Molly Sandfoss County Extension Director for NC Cooperative Ext McDowell County Center

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hello, I'm Kim Oye. You're on the board. My guest today is Molly Santos. Molly, give me your title. It was so long I couldn't get over it.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

It's hard to remember. I'm the County Extension Director for North Carolina Cooperative Extension, McDowell County Center.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Okay, and I want to say it's good to see you again. You and I used to serve on the board out at Lane James. How long has that been?

SPEAKER_03 0:53

It's been a while.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, it's been a few years, hasn't it? You still look great. Yeah. This is where you say I I look good. You look great too, Jim. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

It was really nice seeing you again.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

It's good to see you. Give me a little bit of information about well, how'd you wind up here in Marion doing what you do?

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Long story short, I was an extension agent in Homestead, Florida, and uh my husband is originally from West Virginia. I'm originally from Kentucky. He wanted to get back closer to his family in West Virginia, and I told him North Carolina was close enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Really? So and so you were down in Florida doing that. Exactly, right. Well that had to be different than here.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

It's definitely different than here.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

So do you like it here better or work?

SPEAKER_03 1:43

I I do like it here. I I like that there were some parts I liked obviously down there, I was just 10 minutes from the Biscayne Bay, easy bike ride, kayak in the Biscayne Bay, so I really enjoyed that. But obviously, this is a Mecca for outdoor activity as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Are you doing any hiking?

SPEAKER_03 2:01

I do a little hiking. I do more biking, um, but get back into some of the same woods that I see a lot of hikers on.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Are you pleased with the bike trails?

SPEAKER_03 2:11

I'm definitely pleased with the bike trails.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I'm kinda, you know, I kept my hand in in Fonta Flora and and of course McDowell Trail Association. And I I really think that the bike trails are getting better and better, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Yes, for sure. There's opportunities uh for uh all levels, all skill levels. There's you know the easy level, there's the more advanced levels, and so I think there's something for everyone out there. So I think it's it's definitely a lot of opportunity if you want to go out and get on a bike and ride the trails.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

It's kind of nice that it's seasonal too. You know, you can ride in the fall and ride in the spring. It's kind of nice here.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Yeah, I I ride year-round. Do you? I just wear winter clothes when it's wintertime. Summer clothes when it's summertime. So you just have to wear the right clothing and you're you're comfortable. Obviously, I don't stay out as long in the winter months as I do with the summer months, but I'm happy.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Well, I I told you that uh when you came in that I know nothing about plants and stuff. So I have a lot of questions for you that have been written down for me to ask you. But first I'd like to ask you, are we healing from the hurricane, do you think?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

I think we're healing, but it's gonna take a while. I don't I I'm sure you've if you've been around, you see our forested areas. I mean, it looked like just a a box of toothpicks that had been splattered all over the ground. Um so I think that's gonna take a long time for our mountains to heal from that damage. Um, even the cleanup, you know, it's a it's a massive cleanup challenge. And so, you know, are they gonna clean it up? Are they able to clean it up? You know, if you go in there some of those areas, um it it would be hard to get any equipment, even personnel to get back in there and do any cleanup.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Well, how do you feel about that? Because I think I was talking to Steve Pierce about it. It's a natural thing. It's not man-made. We didn't bomb ourselves. So is this just something that the human being has to endure?

SPEAKER_03 4:27

I think so. Um we're you know, the forests are gonna have to endure the damage that they've experienced, the wildlife's gonna have to endure it, and I think we're the same. You know, we're just gonna have to to give it time to heal.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Does that mean that when you you said the animal population, I and I don't know if you track something like this, but have the animals changed in their society? I mean, are you seeing more or less or I have it, and that's something I don't track.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Yeah. I mean, be it'd be interesting, but I'm sure that they're they have altered um their population a bit. You know, they're they rely on plants and other animals for their food source. And so, you know, if they've other animals have relocated, obviously the plant life is is not there in some areas. And so you think about like a burn um when when they when they're where there's either a prescribed burn or a natural burn, there's succession that happens. And so you have those we call them weeds. But weeds come in, those low-lying weeds come in, and then eventually some shrubs come back, and then eventually you see trees um growing. So that's just the natural succession. And then as those the plant life, you know, succeeds, then you're gonna have those animal populations return. So I think it's kind of a very similar scenario as um a wildlife burn or a you know prescribed burn.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Do you get out in the woods much?

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Not as much as I like to, um, but I I definitely get out there some.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

I was wondering if there might not be a lot more mushrooms out now. I I I just think the trees are all down. Right. Do you see that?

SPEAKER_03 6:22

I haven't been out there enough to see, but that's a natural again. Um mushrooms they rely on decaying plants, trees, plants for them to propagate. So yeah, I I would think that that's a natural occurrence.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

And of course, I guess in North Carolina, just like anywhere else, some mushrooms are good and some are bad. Right. If you know what you're looking for, they're edible and if not, they're not. Well, I wanna I want to approach our conversation today on two different levels. One if I was a farmer and the other if I just like flowers. Okay. I am neither of who knows. Uh I mean I do you don't like flowers? Well, I like flowers. I mean uh I like the color. Uh Janet just bought a uh what was that? A Zaya? Azeia and it's blue. It's around here somewhere. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

And I I do like that. I think they're really pretty. So let's start with if you're a farmer, what should you be doing? Are we too late in the season now to think about soil preparation or anything like that?

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Soil preparation is something that happens year-round, but it is good like for a home gardener to start in the fall. Okay, because that gives time for the amendments to break down, be incorporated into the soil, and this and the same thing with a farmer. Typically, if if you have some big fields, you would do some amendments in the fall if needed, and then incorporate them in the fall, and that way they're ready for the spring planting.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Well, I'm guessing, you know, if you've got a big field and you're a farmer, you ought to know what you're doing. Right. You know, right. I mean, you're spending some money. Exactly. Right. But if you're a backyard farmer, like uh we have a bed of strawberries back here, and uh uh every once in a while we have herbs and stuff like that. So do you is it time now to look at that, or should we have done that back in the fall?

SPEAKER_03 8:27

You should have probably done it back in the fall.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Well, maybe we did. I'm I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Right, but but it's never too late. I'll always say that as well. Um, yes, it's best to do it in the fall, but if you haven't done it yet, go ahead and do it. Um, and that way you can start amending your soil if needed.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Well what's a typical problem that we have with here in North No, let's say here in Marion, in the city, I want to have tomatoes. Is there anything in particular that I need to think about when I pot size or stuff to put in the soil?

