednesday was a
Breakfast Bonanza, and we wrapped up our cooking adventure with a Pizza Party!
Fun
and learning were had by all involved and we look forward to not only hosting
this event again next summer, but also to seeing our teen leaders compete in
upcoming 4-H cooking competitions!
If
you have a child (ages 9 to 18) interested in 4-H cooking opportunities, please
contact Laura Haddon at lhaddon@clemson.edu
for more information.
Hello everyone, my name is Nicole Goodman. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve Spartanburg County in all matters related to horticulture! This is an exciting position for me, and I can’t wait to immerse myself in the vibrant, green heart of our area. As a Swiss horticulturist with a passion for plants that started back in the 90s when my grandmother introduced me to her terraced garden, I look forward to growing alongside this incredible community. My journey began with a 3-year apprenticeship in horticulture and a detour into floral design before diving into landscape architecture with a focus on environmental impact, sustainability, and self-sufficiency.
I’ve turned our property and home into a green haven, focusing on natives on the outside and exotics on the inside.
I’m excited to learn from the wealth of knowledge and experience shared by seasoned gardeners and support those just beginning their own gardening adventures.
The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program has been serving limited-resource families across the United States for over fifty years through community nutrition education. EFNEP was established in 1969 by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in response to growing concerns of diet quality and poverty nationwide. It began as a pilot program in Alabama and later spread across the U.S. with the help of land-grant universities’ cooperative extension programs. Today, NIFA funds EFNEP programs in all fifty states, and this funding delivers promising results in health outcomes and behavior change for families in need.
EFNEP targets four core areas to help improve health outcomes: diet quality & physical activity, food security, food resource management, and food safety. With research-based curricula, EFNEP delivers free nutrition classes to limited-resource communities.
Clemson Extension’s EFNEP program has been actively working in Spartanburg County to deliver hands-on, interactive nutrition lessons to Title I schools, after-school programs, community centers, and more. The adult curriculum used by Clemson EFNEP, Eating Smart, Being Active, includes nine lessons which highlight money-saving tips for grocery shopping and budget-friendly recipes for families. Clemson EFNEP also serves middle and high school students through the Teen Cuisine curriculum which promotes independence in the kitchen by improving food safety practices and cooking skills. Elementary-aged students in grades third through fifth may also participate in this program through the Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness curriculum. These lessons introduce young learners to the importance of maintaining a well-balanced diet while helping them identify which foods and drinks could help them do so. At each level, these interactive classes include a food demonstration that allows participants to practice their cooking and food safety skills and a physical activity portion to promote regular exercise.
By maintaining ongoing partnerships throughout the county, youth and adults in Spartanburg have received free resources on diet quality, physical activity, food safety, healthy recipes & more. If you are interested in bringing these classes to your organization or school, please contact the EFNEP nutrition educator at your local Clemson Extension office!
EMILY DURANT FISH, NUTRITION EDUCATOR SPARTANBURG COUNTY
Andy Rollins, the Commercial Horticulture Agent for the Upstate,
has been working on a project to help growers fumigate the soil more safely and
effectively. This process will help treat and prevent soil-borne diseases
and nematodes. In the past growers have used shank type fumigation that
involves pulling a plastic bedding machine that has injection shanks in the
middle of the bed. The fumigant is carried on the tractor also and is run
through shanks. Using this method the machine is picked up and put down
at the end of every row and lifted in the air. Workers on the ground
assisting are often exposed to fumigant vapors from dripping lines. Andy
is showing growers how to put the gas into the drip system to allow the water
to distribute it more efficiently. This is a closed system with much less
exposure for all. Andy has done on-farm demonstrations three times already this
year and has three more planned. At Andy’s last demonstration meeting in August
growers from at least three states gathered to learn this technique.
Spartanburg County 4-H has partnered
with Kids Upstate (formerly Boys and Girls Club of the Upstate) for almost
twenty years. Spartanburg 4-H provides
STEM, Ag in the Classroom, and Healthy Lifestyles programs for the youth
attending Kids Upstate afterschool and summer programs.
This year Spartanburg 4-H was able
to offer the Kids Upstate youth at Jesse Boyd Elementary School a special
experience! Spartanburg County Master
Gardeners, Janet Behnke and Steva Kiser, volunteered to lead a Junior Master
Gardener program for fifth graders at the school.
Using the Junior Master Gardener
curriculum developed by Texas A&M, Janet and Steva are leading hands-on
activities that cover topics such as plant growth and development, soils and
water, and life skills and career exploration.
In December, the youth created holiday greenery arrangements. In the spring they will be planting
vegetables and flowers in school’s raised beds.
This partnership between Kids
Upstate, Spartanburg 4-H, and Spartanburg Master Gardeners is giving youth the
opportunity to grow their knowledge and love of gardening and helping them to
cultivate green thumbs and good citizenship!
Emily DuRant Fish is a graduate of Clemson University with a degree in Language and International Health (B.S.). Upon graduation, she started her career in Cooperative Extension as a youth nutrition educator with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) at the University of Maryland, College Park. During her time there, Emily also took on the role of a program specialist where she managed program data and developed training development tools.
She is excited to be back in her home state of South Carolina as the EFNEP nutrition educator for Spartanburg County. Emily aspires to utilize her public health background and passion for teaching to promote healthy lifestyles for families and youth in her community. In her free time, Emily enjoys reading, hiking, walking her Bernese Mountain Dog, and playing pickleball!
Drew Jeffers Horticulture and Natural Resource Agent Spartanburg County
The annual integrated pest management (IPM) symposium in Greer, SC, was a huge success again in 2023. The IPM symposium offers sound, economical, and environmentally friendly pest management topics to landscapers, growers, and other horticultural professionals. Horticulture agent Drew Jeffers holds the training at the Canon Centre in Greer, SC. The training seats typically average fifty to sixty persons, but this past year was in such high demand that it was converted into a hybrid event to meet demand. Six county offices around the state held a virtual live broadcast to reach more stakeholders. Two hundred thirty-two stakeholders attended the training, receiving valuable information and recertification credits for pesticide licenses. Jeffers is working with fellow agents again in 2024 to expand the training to serve more people.
