Ep. 1 - The Pilot

The first episode of Stone County Extension Saves the World feature hosts Anna Harlan and Tyler Caston.  They are County Extension Agents with the University of Arkansas Systems Division of Agriculture based in Stone County, AR.  In the episode they discuss a little bit of history behind the creation of Extension; areas of Agriculture and  Family and Consumer Science (FCS) they cover; and a funny story or two from experiences on the job. 

Transcript

SCESTW Ep 1.mp3

Transcript

00:00:00

Welcome to the Stone County Extension Saves the World podcast.

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I'm Tyler Caston.

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I'm Anna Harlan.

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And this is #1, numero uno.

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We'll see how it goes.

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Hoping to make this maybe a weekly thing.

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And so it should be good.

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What we thought we'd talk about today is a little bit of what we do here at the Stone County Extension Office.

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And

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plan for this podcast.

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I've been talking about it for a while.

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I think about the whole time I've been here, which is about 6 years now.

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Yeah, I was like, we need to do a podcast, man.

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We're finally doing it.

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So, nervous?

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A little bit.

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We have kind of, you know, high hopes for our podcast.

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Yeah, I've told it.

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I think I've told too many people.

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Our hope is for this to be more conversational style, not just reading from a script.

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And we want to be a little entertaining too.

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Yeah, I think it'll be good.

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So before we get into talking about what we do, a little bit of history of the cooperative extension, how it really got started.

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And it come from this one guy's idea

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and his name was Dr.

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Seaman A.

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Knapp.

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That was his real name.

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He started in mid-1800s or late 1800s, I guess, is what you'd call it.

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his plan, he'd somehow, he'd received his doctorate, he'd ended up, I believe, in Louisiana.

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And the natives originally thought that this land ain't good for growing nothing.

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And so he started, his idea was that he wanted to do demonstrations to kind of show people that it could be done.

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And that's where he started in Louisiana, I think, growing rice.

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And

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just demonstrated that they were able to grow it and got some farmers involved.

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I think it was funded by the government originally.

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Yeah, he was working with the USDA.

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Yeah, and showed them, it can be done.

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We can actually grow something.

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And then what would be crazy, like I think the rice that they were growing, something with it fell apart when they were milling it.

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wasn't good qualities for selling.

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So

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I think he got sent to China and Japan and India to look for varieties of rice that were a little bit more stable.

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That'd be crazy.

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I don't know how you'd even go about looking.

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Hey, look at that rice.

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That looks like it'll stick together.

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Let's go back and grow it in Louisiana.

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And then I think he got a job in Texas, done the demonstration farms there in Louisiana.

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showing that stuff could be grown.

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But then in Texas, I think it was, he needed to demonstrate how to do farming practices.

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And people at the time were like, oh yeah, sure, we could grow stuff if we were funded by the government too.

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And so I think his idea was we need the community involvement to them to actually do it.

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And that whole idea is kind of what jumpstarted extension.

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And finally, some people

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people agreed to do it there in Texas.

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And I think they've demonstrated that they could grow cotton.

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And so that's pretty cool.

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And so we're still doing that today, working with producers, trying to teach them, show them that it can be done, providing research-based information.

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And that kind of all stems from that guy.

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Seeming ain't out.

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And so pretty cool.

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And so then 1914, the Smith-Lever Act provided federal funding and then we are the Cooperative Extension Service.

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We get some federal dollars and then

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state dollars and then some county dollars to make up that cooperative all.

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But that's what we're trying to do and hope to do with this podcast is provide you some research-based information in an entertaining format.

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Again, my name is Tyler Caston.

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I'm the ag agent.

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My name's Anna Harlan.

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I'm the family and consumer science agent, and we both have 4-H responsibilities also.

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We work with the 4-H.

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Interesting how they got started was 4-H was started because they, yeah, the corn clubs, tomato clubs, I think in Iowa in like 1910, even before Smith Lever, they were doing these corn clubs.

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But the goal was that if they could get the kids, you know,

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showing them that they could grow this stuff and then their parents who were the farmers would be like, well, dang, let's grow corn.