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Typically, our our soils are low in pH. They're characteristically five and a half, and that's a little too acidic for tomatoes. And so if you can you can add lime in order to increase the pH. And that's what oftentimes there there are the North Carolina Department of Agriculture has a soil testing lab, and so you can submit samples to them, and they'll tell you what your pH needs to be, number one, for the crop that you're going to plant, and then they will give you a Lyme recommendation. This is how much Lyme you need to incorporate in your soil in order to get it up to the pH that's needed. And that varies by crop. For example, you mentioned azaleas earlier, they tend to be acidic loving plants. And so if you would send a sample to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and you said, I'm trying to grow azaleas, and your pH came back five and a half, they'd say, You're fine. There's no um soil amendments needed. But if you did tomatoes, then they'd probably say, Yes, you need to incorporate some lime.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

I was talking to Nancy Spencer this morning, and she wanted me to know that she has envelopes to put the soil in. Exactly, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Right, right. We give uh boxes to to Nancy Spencer um for ACE hardware and Marion and old for it, so people can just drive by there and get the sample boxes. There are actually boxes that you fill up with the soil sample and then you submit those.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Well, I'm sitting up here on the hill. I want to feel like I've accomplished something. So give me three or four or five for sure vegetables I can plant.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

For sure vegetables. You're it's it's a wide variety. Tomatoes, okay, peppers, cucumbers, your your traditional vegetables. They do really well around here. There are some disease problems, um, but hopefully you get a crop in, and and usually people do before the disease really takes over the plant.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Well, would I have to uh like uh let's say cucumbers and peppers and tomatoes, is the soil gonna be different for each one? Do I need to send a sample in for every pot that I've got?

SPEAKER_03 11:25

No, if you use the same source of soil, then it's gonna be the same for those particular crops, for vegetable crops. It would be different, let's say, if you did vegetables and then you did blueberries. So that would be a different soil sample. If you did vegetables versus urazaleas, that would be a different soil sample. Um so it would be for what crop that you're gonna do. So vegetables qualifies as one crop.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Okay. All right. How long does it take the state to get that information back?

SPEAKER_03 11:59

It varies on what time of year it is. Oh, okay. So they usually um they're they're actually the soil sample um analysis is free from April 1st until Thanksgiving, and they then they're they charge five dollars through the winter season up until March March 31st. Um and so so it's a good time in the summertime, it's a good time to take a soil sample, it's free, and then you can get your results by the time the fall comes, and so you can do those soil amendments if needed.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Do you have a garden at home?

SPEAKER_03 12:34

No.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Really?

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Really? I have a couple pots where I I grow some cherry tomatoes. I'm actually growing horseradish this year for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Horseradish.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Right. So, and then I do some peppers, I got some herbs. I've got some herbs incorporated in my landscape. I got oregano, I've got some chives, I've got thyme. Oh and so I've started relying on the tailgate market and other local food sources to to get my food. Um that way I'm supporting the local farmer, and then I really kind of then I can use my time with other things rather than gardening.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Well, what's a horseradish look like? Does it grow underground?

SPEAKER_03 13:23

It it is. It's it's a it's a root crop. It's white, and then it looks it's like a tuber like a potato, more like a tuber like a sweet potato. It's not round or anything like that, it's more oblong.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

So you just take it out of the ground, wash it, scrape it up, and and exactly uh put it on your primary you don't have to cook it or anything, right? Right. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah. So you think the farmers market's a pretty good place?

SPEAKER_03 13:54

I do. There's a lot of really good farmers around here that, like I said, I don't have to deal with then the problems that some of the vegetable crops will give you.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

But they can, you know, that's their job. They can they do it full time and then they can take care of those problems and address those issues.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Is it cheaper if I just go down there and buy stuff rather than try to grow my own?

SPEAKER_03 14:20

It can be. Yeah. Um, I think it's pretty comparable to the uh supermarkets as far as the price goes, but in some cases it can be, you know, just as cheap, you know, than from you growing it yourself. A lot of people grow it because it's fun. Right. It can be relaxing, um, it's healthy to get outside and do that kind of stuff. So there are some other benefits to gardening.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Okay. So gardening is a hobby. You know, you try to convince yourself that you're spending money because you're saving money, but maybe you're not, huh?

SPEAKER_03 14:55

I it it varies. Um, I know like as a as a kid growing up, my parents had a large garden. And so and my mom canned. And so literally our one of our rooms, it was a an extra room where she had all the stuff that she canned in it. And so we definitely saved money by doing that. But by going out here and maybe having a plant or two and growing it and just eating it, that might not be really saving you a whole lot of money. But it depends on size of your family, size of your garden. If you preserve it, I think that can definitely save you money.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_03 15:40

In a little town called Minor, Kentucky, right along the Ohio River.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Really?

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Right. Cl close right across the river or close to um Grant's um birthplace.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Well, we've been um Grant's birthplace. I don't know that.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

That was across the river um in Ohio, but we were in and on the Kentucky side.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Is it close to Paducah?

SPEAKER_03 16:06

No, it's closer to Cincinnati.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Oh, because Paducah is a good place to go here, the Oak Ridge boys. Okay. But that's a different situation. Um and speaking of canning, uh, I have to say this because yesterday Freddie Killow brought me a jar of canned pickled beans. Have you ever had pickled beans?

SPEAKER_03 16:28

I've never had pickled beans. Really? No. I've had pickled okra.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, pickled beans, I remember the the last time I had them, I was probably twelve years old. And then I had them yesterday. And I may finish the jar today. They're they're just right. It's I would just call it uh Marion Caviar. Right. You know, it's just delicious. Yeah. I I have no idea where I was going with that, but and it doesn't really matter. Let me let me get to some of the questions. Oh, tell me about the Master Gardener's plant sale.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Oh, okay. It's actually this weekend. They do it annually. It's called the Spring Fling Plant Sale. And the Master Gardeners, they start a lot of vegetable transplants. They primarily focus on tomatoes and peppers, and they and a lot of them are air heirloom varieties, and so it's varieties that you're not gonna get from your big box stores and some of your even smaller nurseries. Um, so they focus on, like I said, heirloom varieties that you're not gonna find. Um, and so that's really neat.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

And that would be you're gonna buy plants to grow.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Exactly, right.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

So they're probably pretty good quality already, don't you think?

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Exactly. They really they spend a lot of time, like you said, growing on, propagating them correctly. And then in addition to the vegetables, they'll have uh plants that they have propagated from their own gardens. And so, like you have, let's say, day lilies or other perennials that you can divide, they will have those for sale. They'll have some trees and shrubs that they've um gotten from their own gardens. Um, so so there's a variety of um plants there. They also have what they call a garden rummage sale where it's garden-related items. So if you're looking for pots or any garden decor, um you can find it at the plant sale. Um, there'll be someone there to answer questions. If you have some gardening questions, I'll be there along with some other master gardeners.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Oh, wow. Do you know Linda Mystic?

