Category: Fairfield

During the school year, 4-H provides hands-on activities with standards alignment for classrooms. Exploring a concept through a craft, building challenge, or demonstration can reinforce knowledge and provide a break from traditional class lectures. Your 4-H agent provides the supplies, prep work, and clean-up to conduct these classroom visits.

4-H offers the following tracts for classroom engagement, but we are flexible and always eager to plan around individual teachers’ needs and interests:

• Embryology: Hatch chicken eggs with your class! All supplies are provided and the automatic incubator makes this project both unforgettable and easy! Traditionally conducted in the spring.

• Butterfly Life Cycle: Raise Painted Lady caterpillars and watch their transformation into beautiful butterflies. Pair with your life cycle unit for a simple yet engaging demonstration of vocabulary in action. Traditionally conducted in the spring.

• School Gardening: Learn how to start and sustain a school garden with the Clemson University School Garden for SC Educators course. The course includes the Garden STEM curriculum guide as well as options for purchasing raised bed kits. Those who have taken the course and maintain a school garden are eligible to receive transplants and seeds. Plant, nurture, and watch your success grow!

• STEM challenges and more: Want to plan a series of classroom visits around your science lessons? Let’s design a custom set of activities!

4-H recommends at least six hours of engagement (either from the 4-H agent or by using the supplies provided). If you or a teacher you know is interested in free, hands-on classroom engagement, please contact your 4-H agent Stephanie Eidt: seidt@clemson.edu | 803-589-8977.

Fairfield 4-H will continue the Take-Home Kit Club for the 2023-2024 school year. Each month a bag of supplies for a craft or science-themed activity will be available for individuals who Sign Up. Examples from last year include a rubber band harmonica, hand-sewn beanbag, and pony bead keychain. Activities are targeted for children ages 8-13, but any student in Fairfield County aged 5-18 can join this independent learning project.

Membership is encouraged but not required for participation. Membership runs from September 1^st through August 31^st  of each year. Cost is $15 and includes a t-shirt if enrolled before October 1^st. Membership is required for participation with in-person clubs, projects, and some summer camps. If cost is prohibitive, contact your 4-H agent Stephanie Eidt: seidt@clemson.edu | 803-589-8977.

Clemson Extension in partnership with Fairfield County’s Carolina Community Actions, Inc. recently hosted a food safety and nutrition program for twenty-two adults. The program focused on teaching participants about healthy eating on a budget while also emphasizing the importance of food safety.

The program included interactive sessions and hands-on activities to help participants learn practical skills for meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. Participants also learned about the risks associated with foodborne illnesses and how to prevent them through proper food handling and storage. Overall, the program provided a valuable opportunity for participants to improve their nutrition knowledge and skills while also ensuring their family’s safety as well as their own.

Come join us and learn the basics of canning fruits and vegetables from local farms and home gardens through a unique canning workshop. Participants will engage in hands-on activities using current recommended techniques for preserving foods for home use. Those with or without experience are encouraged to attend. Participants will receive the item(s) they prepare in class, resource book, other printed materials, and knowledge of safe home canning methods.

Cost: $35 per workshop. Participants should bring their lunch and wear closed-toe shoes.

Class Size: Class is limited to 10 participants, with a minimum of 5.

Dates:

• Friday, September 29th Salsa
• Saturday, September 30th Salsa
• Thursday, October 19th Pressure Canning
• Friday, October 20th Pressure Canning
• Friday, November 10th Pressure Canning
• Saturday, November 11th Pressure Canning
• Friday, December 14th Jams, Jellies & Soft Spreads
• Saturday, December 15th Jams, Jellies & Soft Spreads

Location: FCL Homemakers Building 634 Dekalb St. Camden, SC 29020

Time: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Registration Required to join a workshop.

Beyond offering independently run camps and projects, Fairfield 4-H partners with community organizations to plan and implement activities for students. Check out 4-H’s summer collaborations:

The Fairfield County Library’s summer reading program theme was We’re All in This Together, celebrating connection and comradery. Miss Stephanie co-hosted two programs within this premise, exploring the countries of Japan and France (voted by visitors to the world tasting booth at the Library Summer Kick-Off). Students made themed crafts like origami bookmarks and sampled local cuisine to discover how these countries were both similar and unique as compared to their own community.

4-H also visited the Chameleon Inspirations Learning Center’s summer school. Students combined science and art by designing catapults, playing electronic music with Snap Circuits, and more. By encouraging students to make mistakes and get messy, they practiced problem-solving and persistence. Sometimes kids need a space where they can tinker!

For 4-H agents, summer means day camps! Kids with similar interests join together to receive direct experience with intriguing topics. In partnership with Chester County 4-H, Fairfield County 4-H offered two sets of cooking camps this summer: The Healthy Habits Summit for teenagers, and Cooking Like a Chef Camp for youth.

Through an intensive weekend under the guidance of professional chefs, high school students learn skills in the kitchen at the summit. They are then expected to lead activities at local Cooking Like a Chef camps. We are proud of the Chester 4-H teen leaders who volunteered their time to share their culinary knowledge.