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So, but what do we do here?

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I don't even know half the time.

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It's hard to explain.

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Someone will say, what do you do?

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And the variety is so, can be so extensive.

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that it's really hard to just pick a few things.

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Yeah, so we are in Stone County, Arkansas, population of like 12,500 people total across the county.

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County seats, Mountain View, Arkansas, folk music.

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Capital of the world.

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Yeah.

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A lot of festivals, a lot of.

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Some good ones.

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Yeah.

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Bean Fest.

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Bean Fest.

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That's coming up soon.

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Yeah.

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Time of this recording, it's

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early October, Bean Fest, third weekend on October.

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Yes.

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That'll be fun.

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I've never actually went and ate the beans.

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I don't think I've ate the beans, but one of my favorite years was when a toilet paper brand brought this huge bus and had all these bathrooms.

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I remember that.

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It was an event in and of itself.

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I'm pretty sure the guy that used to do that,

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that Cash Cab showed.

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Did you ever watch that?

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Yes, I think he came and they did a little documentary.

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Stone County Extension Office Program Promotion.

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These are upcoming educational programs we're offering for clientele October and November 2025.

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What I've got coming up, October 14th,

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We're doing an NRCS field day, partnering with NRCS, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and we're going to do a field day over at the Stone County Fairgrounds.

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That'll start 9 A.m.

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I believe lunch will be provided.

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I think I'm talking about best management practices in pastures.

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October 28th, doing a pesticide applicator training at 5.30 at the Stone County Fairgrounds.

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The cost is $20, and that allows you to get certified or re-certified

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to get your private applicator pesticide license to purchase and use restricted use pesticides.

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Anna's also got a couple of canning classes coming up.

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November 11th, starting at 10 A.m., chicken soup canning class that costs $5.

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November 13th, 10 A.m., cranberry sauce canning class also costs $5.

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There is limited seating for both those classes, so be sure to reach out to us at the Stone County Extension Office.

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Back to the show.

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We are with the University of Arkansas System and Division of Agriculture and

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They're here in Arkansas.

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We have a county office.

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The county extension agent is in Everett County at least.

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75 counties.

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Yeah.

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I know some of those counties have two offices.

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I can't remember what they are.

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But what is it?

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What's your job here?

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I don't even know.

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You should know.

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That is the hardest question I feel like I get is what do you do?

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And everybody kind of has a different idea of what they think.

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And yes, I'm still calling me the home economist.

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Yeah.

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That doesn't bother me.

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I think that's a positive term.

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So you run, you do, you have several program areas that you have to work in?

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Yes, family life, consumer economics, healthy living, little bit of everything really.

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I mean, family touches, you know, birth to death basically.

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But some of my main programs, food safety, we do a lot of ServeSafe if you have a restaurant.

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Yeah, she makes me wash my hands.

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Yeah.

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I think that gets all that gets to all UFCS agents.

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Well, it should.

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I'm kind of like if it don't wipe off on my pants.

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I ain't coming off on my food.

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We'll stop.

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If you're eating at a restaurant, eating at a restaurant, you would hope that they're washing their hands.

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You better wash your hands.

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After he's in the restroom.

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But that's just a, you know, one little piece to that certification.

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But we try to keep everybody local.

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I don't like it when

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that's part of extension is keep the rural people.

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they're not having to travel all the way to the capital every time they need anything.

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And they usually can't afford it.

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And so I do a lot of ServSafe and help other counties out here and there to keep it not so monotonous with one voice the whole time.

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But the most, the bulk of my calls is food preservation.

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But that's my favorite program probably.

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How do you preserve food?

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Yes, canning.

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dehydration, freezing, all the good.

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Yeah, food preservation, you like food preservation.

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I do.

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I know you work with a few volunteer groups and have volunteers.

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Yes, so EHC's one of them and Extension Get Fit's the other.

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EHC is Extension Homemakers Council and we have a great group and they've, whenever I showed up, both these groups really took me in and when I was just a agent who didn't know what they were doing and I appreciate them a lot but they both

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do, you said volunteer, Extension Homemakers does a lot of community service and ongoing education and I feel like it's gonna make a comeback.