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Um, yeah. Uh we've been on a I think we were on the trails board with her, and she's a great person. Right. She does a lot of stuff. She does. Um so will she be there?

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Do you know she'll be there, and in fact, a lot of those rummage items w have come from Linda's Linda's house because she recently moved, and so as she was cleaning out her house, um, she decided to part ways with some of her garden.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

And that's tomorrow?

SPEAKER_03 19:18

And that's tomorrow. It's from nine to one at the Telgate Market shelter.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

At the Tailgate Market. Okay. All right. That sounds like something might be fun to go to.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Right. It's going to be a beautiful day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

So what what are we going to do with the weather? You know, uh I I thought spring was here. So when when it got springtime, uh two or three or four weeks ago, I thought I wanted to call you so we could talk about spring and now and now it's winter and we're bundled up. Can you plant too soon and then your crop gets destroyed?

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Exactly. Um, so last night there was, in fact, I believe a frost warning. And people, when it gets to be this time of year, people get anxious. It's starting to warm up, people want to put something in the ground. Um, but for our warm season crops, it's definitely too early. For our cool season crops, things like our salads, broccoli, it's perfect weather. Um, but for our tomatoes and peppers, they just are not going to thrive in this weather. Even if you plant them, the soil temperature has to be a certain um degrees in order for them to thrive.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

So if we've got tomatoes planted now, that's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Right. And more than likely, if it did get too cold for them, they would you you you would see it on their leaves. They they'd start browning.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

What do you look for? Let's say I want to plant tomatoes, okay? Do I look for a period of time where we get so many days in a row of a certain temperature, or how do I know that it's time to go out and plant my tomatoes?

SPEAKER_03 20:58

We go by historical data. And historically, our last frost is around April 20th.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

And so that and you can go, but the only thing is you can go plus or minus 11 days or something from that April 20th. And so to be safe, we usually say the beginning of May, or even some people might say Mother's Day, and then you're safe to plant your warm season vegetables.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

And so warm season vegetables would be tomatoes, uh, peppers.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Uh what else would be cucumbers, squash, all of those things eggplant, yeah, a lot of your summer vegetables are considered warm season vegetables.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

But we're only a quarter mile from the market. So maybe, maybe if I go to all the trouble.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Right. And that's you know, and for a while there I did have a garden. Um, but in addition to work and my other hobbies, I was like, let me just go ahead and support the local farmers. Farmers for now. And when I am older and I get to be retired, then yeah, I'll probably go have a garden myself. But until then, I'm just going to support the local farmers. Are you looking at me when you get old and retired?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

So you don't want me to go to the farmers market. You want me to plant.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

I want you to get to the farmers market.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Now, what about those underground things like potatoes and that uh the one you were talking about that goes? Horseradish, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Yeah, you can p plant those potatoes. Um, people, you know, people have different traditions. And so around Easter time, I think people tend to grow potatoes or like that Good Friday, or you know, so you can get them in the ground, but you can also you can um have six what they call succession plant planting, and then you can plant those at one time, plant some more a couple weeks later, plant some more a couple weeks later, and that's the same thing with any vegetable. Up until you you have to time it right. So if you can get the last, like let's say I plant tomatoes, I start in May, I can plant those up until let's say August time frame, and then I I'll have to get my last crop in before the first frost, which is typically around here, October 31st.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

So if I can get a crop in before October 31st, then you're good. And peppers actually thrive later in the season. So in the like before October 30, like they'll come on like gangbusters. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

That's like hot peppers and gel peppers.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Sweet peppers. Yeah. Right. So they they take a long time to get started as well, because they really like that warm weather as well. And so, but they start really producing a lot as the I had I had peppers, I would say up through probably Thanksgiving last year. Oh, really? So um I was really happy with that. And and I I do freeze those, and so I save them for my like when I'm making chili in the winter or any type of stew in the wintertime. I'll have peppers throughout the whole winter with my with just and that was just with one plant.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

And you freeze them.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

And I free I just cut them up and I freeze them.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Have you ever tried that uh California Reaper?

SPEAKER_03 24:23

No. No, I I'm I'm not that daring.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

I did one time. Um my cousin, my cousin Kevin, got California Reapers, and he made uh chili poppers, you know, where you stuff them with cheese and well you couldn't taste the cheese or anything. I mean, they were just you couldn't enjoy it. Yeah, yeah, they were they were too hot. Although he he thought they were pretty good. When did you get interested in what you're doing?

SPEAKER_03 24:54

I um actually my early in my career I was a chemist. My undergraduate degree is a in chemistry. And so I worked as a chemist for a couple years. In in my first job, I was actually on a remote island in the Pacific. And so it was a lot of fishing around. Um I got with a group of fellows that liked to fish, and I started fishing with them and continued that. When I moved back into the United States, I continued to fish and was working in a lab. And I said, Molly, I said, you belong outdoors.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Really?

SPEAKER_03 25:32

Right. And that's when I decided to go back to school and get my master's. And that took you into plants for well, actually, I went to Auburn, Alabama, and I went into uh aquaculture, fish farming. Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

No kidding.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

No kidding.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

So at some point you transitioned.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

Right. Um this position became open. Um Dan Smith, the former county extension director, sure. He moved on to another position, and his position became open, and so he focused on horticulture at the time, and so that they basically then that's when I transitioned to horticulture.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Dan Smith is uh one of my favorite hiking buddies. Oh, okay. Dan and I uh uh don't see eye to eye politically, so we take him. I have another buddy, Walt Bagwell. We take Dan out in the woods and try to get his mind right. But he always survives. He holds on to the beliefs. He's a good guy. Right, he is. Well, oh let me get to my questions here. Uh the it says the extension master food volunteer program. What is that?

SPEAKER_03 26:51

That's a relatively new program for extension. Um, it's modeled after the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program. And it and just like the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program, it's a training program for people that would like to do nutrition education. Um and that's doing actual, like at the Tailgate Market, you see somebody doing food demonstration. Uh a master food volunteer would be would be had be trained with the skills to do those food demonstrations.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Go into that a little bit more because I'm hard-headed. What kind of demonstration are they going to give you?

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Um at the Tailgate Market, they usually do like different recipes. Um using an electric skillet, whether they're cooking up some root crops or some kale, or there's a variety of different products that what's ever available at the market that day, they they do a recipe. A quiche is they do like a quiche with a bunch of different vegetables, which is really popular. Um, so they just do different food similar to what you would see in the supermarket when you're going down the aisle and they have like these little try-this, and so it's similar to that.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Do you think the uh this may not be in your area, but what about the bee population? Are we we okay with that?