The first round of cooking camps was held at the Chester market building, where students made Tex-Mex favorites (fajitas, refried beans, and red rice) and Asian cuisine (chicken fried rice, turkey wontons, and mango pudding). They practiced knife skills and learned about spices, raw meat protocols, and food groups. The second set of two-day camps occurred at the Mitford Community Center. Students made soups, salads, chicken pot pies, and quesadillas. The food was so tasty and healthy!

Although day camps have wrapped for the summer, Fairfield and surrounding counties offer year-round opportunities for students. Connect with your local agent Stephanie Eidt (seidt@clemson.edu | 803-589-8977) for more information. You may also consider checking out what are neighbors are up to (Richland, Kershaw, Lancaster, Chester, Newberry, Union, Lexington) and joining the fun!

Drew Jeffers
Horticulture and Natural Resource Agent

The South Carolina Certified Landscape Professional Program (SCCLP) is an online, self-paced certification program that provides high-level horticultural education and training to green industry professionals and operators. The program launched in 2020 and has offered spring and fall courses for the last three years. Over 385 professionals have been certified and represent nearly every county in the state. Starting in April of 2023, the course will go fully on-demand to better serve the professionals’ needs.

The course has also been incorporated into the Spartanburg Community College’s Horticulture Capstone course, providing a model for other colleges to integrate the SCCLP into their horticulture programs. We are also in the process of bringing the program to high school classrooms. The goal of the high-school integration is to grow the green industry’s shrinking workforce pool. Clemson Extension also partnered with the SC Department of Corrections, where 37 soon-to-be-released inmates were certified and were given trade skills to renter the workforce. The program will continue if funding is available to further add to the workforce pool.

The significant impact of this program has been its ability to reach a large audience relatively quickly. Many folks have asked if the state requires the certification, but we tell them we hope it will become so ubiquitous that it doesn’t need to be a requirement by law but by demand by the consumer and hiring managers.

Andy Rollins
Upstate Commercial Fruit and Vegetable Agent

Currently, I’m holding all of my yearly production meetings.  At my peach meeting, we had 81 in attendance, with 61 different farms represented.

Along with another agent, we hosted the first meeting of the SC Small Fruit Growers Association.  I assisted Bob Hall in helping to establish the group with representation from across the state.   The production meeting featured a blueberry specialist from out of state, with 50 growers in attendance.

The strawberry production meeting is coming up at the end of February, and the vegetable meeting will be in March.

I will be working on a bloom-thinning product again this year for an on-farm demonstration and I also plan to showcase my on-farm grape work this fall.

Melissa Bales, Health Extension Agent

Growing Health is entering year 2! Growing Health is a program that was developed by the Greenville County Rural Health and Urban Horticulture Agents to help beginner gardeners in Greenville learn to grow their own vegetables and incorporate these vegetables into a healthy diet. In order to help beginner gardeners, learn about vegetables that can be grown throughout the year, Growing Health is presented in accordance to growing seasons – spring, summer, and fall. Those who participate in the program receive information and growing materials to take home.

We held three programs in correlation with the growing seasons in 2022. Six individuals attended all three program dates and there has already been significant interest in the program for 2023. The 2023 Growing Health program will continue to emphasize growing your own food and how it impacts your health but will also offer an opportunity to showcase some of the work that other Agents are doing in Greenville County and how their expertise can link with gardening and health.

Our collaboration with the Greenville State Farmers Market has allowed the program to be hosted at a lower cost and has allowed us to begin thinking about opportunities for the growth of the program. This year, we will offer programs on April 1^st, June 17^th, and August 26^th from 11am-12pm at the Greenville State Farmers Market. Interested individuals can sign up at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/327485827927 or contact Melissa Bales at mbales@clemson.edu or 864-365-0635.

Ellie Lane, Statewide Rural Health and Nutrition Extension Agent

The Rural Health and Nutrition Team’s free health programs are expanding! We have listened to your feedback and are currently developing a program designed to keep you strong and healthy for life. Practical Strength will launch Summer 2023! The goal of the Practical Strength program is to emphasize sustainable, functional fitness. We will help you develop the strength to do whatever you want throughout life safely and efficiently. The program will be appropriate for all ages and mobility levels and will be hosted weekly through live, online classes. Certified fitness professionals will lead participants through a strength training workout appropriate for all bodies. Recordings will be available for those that cannot make the lives classes and for participants that want to practice their favorite sessions again.

Why is strength training important? We need our muscles in any activity we do throughout the day – whether it is walking, getting out of a chair, grocery shopping, enjoying your favorite hobby, or chasing the grandkids. For us to keep those muscles as strong as possible, we need to challenge them on a regular basis. We do this through strength training. We need at least two days per week of strength training with enough resistance to challenge our muscles to stay healthy lifelong. Benefits of strength training include preserving muscle mass we lose as we age, strengthening bones to prevent injury and osteoporosis, reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, improving quality of sleep, increasing energy, lowering stress levels, and boosting confidence, among many others.

We know that strength training can seem intimidating – it is possible that by training your body with improper form or pushing your limits too quickly, you could experience injury or burnout. Practical Strength will set you up for success in reaching your fitness goals by demonstrating proper form and offering modifications to meet your body where it is each week. We will keep you at an appropriate pace for sustainable muscle building and emphasize consistency in healthy behaviors over intensity.

Join us this summer to stay accountable towards your health goals and keep your body functioning smoothly and lifelong!