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So many people are interested in that type of learning and then Extension Get Fit, they meet and exercise three days a week and they've done that for we don't even know how long ago the group had got started.

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So at least.

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It's a pretty good group of older folks.

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It's geared midlife to older, but I know some.

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You should see them bench press.

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No, they're not bench pressing.

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It's free weight.

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No.

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One squatting 5-50.

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No, it's free weights.

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He's feeling it.

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I've seen this 90 year old man.

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He was able to deadlift 1000.

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No, now we have had, we currently have a 90 year old and have in the past.

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And I just think

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Independence is probably one of the scariest things facing you as you get older.

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And if you can maintain your strength and balance or improve it through anything that happens to you, then you're going to be better off.

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And they have a lot of fun there.

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They're a fun group.

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They're a fun group.

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Yeah, we listen to me.

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They play music and while we exercise and people know each other, check on each other, and they'll meet and walk different days, a lot of them.

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And

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I think it's a great program and it's cheap, $20 a year, can't beat that.

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So it seems like it's hard to get the word out on some of our programs in extension and hopefully with this podcast we'll reach more and that's one of those programs that people are like, I had no idea.

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What about EHC?

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What's that cost?

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I believe that it's 10 a year.

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Ten, $10,000 folks, you heard.

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Yeah, $10 a year.

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And we've had some fun things.

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Right now they're getting ready to build these kits for Operation Christmas Child.

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They've built hygiene kits for the local schools for different kids and then all kinds of stuff.

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They've helped with the animal shelters.

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There's something.

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And I've enjoyed the different learning

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programs that they've had and they'll bring different resources throughout the community too.

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So we've had mental health.

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first aid, all kind of, I love meeting with those ladies.

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They meet on the third Thursday of the month, so you can always call our office, to figure out.

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And we're always hoping for more groups in either of those.

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And the different, that's one thing Extension wants you to stay in your community.

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So you're not always having a drive, because it's a 30 minute drive to Mountain View for the outlying communities.

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Yeah, it's.

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But both these groups meet in Mountain View predominantly.

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Dealing with volunteers, Master Gardeners is who I, some of my volunteer group.

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And then we both work with 4-H.

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Yes.

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Yeah, that's a fun.

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But your Master Gardeners, y'all had a big project finally really come to fruition this year.

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Yeah, we've got a greenhouse that we've been working on for a long time, but we got it up and going.

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I think we're going to try to raise a bunch of plants in it, use it to teach.

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Which would be cool, but.

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But you've already had a few learning programs over there.

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Yeah, and a few like seed starting classes out there and people really seem to enjoy that.

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But yeah.

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We did the asparagus.

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We did a class where we pickled asparagus and then they went out and planted an asparagus bed.

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Yeah, we planted some couple asparagus beds.

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To be a master gardener, there is a training.

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It's like 40 hours of training that you have to go through.

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I believe the cost is like $75 for doing what we're calling the Zoom, which you come to the extension office and we have, it's like distance learning, watching it on the TV screen, but then there's also an online version.

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It's a little bit more expensive, $120, but it's kind of a go at your own pace within a timeframe this fall.

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We'll be starting the training here, but the deadline to sign up is typically in September, like mid-September.

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But then once they graduate, they have to go through like 40 hours of volunteer service.

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We have- Is that every year?

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Sanctioned projects, just the first year on 40 hours, and then it's 20 hours after that, 20 hours volunteer time within.

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On the different projects.

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Yeah, we have different what's called sanctioned projects, which is

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like approved by the group and that they're all going to work on that they can get hours in and then there you can also have some half of it be like unsanctioned time then which would be like volunteering for outside of the sanction projects.

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And so have those groups and then we work our I work with farmers a lot of people that aren't master gardeners that are still doing like the home horticulture stuff

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mess with them.

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Few commercial hort guys.

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And horticulture, for those who may not know, is more home like rose bushes.

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Yeah, fruit trees, would that fall under hort?

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Yeah, fruit trees.