SPEAKER_03 28:14

It's I think it's okay, right? Um and and not necessarily, I guess when I look at it, I look at pollinators as a whole. And what a lot of people don't realize is we have a lot of native pollinators, in addition to the honey bee, which is actually an introduced species.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

So we have a lot of native pollinators out there. Now, with that being said, I do think we need to be careful. Um, so they are being impacted, like people that do put pesticides, certain pesticides on their plants, and like when they're flowering, then you know, those that can impact the bee population or the pollinator population. So, and I do think people are becoming more conscious about planting certain plants in their gardens in order to support our pollinators. So I think that's been a real push these pl these last few years. People are planting, you know, plants that are going to support our pollinators. So I do think we're on the right trend. It's it's hard to compete with, especially in urban areas where they just where we lose a lot of our natural area. Um, and so that's where I think it's it's really impacting. So I think we need to be conscious of that and still, you know, grow some some of our pollinator plants and make sure that we're supporting those populations so so they're not impacted.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Well, are pollinators are they all bees or no?

SPEAKER_03 29:52

I'm actually a butterfly can be a pollinator.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

So moles are pollinators, certain um fly species can be pollinators.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Why can we not kill moles?

SPEAKER_03 30:04

You actually can kill moles. Um if you have a good cat. I have two good cats.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Um Well, they really they're destructive.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

But the the the advantage of moles though are they're helping to aerate your lawn. So that's one of the ways that I look at it. So if they're going around making tunnels in your yard, they're actually aerating your lawn. And that's good. That's good for your lawn. It's getting air down to your to the root system of of your turf as well as any other plants that you have out there.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

So if they're in the flower bed, all you got to do is encourage them to get into the lawn.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

All right, well. So butterflies are pollinators. So what you said was if I go out and I want to put some sort of uh some kind of a disinfectant, uh bug spray, whatever on my plant, that I might kill the pollinator.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Possibly, depending upon what you put on there. So um insecticides, they're going to um you know, they're an insecticide, and so a lot of them are are what they call broad spectrum, and so they kill, they're not specifically gonna target one species or one insect, you know, they're gonna kill a lot. So so even when like a if a person says they have an insect infestation of a bad bug, that can spread on over to good bugs. And so then you're killing the good bug population with the bad bug population. And so that will then, you know, and sometimes that bad bug population will then have a sudden jump because the good bugs are also, you know, are dead. So it's so it's a balance, right? And so, and I will say this most bugs are good. Just because you see a bug doesn't make it a bad bug. It's probably 99% of the of the population of bugs are good, of insects are good. And so that's what people often like even bugs that look really menacing are probably still a good bug. And so that's what people um just need to realize. Well, first identify what pest you have, and then see determine if it's a good bug or a bad bug. And then is it doing a lot of damage, you know, and kind of balance out, and everybody's different, like their tolerance level of what damage they're willing to tolerate.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

And so if they're willing to tolerate a lot of damage, then you know, let that pest go and then let the nature take its course as far as but there are some like aphids on a rose, or there's that big green caterpillar that we get once in a while. It can eat a leaf in a half an hour.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Right. And and in some cases, you can with with some of those, literally, um manual removal will take care of those, right? You don't have to necessarily put um an insecticide on it. You can just manually remove those and destroy them. And that's kind of what and I think the other thing is is people take them walks around in their garden just to observe. Don't wait until you see your plant is decimated because of a caterpillar, you know, ate all the leaves. Kind of walk through and kind of say, Oh, yeah, there's a caterpillar. I need to pay attention, make sure it, you know, it doesn't take all the leaves off.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

In McDowell County, do you think we're uh overpopulating the land?

SPEAKER_03 34:06

As far as people? Yeah. I always think that. Yeah. Yeah. No. Um, yeah, I I mean, I I chose to live here and um work here and play here because I do like its rural nature. Right. Um, and so for me personally, you know, the less development we have, the more happy I am. Al although I do realize development is inevitable, it's important. Certainly. But let's do it smartly.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Do you think we are?

SPEAKER_03 34:38

I don't want to get get you into trouble here, but I do think we need to plan.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

And the reason why I say that is because agriculture land in the mountains of Western North Carolina, including McDowell County, is rare. Right? Good arable land that people can can grow our food on. Yes. And so when you take away that land for a development or for a store or for a you know, a government building or anything, then that means that land is out of production forever. Right. Right? Right. And so we need to have better plannings of identifying where is our good arable land and where is our good development land. And so if to me, we just need to plan.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Well, I think um I had Chuck Abernathy up here, and Chuck's first choice when he wants to bring a new business into town is to find an existing building. Right. And I really think that's the way to go, don't you? I do. Right. Uh rather than to go out and and scrape the land off to put up a Dollar General.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

Which grow like mushrooms. Okay, let me ask you another one. What about Earth Day?

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Okay, so um we set we're gonna actually celebrate Earth Day this year on April 22nd, and the cooperative extension along with the McDowell Local Food Advisory Council with West Marion Incorporated and the McDowell Access to Care and Health. We are hosting a showing of the documentary Kiss the Ground. Um, it's a documentary that's narrated by Woody Harrelson, and so it talks about regenerative agriculture and how regenerative agriculture can help with some of our climate crisis.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

And where would that be?

SPEAKER_03 36:41

It's gonna be at the McDowell Arts Council Association, MACA, which is right there on Main Street. It's a free event. It's gonna start at five. We're gonna have heavy hordeurs, and the actual showing is gonna be at 5.30, and they're gonna have child care. So if you want to uh have problems with child care that evening, we're gonna have that taken care of for you.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Well, I have problems with child care. But I won't go into that. So they must be gonna put up a screen and show exactly.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

At at MACA, there's going to be a screen and we're gonna have the the movie showing right there. I think their theater seats 80 people.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Did you know Woody Harrelson's father murdered a judge in um San Antonio? Yeah, San Antonio. Oh no, I didn't. No. Yeah. I think he if he's still alive, he's in jail. Oh, okay. Just a little side. Okay. Uh doesn't matter. Uh, what about the 4-H Club?

SPEAKER_03 37:38

So the 4-H program is our youth development program, and we do a variety of activities. Anything with cooperative extension that we deal with youth is considered 4-H. Um, so we do a lot of what they call school enrichment, and school enrichment can be, we call it the embryology program, where they actually hatch eggs. They get um about it each, it's for the second second graders. So any teacher in second grade can say they want to part be part of the embryology program, and we get eggs for them. We actually source our eggs from the Biltmore farms. Um and they um bring them to and they have we have incubators at the office, and we lend out our incubators, and they incubate um these eggs for a variety of time, and just to learn about the life cycle is what the lesson is. Um so we do school enrichment, we do um different um what they call special interest clubs. So shooting sports is really popular. So Chad Ray is our 4-H agent and he does shooting sports, and they compete at different competitions. They have regional competitions, they have state competitions, um, they even have national competitions, and Chad has taken a few McDowell County 4-H'ers um to national competition.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Chad's a good guy, isn't he?