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Your horticulture is going to be like, yeah, any of your gardening type.

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More hobby.

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Yeah, hobby type stuff that you're not

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making money off of it, essentially, is what I call home hort.

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If you can enjoy some home hort, it gets frustrating if you've ever had fruit trees.

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They say it's supposed to be therapeutic and relaxing.

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It's not always.

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And you're like, I just want to burn these things down.

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I will say though, my little bit of apples, I think I got, I think I got 16.

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I was so proud of those 16 apples as my first

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fruit off my trees and then this year.

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So then I got mulberries.

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Yeah.

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It was great to get to enjoy it.

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Fruit trees are hard where we're at.

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It's here in Arkansas, like every bug is here and every disease is here.

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And so it's, you're going to have to, you're not going to do it organically.

00:16:04

Sorry, folks.

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If so, not easily.

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Not easily.

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You'll have to really put in the time.

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Put in the time, select for, your cultural practices, good varieties that are more resistant to certain diseases.

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And the university has fact sheets on how to pick varieties for our area.

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And I used that when I was picking, you know, what trees and

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And they've held on, so it's been tough with the different droughts.

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I'm tired of watering, so I'm hoping for more rain.

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One of our buddy agents, he says people come in and ask him about it, their fruit trees.

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And he's like, well, he starts telling them all that they're going to have to do.

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And he'll be like, you know, it's just a little bit cheaper to just buy your fruit at the store.

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And they'll be like, sounds like it.

00:16:54

Sounds good.

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Saved another one.

00:16:56

Oh, now?

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But if you want to attempt it, I'll work with you.

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Yeah, I think we'll have to work with some pruning.

00:17:04

Yeah, we have.

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Most of the time it's, you know, either got to change your practices or change your expectations.

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I think I just need practice to change sometimes.

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Sometimes you're just ignorant and that's okay.

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You don't know and you just have to ask and ask somebody that does know, not watch the internet and vinegar cures everything kind of situation.

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Vinegar and salt.

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Vinegar and salt.

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That'll do it.

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It's like that tape and WD-40.

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Not really.

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I feel like that does solve more.

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But yeah, we're here to work with you.

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Whatever question you got, we get all sorts of questions.

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We were talking about pesticides with the fruit trees.

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And can you just spray anything?

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Can I go buy anything?

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And spray.

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So that's one thing that we want to be careful with our pesticides is, one, we want to be able to kind of read the label and understand it because certain things are labeled for, you know, certain fruit trees.

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If we're talking about fruit, let's just include everything.

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So things are labeled for

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fruit or things are labeled for pasture and then things are labeled for lawns and it instance like for armyworms in lawns.

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What is it?

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Permethrin?

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I think that's what it is that they're labeled for that.

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It's labeled for lawns, but it's not labeled for use in pastures.

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And so.

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In summer.

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Yeah.

00:18:42

And so if so essentially if you use that.

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in your past year, you're off-label and you're breaking the law.

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And so we really push that you understand the label, follow what the label says as far as the recommended rate.

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Sometimes it's difficult to understand.

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That's what we're here at the Extension Office to kind of explain it to you a little bit better.

00:19:03

That reminds me of something that happened to me one time.

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So I had

00:19:07

My zucchini and squash, me and my mother-in-law gardened together and it was just, I mean, prime about to fruit and we were about to pick.

00:19:15

And when I say zucchini and squash, we had 60 plants and they looked beautiful and it was perfect.

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And someone in my family who shall not be named accidentally sprayed that with fruit tree,

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some sort of pesticide.

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And the withdrawal period was 21 days.

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I bet that was like probably imidacloprid or something.

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It was something.

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And so we couldn't use any of it.

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We just had to pick it and throw away.

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And I was not very happy.

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And they thought it was funny.

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And I did not think it was funny.

00:19:48

It's not funny to me.

00:19:50

No.

00:19:51

One thing about pesticides is

00:19:53

Say if you're a gardener using certain manures that have been treated with certain pesticides, because that pesticide, they can eat on it like a day after it's sprayed, yet there's still some residue that'll just pass right through the guts of that animal and be in the manure.