SPEAKER_03 39:01

He is.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Yeah, yeah. I have not seen him in quite a while, but uh I remember him from the he and I were in the same gun club together. Oh, okay. Yeah, and uh yeah, he's a good guy. Yeah, yeah. I like him. Um all right, so tell me 4-H Club. What are they?

SPEAKER_03 39:23

Okay, 4-H clubs are c what they call community clubs, and anybody can have a community club. All you need is a volunteer leader and five 4-H members. And we have we have one that's really active now. They meet on, I want to say the third Monday of every month in the evenings, and they do different activities. And you can have a general 4-H club and you can have one that's specific to hiking. Um, when my son was young, I had a a 4-H club and we did a variety of things. I hosted it at Nebo Elementary, and we but we focused on outdoor stuff. Um, we we would go hiking, we would go, I had a person from the forestry service come out and and told us, you know, talk to us about trees. I had where we had an orent orienteering um meeting. Right. So so we did a variety of things. So it can be, like I said, focused or it can be general. Um we've had livestock clubs in the past where it was focused on on livestock and how to care for livestock.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

So you don't have to raise your own pig and take it to the fair and watch it get butchered, right? Right. Okay, so you you could be just a hiker.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

Exactly. Um they have focused, actually, I I did what we call the special interest. I actually did like um one that was focused on digital skills and coding. So the kids would come in and we would practice coding.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

Coding as in computer coding, yes. And that's in the 4-H Club.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Exactly, right.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

What do those H's stand for?

SPEAKER_03 41:10

Head, Heart, Hands, and Health.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Okay, good. I actually Do they pass? Yes, you did. That was the one thing I knew because my cousins have been have been in 4-H many years. So what's the age limit to be in a 4-H club?

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Um five to eighteen. Five to eighteen. Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

So from what you're telling me, I could be a 4-H club member and never have an animal and never raise a tree.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

I could be a computer programmer.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

Exactly, right. And they have um they have different ways that you can get recognized. They have what they you can keep a project record book and they have competitions on, you know, how to um who has the best project record book. They have presentations where we um they give a presentation and they get recognized for that. They have local competitions, regional competitions, and state competitions. So you're teaching um youth basically how to communicate, how to speak in public. Um, and then we also have our camp program where they go to camp for a week and again just developing their life skills.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

Where would these um presentations be if the public wanted to?

SPEAKER_03 42:29

They're they're at A B Tech, and it's usually in the summer months, so it's going to be June this year, and I don't know the exact date, but but they could go and they could, and there's several different categories. Um there's even it what they call an outdoor crookery. So a you know, a person goes up and they they grill something and they ex, you know, I guess they you know, grill it and they present what they they grilled, and um, so that's a unique, but it can be again a variety of topics, you know, sewing, you know, we even do like digital skills. Um for any topic, there's going to be any topic a person wants to do, we're gonna find a category for them.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Do you have much interest? Uh are there a lot of kids?

SPEAKER_03 43:18

I I don't know. I think the numbers definitely have gone down. Um, competition with other activities, it's just hard to compete sometimes, um, and you never can force a kid anymore to do what they don't want to do. Right, right. Harder to make them do something. But um it's to me, it's it's probably one of the best programs that 4 H has to offer.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

I did not know that even anything like that existed. Right. Uh I always think of 4 H as you know, kids uh on the farm.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

And and that's part of it too. I don't want to downplay that. We act every year we host an a life. Livestock show, a youth livestock show. And that I gosh, I I couldn't tell you, but it's the longest running livestock show in the state, longest continuous um livestock show and show in the state. And so kids, they basically, you know, are with this livestock, taking care of the livestock, and they it's the first um Saturday in August, and they come out and they actually uh present the livestock. Not only do does and we have a judge, they judge the quality of the livestock, but they also look at what they call showmanship. And so the person that's showing gets judged. How well did they handle that animal? You know? Oh, sure. Right. And so that's part of the program as well. Um and that's really, I think, uh, you know, maybe a lot of the the youth compete for showmanship more than their cattle or their sheep or goat.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Well, where would a a parent or a child go if they wanted to be in 4-age?

SPEAKER_03 45:08

They'd come to our office. We're at um 60 East Court Street, the County Services Building on the second floor. Um they're welcome to come up there. They can call our office, 828-652-8104. We'd be happy, Chad will be happy to talk to them to get them involved. We've actually, for people that don't have money for livestock, um, there are programs that we can get them the livestock as long as there's funds available that we do try and get um kids. I think maybe there's at least one person that we they call it a dairy steer. We get we got them a dairy steer in order for them to compete.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

Wow, that is just great. Don't you think that's a great opportunity?

SPEAKER_03 45:53

Oh yeah, for sure. Um it's it's I don't want to be negative about our youth, but it's really all these activities can be really positive for youth development. And so I I think anything that promotes good youth development is is a great thing.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Do the kids really buy into it?

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Oh yeah. If if you go out to our uh youth livestock show, you will see these kids are 100% committed. Um I don't think any of those kids were forced to be there. They really want to be there. And so that's really neat to see too.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

So where would I go if I want to let me ask you this, because uh in in California where Janet and I are from, we lived kind of up on a mountain in San Diego and and we raise cattle. Oh, okay. Um, and it was kind of hard because you raise them for several months and then you kill them and eat them, you know, probably the American way, I guess. Right. But the the kids who raised, we had a lot of cousins that raised animals and they got attached to them. Do they they know they're gonna be butchered, right?

SPEAKER_03 47:05

Yeah, we um but I think that's part of the training is you tell them this is you know what you're doing and the expectation. Right. Um so that they know that up front that this is the expectation, and they know that. And a lot of these kids did grow up on a farm.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

And so they know they see it. Right. You know, that you know, those kids that are raised on a farm, I think a lot more exposed to a lot more than the average kid that wasn't raised on a farm. So they realize the realities of it.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

When you go to the livestock show as a me as a visitor, can I bid on an animal and have it?

SPEAKER_03 47:48

No, um, we don't we don't do that at our livestock show, but there are over in um western North Carolina. There's usually already a buyer for these that they've set up, usually a large buyer, and they just buy the whole lot. So if you if you have a lot of money, Jim, you want to buy a whole lot of cattle.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

No, no. Um I want to go back to the our list of questions that Janet wrote out for me. In April, well, let's just say April and May. What what are good things to plant on the flower side?

SPEAKER_03 48:26

All your um warm season annuals you can plant on the flower side, marigolds, uh, zinnias, uh geraniums, um a lot of the annual summer flowering is is you can plant at end of May, uh begin or not end of May, sorry, end of April, beginning of May, are all those that you can plant.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

What about fruits and vegetables?

SPEAKER_03 48:53

Vegetables, it's all your warm season crops, tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, eggplant, your beans. Oh, beans. Yeah, beans you can plant um first of May.

SPEAKER_01 49:05

Now, you mentioned a while ago about peppers. Is that the time? Are we into pepper time? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

At the first of May, you can start planting your peppers. They really like warm soils.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

I should apologize to Carolinians because I've been calling them California Reapers, and it's Carolina Reapers. Uh, but I I spent so much time in California. What about lawn care? What do we do now?

SPEAKER_03 49:32

The the best thing you can do for your lawn is keep, especially if you have a cool season lawn like a fescue or a bluegrass mix, keep your mowing height as high as you can. A lot of people, you know, they don't like to mow, so they say, okay, let me mow as low as I can, and then I don't have to mow as often. Well, that's a terrible thing to do to a cool season lawn. Um, if you have more shoots, you know, more of the green part, you're gonna have more roots. And in our summer months, we tend to have no rain. So the longer your roots, it's gonna have more access to the water that is down in the soil. That if if I could convince every man out there to keep your mowing height as high as possible, your grasses would do a lot better. Um, it's it's amazing that it c it will crowd out your your weeds.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Um when you say as high as possible, give me a number.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

I say three to three and a half inches. Really? Right. Three inches. Right. It's it's you'll have a lush green lawn if if people did more of that. And like I said, it it helps to crowd out your weeds because when you mow low, a lot of times those weeds can out compete your grasses. And I will say this in North Carolina, we live in an area where warm season grasses don't do well, or your cool season grasses. We kind of live in a um in the middle of the country where neither are perfect, so neither are really greatly adapted to our climate, and so we have to adjust and and make make it the best climate as possible um for that grass.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

So uh is it wise to spend your money on that uh all those grass growing things you throw out on your lawn?

SPEAKER_03 51:29

It's important to um give it some fertilizer. Um and I recommend people I I use the holidays for a cool season lawn, it's Valentine's Day, it's Labor Day, and it's Thanksgiving. And so if you can throw out some fertilizer on those holidays, and then a little in the summer months. So if you're gonna stick with the theme of holidays, think July 4th, end of June, July 4th to throw out some fertilizer.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

Do you try to keep your lawn green over the winter months?

SPEAKER_03 51:59

It tends to stay a little greener because, like I said, it's where it's a cool if it's a cool season grass, that's it does like the cooler temperatures. I don't necessarily try to keep it green in the summer or the winter because when we do get our droughts, they it does tend to die out.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

So can you define that? What is a drought?

SPEAKER_03 52:20

I don't know the technical um definition.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

See, we're from California. Right. We get in San Diego, we get three inches of rain a year. We moved back to North Carolina, we got three inches of rain one morning. Right, right. And and yet the guy on the TV is going, Well, sorry, we got these drought conditions. Well, what is that? Or how do we know here we're in a drought?

SPEAKER_03 52:47

We actually at the extension office, um, we actually do what they call a drought monitor, and we um give I'm not for sure um who exactly those numbers go to, but it's somebody in the state of North Carolina, and I'm gonna say probably NCDA, because drought is more economically important to our farmers. Right. And so we kind of say, you know, if if it's rained or not, but um like in like if people are getting pasture um cuttings, um we say how how many cuttings they've gotten for a certain, you know, time period. Um and so I again I apologize, I don't know the exact definition, but I know we're in uh what they call uh D2 level drought, and they're ranked, I think it's D1 through D4. D4 being the worst, right. I w I want to say so, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:49

So I'm guessing, I'm just guessing that you probably don't like to use uh weed killers.

SPEAKER_03 53:59

No, I I I will. Um, but I use it especially on the lawn. Uh what we I normally do is a preventative, and that's uh what they call a pre-emergent. So before the those weed seedlings emerge through the soil, there is a pesticide, a layer of pesticides that actually prevent it from emerging. And so you cut it off right there, and then so it doesn't even emerge. So that's what I try to do. Once they emerge, then I'm usually a manual weed puller.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Take them one at a time.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

Do you travel a lot in your job?

SPEAKER_03 54:43

Uh around in the county I do.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

So do you do you stay mainly in the county, do you think?

SPEAKER_03 54:49

Yes, yes. The the county pays me, so therefore I owe it to the county to concentrate on the county.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

Do you do a lot of speaking?

SPEAKER_03 55:00

A little bit um here and there. I did a lot earlier in my career than I do now at different events.

SPEAKER_01 55:07

One, I appreciate you coming up here. I know it's uh inconvenience to come up here, but I appreciate you doing that. Do you do like uh see Janet has been to these things called the seminars and things like that where you talk about plant are you gonna have some of those?

SPEAKER_03 55:27

Yeah, I usually I usually have them in the spring, um, when people are anxious to to get out and garden and they're that's what that's on their mind. And then also I just did an extension master gardener volunteer training this past winter into um I guess it was fall into winter, I did a Master Gardener training. It's a 40-hour course. Wow. Yeah, they meet for um several weeks once a week um for three hours, and we discuss all gardening topics. We discuss annuals, vegetables, um, perennials, trees, shrubs, um, soils. Um so they kind of get a good knowledge um to start with, and then they go through a 40-hour um internship where they actually volunteer those 40 hours and they work with other Extension Master Gardener volunteers to learn um even more out in the field.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Tell me the difference between an annual and a perennial.

SPEAKER_03 56:26

Okay, an annual is something that goes through its life cycle uh in one year. It will germinate, it will flower, it will create seed, and then it will die. A perennial is one that will come back year after year.

SPEAKER_01 56:45

So our roses are perennial.

SPEAKER_03 56:48

It's a perennial.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

And azaleas.

SPEAKER_03 56:50

Azalea is a perennial, right? So you have um herbaceous perennials and you have woody perennials. So think of trees as woody perennials and herbaceous as things like daylilies.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

Oh. Okay, I've got it, I've got to come up with a way to use that in a conversation. Herbaceous. Do you happen to know uh Bill Henley? Yes, I do. We were talking about uh pollinators.

SPEAKER_04 57:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 57:19

You know, he now I don't know if he still has Henley's honey or not. Yes, he does, yes. He has started mixing, well, he not started, he's doing it for a while. C B D with his honey. Right. Or y you know, some honey. Right. What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_03 57:37

Yeah, some people are um claim that it does really well for them, especially when it's art arthritis or other ailments. Um so I've never tried it myself. Um but you know, if it works for some people, I think, yeah, definitely try it.

SPEAKER_01 57:54

Well, I have tried it. I think Bill's a cool guy. So when he came out with those little C B D straws, if is that right, C B D?