00:20:11

And then when you use it as a fertilizer,

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It can cause you some herbicide injury and tomatoes in particular are real susceptible.

00:20:20

Really.

00:20:20

Yeah, like they can't tolerate anything.

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It's like that you've ever seen.

00:20:26

I'm allergic to.

00:20:28

Tap water.

00:20:29

Yeah.

00:20:30

Stone County Extension Office Program Promotion.

00:20:33

These are upcoming educational programs we're offering for clientele October and November 2025.

00:20:40

What I've got coming up, October 14th,

00:20:43

We're doing an NRCS field day, partnering with NRCS, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and we're going to do a field day over at the Stone County Fairgrounds.

00:20:52

That'll start 9 A.m.

00:20:54

I believe lunch will be provided.

00:20:56

I think I'm talking about best management practices in pastures.

00:21:00

October 28th, doing a pesticide applicator training at 5.30 at the Stone County Fairgrounds.

00:21:06

The cost is $20, and that allows you to get certified or re-certified

00:21:12

to get your private applicator pesticide license to purchase and use restricted use pesticides.

00:21:20

Anna's also got a couple of canning classes coming up.

00:21:26

November 11th, starting at 10 A.m., chicken soup canning class that costs $5.

00:21:33

November 13th, 10 A.m., cranberry sauce canning class also costs $5.

00:21:39

There is limited seating for both those classes, so be sure to reach out to us at the Stone County Extension Office.

00:21:45

Back to the show.

00:21:47

How about you give us one of the interesting stories that have happened to you while you've been an extension agent?

00:21:54

All right, interesting story.

00:21:55

So here's one that I, one of the first ones that happened to me that I still remember.

00:22:03

So I do a lot of farm visits and go out and look at gardens and stuff.

00:22:12

And this lady, she called and she's having some sort of issue with her tomatoes.

00:22:17

And so I, it was probably herbicide damage, which what I remember now, but so she's like, oh yeah, I live here.

00:22:26

My husband, he's outside pruning on some trees and just pull up there and

00:22:32

and we'll look at the tomatoes.

00:22:34

And so I go to their house and it's like she said, he's out there pruning.

00:22:38

And he's like, hey, how are you?

00:22:42

I'm like, yeah, I'm Tyler Caston.

00:22:43

And I think I'd like been there maybe a year.

00:22:48

Early on.

00:22:49

Yeah, as an agent.

00:22:50

And he's like, oh yeah, my wife's inside.

00:22:53

She's expecting you.

00:22:54

And so I go in the house.

00:22:56

And

00:22:58

I can hear her talking on the phone.

00:23:00

And what I think would be, makes sense that the kitchen's just right there around the corner maybe, because you kind of walk in the house and there's like a little entryway.

00:23:11

But I can hear her talking and so I'm just like, hello.

00:23:15

And I go around just to wave to let her know I'm here.

00:23:18

And well, let's just say she wasn't in the kitchen.

00:23:24

She was sitting on the toilet talking on the phone and she just looks at me and I look at her and I just scurry outside.

00:23:33

Oh no.

00:23:34

And so, oh man.

00:23:35

Did you leave?

00:23:36

I wanted to, like I thought about, well, see ya, I can't do this.

00:23:43

Just should have, I should have just ran outside and cried and missed her husband been like, what the heck?

00:23:49

But it's, I can't, so embarrassed.

00:23:53

But I've walked in on a lady using the bathroom in her house.

00:23:58

And you made eye contact.

00:23:59

Made eye contact with her.

00:24:00

Well, did she come out after?

00:24:02

Yeah, she came out and we acted like nothing happened.

00:24:05

Again, I'm pretty sure it's like herbicide damage.

00:24:07

Oh, man.

00:24:10

Well, that's a good story.

00:24:11

All right.

00:24:12

I think that's how we'll end it.

00:24:14

Okay.

00:24:15

See you next time.

00:24:18

Peace.

00:24:20

And blessings.

00:24:20

No, what is that?

00:24:22

That's going in there.

00:24:24

No, not Blessings.