SPEAKER_04 58:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

He came out with those little straws and and I tried that, and uh I think I liked it. You know, it seemed like it was working, it helped a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 58:14

Did you have aches and pains or joint issues or I I'm old.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

I have all of that stuff. All the above. Yeah, all the time. I'll take anything. Janet has written here classes at the library for seniors on cell phones and computers. Are you doing that?

SPEAKER_03 58:35

Yeah, I am. We've branched out a little in extension to do digital skills programming. As you know, technology has become really a part of our lives, our everyday life. It's just not a here and there thing. We use technology every day. Um, and so it's not only important in our urban areas, but also our rural areas. And so people are relying more on the internet to market their goods. And we think of farmers, um, they're even marketing their products on the internet. And so there's definitely a digital divide when it comes to areas, you know, urban versus rural. You know, some people have really great access, other people don't. And so, and then think about our older adults. Did you grow up with a computer? No, right. We had a telephone attached to the wall, right? Right? And um, and you went the length of that cord, and that's as far as you went. Um, and so our older adults are really um, they're not necessarily resistant to technology, but it's just something different. And so um some of my classes are trying to just get them comfortable with using technology. And it's really, if you think about it, can be very efficient. Think about banking. You got a statement once a month, and that's when you saw your all your transactions. You could check your transactions, what you thought you did, and then but with uh with using an app on a phone or a mobile device or your computer, you can actually look daily at what your statement is, what your transactions are. Um, so it's kind of you can really keep track of your finances and making sure all those transactions are valid. Um, telehealth. Oh, yes. More doctors are saying, you know, come see me on the, you know, through online and getting an appointment online. Um I have a funny story about my mom. She actually went to the doctor when she was sick and they said, What are you doing here? And she said, Well, I'm sick. And they said, Well, we don't want to see you here. They would rather have seen her online and and kept her at home and done it, done a um visit through a telehealth. Um, so it's it's really has changed the way we do things.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:10

Recently, I had to go to the hospital, something happened. I had to go to the hospital for uh an overnighter or something, and they wheeled a TV in next to my bedside, and there was a doctor on the TV, and she interviewed me. Uh, how do you feel? All that kind of stuff. And she was actually, because I was hooked up to the machine, she was taking my vitals. So I said, This was in uh probably September, so and as you know, we do our rotary auction in October. So I said, Well, why don't you come down to the rotary auction in October? And she said, I'd love to, but I'm in Dallas, Texas. So it's a whole different world.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:02

It it really is. It's um it's it's amazing. But you know, and trying to get older adults comfortable with technology, I think is a really goal. And there's a ton of things out there that a ton of apps that people can use that can make you know it's fun, fun stuff. I mean, you can learn a language with an app, you can uh learn about hiking trails on an app. Um, and it's all most of these apps do have a social component, and so you can actually have a social group of people that have the similar interest as you.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Yeah, yeah. Do you think that using the apps make I'm gonna talk about old people because I can. Do you think it makes us more vulnerable to outside crooks?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:54

Yeah, I think any of us, whether you're older or younger, are um there are people that are scammers out there that that you we are vulnerable to, and just recognizing, and that's part of my classes, is recognizing I was gonna ask you that. Yeah, is recognizing when things are a little suspicious. Um, and don't um another funny story, you know, back in the day when we were attached, you know, the telephone attached the wall, and people would call, right? Right. And they would kind of ask you questions, and and my mother would always say in the background, don't tell them anything. You don't know who they are, you know? You don't know who's on the other end of that line. And same thing with the internet, right? Someone might be talking to you or sending you an email, and you're like, Yeah, I don't know who's on the other end of that line. So it's kind of this the similar think similarly, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:50

Don't so there's really not a prince in Somalia that won't share this million dollars with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:58

Not that I'm aware of, right? Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fall for that again.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

I just I watched the uh I'll call it the moon landing, the the come back to Earth of the Moon vehicle, and they said that we ha our our cell phones are more we have more computing power in our cell phone than the Apollo mission did when it went up. Don't isn't that fascinating?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

That is fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

It it's no wonder we're on the phone all the time. Uh and I think everybody is, regardless of age. We're always on it. Is there anything you want to talk to me about? Uh oh no, before you do, I've got a couple more things. Since you cover Magdow County, do you think the people of Magdow County I'm not sure I'm talking about governments, but let's include government in there. Do you think we're good stewards of the of the soil and of the air and of the ecology?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:09

I think we try to be. Um I don't I can't speak for everything or everybody, but I do think there are policies and regulations out there that kind of monitor our use of our environmental resources. So I do think that I think is a good thing to have in place um in order to protect our um environment and our climate. Um and so and and living in a rural area, I think we definitely probably are better stewards of it than you know Charlotte and or some place that has a lot of concrete.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

Yeah, I think we're probably more aware of it here.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:53

Right, right. And I do think we fortunately we can capitalize on that. Um people come from all over. Over to visit us because of our natural area.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Yeah, literally capitalize on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:05

Right. And and so I think that's a really good thing. And I think we need to value that and understand it and really help us, you know, make sure that we capitalize on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:16

Are you disappointed or happy to see these big crowds on the mountain on the blue ridge during leaf season?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:28

I'm I'm okay with it. It's um, you know, sure, I'm sure it's a hindrance to some of us that like to enjoy it as well, but um I like to see people enjoy it just as much as I do. Same as trails, you know, I'm out there because I enjoy it, you know, and that's why they're there too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:48

Right. We a couple of leaf seasons ago when the leaves were particularly pretty, Janet and I were going we were up on the Blue Ridge just to go on a hike. And you couldn't get from point A to point B because there were cars parked on both sides of the Blue Ridge and people just looking up in the air and wandering out in the road. It's a highway. Um I I'm sure they were there probably wasn't a North Carolina tag over there. Now I know that's good for us. Right. It's good for our economy, but boy, what a pain.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:26

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

Okay, let me get back to what I was gonna ask you. Is there anything, any message that you would like to impart uh uh to uh uh the folks that are listening to us?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:40

Just I think gardening and um it can be really good for your health, for your mental health, your physical health. Um so it even just enjoying, you know, like I'm looking out here and I see Azaleas, dogwoods blooming. I think you know, appreciate that and get out and enjoy it. Um for our farmers, I do want to say, let's promote local food, local food purchasing. Um, it really helps the local economy when you do that, because that money stays within McDowell County or our region. And so we're not sending it out to some other company that's not located here in this area, so it stays here. Those farmers then use that money more than likely here in this region when they're having to buy tractor parts. Um, so I think that's really important to consider when you're making local purchases. Their prices are pretty comparable to the grocery store. Um, I'm not for sure what's the grocery store prices are gonna be this summer, but when you have higher gas prices, that's gonna be tacked on somewhere. And more than likely it's gonna be on your food bill as well. So that's just something to consider when you're making your purchases. You don't have to do like, I'm gonna buy a hundred percent of my groceries locally. And I think that's a lofty goal, but if you can do something just as like, I'm gonna spend ten percent of my food bill on local food, let's say you spend a hundred dollars a week, that's just ten dollars that you're but that still is gonna do an impact for our local economy.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:20

So you're saying go to places like the market here in town. Right. Um now what about the little vegetable stands that are all over the place?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

Right. And and that's a good place too. Um we've got a lot of farm stands around. More than likely, they're sourcing right from their own gardens. I mean, you can ask them, like, hey, where'd this come from? And if, you know, I uh some people say local a lot, right? That's a trendy term. Yes, right, and so ask, you know, I even saw a a local restaurant saying they have local tomatoes. Well, where are they getting them, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:00

And what's local to them? Well, you know, what's that definition mean to them? If local means the southeast, you know, are they getting them from Florida, you know, and then just kind of ask. Um, but you know, there's no local tomatoes here right now. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:16

And I see uh early in the year you'll see uh watermelon and cantaloupe and stuff like that, and and yet I don't think that I see big fields of watermelon here.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

Exactly. Um there are some people that do grow watermelons, but early in the season, no. It's gonna be later in the season when you start seeing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

Do you think it's from foreign shores?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

No. Okay. Um I do think they probably get it from um other areas. Um California, you know, sure big ag state. Oh yeah. Right. Um, and other areas that that do. Florida's another, you think of these really populated states, but they have great agriculture. Um so um, but we do have a lot of watermelon that cut you know, they grow them in eastern North Carolina. Watermelon, there's a major production of watermelon, and we do grow some here locally as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:21

Do you know of any good farm to table restaurants in Marion or McDowell?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:30

Not that's really solely focused on farm to table. I'm sure some of them do get um produce here regionally um, but not really that's their focus. I've not really seen that. I I would love to see it though.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:48

We used to have um restaurants that would get local cheeses.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:55

I don't know if that's the case anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:58

No, she um it was English farmstead cheese, right, and she um decided to retire.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:04

Oh, what a shame. Yeah, because that was good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:08

It was, it really was.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:09

And I don't know of any other the when I think of now of like cheese and cheese curds, I'm thinking way up in the mountains, uh Johnson City, I think. Don't they have a cheese place up there? Uh but nothing local, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:27

The um actually the um the former owner of McDowell Local, I think, purchased a lot of the equipment that English Farm said she's had, and they're actually um making some cheeses. And I I want to say their name is Three Sisters Cheese. Well it's either three sisters or four sisters.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:49

Well, Janet goes to the market, but I don't. Um do they have things like cheeses and meats down at the market?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:57

They they definitely have meats. I'm not for sure if they have any cheeses, um but this it's a whole new year, so they usually get vendor applications, and so hopefully there's a cheese vendor. But in Black Mountain, I know at one time there was a really big cheese vendor at the at their Black Mountain tailgate market.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:17

I am really much more interested now in what you do than I was a week ago. Uh the idea of of what you do with the 4-H. So first off, if someone is interested in getting into the 4-H, would you how do they contact you again?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:39

Yeah, our our phone number is 828-652-8104, and Chad is our 4-H agent, and just ask to speak to Chad, and he can tell you how to get involved with 4-H.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:50

And that is from five years old to 18. Correct. Okay, because I I think the more youngsters that are in 4-H, the fewer that are going to be in line when I want to get ice cream, you know what I mean? So let's keep them busy.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:06

That's right. Keep them out of the ice cream line.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:08

Yep, keep them out in the field. I'm all for that. Any other programs you got going that anyone of any age, including the old people, anything coming up that I would be interested in?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:20

I still, like I said, I do my digital skills classes. Right now I have one on how to use an Android tablet. And so there's, you know, our phones are great, but it's often a smaller screen. And so a tablet provides a little larger screen. It's still very mobile, and you can do all the stuff that's on your phone, you can do on a tablet. So it that's a actually a five-week course. We meet two times a week, so it's actually 10 sessions, and we go through you know different apps that they can use. And it's funny, you learn a lot of things from other people, and so we share a lot. And so even I've learned stuff from them with different apps that they have used. So that's kind of uh it's been a fun experience, even for me, to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:09

Now, where do you that's not at the library, is it?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:12

No. Um, the library has been going through some renovations, and so I moved it to our extension conference room. So eventually I'll I'll move back to the library. They just got finished with their renovations.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

You gave me an address, but we're talking about the courthouse, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:28

It's actually the county services building. We're right behind the courthouse, and we're on the second floor.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:34

Right behind the courthouse.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:36

Right. It's the on the first floor is where you pay your taxes, and we're on the second floor.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:40

Okay. Yeah. I see you walking around down, but Janet won't let me honk the horn because she says that's uh proper etiquette anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:50

So I've had a few people honk the horn. That's how we're right. It's usually getting out of my way.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:59

Are you riding your bike around town much?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:01

Not around town. Um, I usually go to a uh the thermal belt rail trail.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:07

Oh man, don't you like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:09

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:10

That's a great one. If they could connect that to something.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:13

I would love that to happen, and I hope it happens within my lifetime, but I don't anticipate that happening.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:20

Well, you've got a better shot at it than I do, but I don't think it's gonna happen, but boy it would.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

Yeah, I mean, and and I don't, you know, I sitting here, but uh it do it doesn't seem like it'd take much. Yeah, yeah. And and so it it would be great if they did.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:38

They did a fine job on that.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:40

Oh, yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:41

It's it's got money. I think wasn't that the uh hospital organization out of Rutherford.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:49

Exactly. I can't remember what they're called, but it was a foundation out of Rutherford that's associated with the hospital. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:56

Our greenway is great, but it's too short for the serious bike rider doesn't want to get on that. No, um well, I I don't have any more. Um first off, I really appreciate your time. So now I'm gonna take advantage of you and ask you, would you consider coming back in the fall and talking to me? Sure. Because things change in the fall. Right. And I'd love to have you come back. I won't ask you all the stupid questions. We'll just get into some good ones. Okay. Um anything else you want to say?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:34

No, I really enjoy it. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:36

Well, thank you very much for coming. Um I want to tell all the folks, uh, don't forget that you can contact me. The best way is uh my email address, which is on the porch with Jim Williams. That's one word on the porch with Jim Williams at gmail.com. That's uh the quickest way to get to me and uh send me your questions or any ideas you have. If you know of anyone or you are someone that would like to come up and talk to me, I'm still looking for those that uh Molly, do you believe in ghosts?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:17

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:18

Oh what about uh outer space?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:22

Do I believe in outer space? No, people from outer space. No. Oh, okay. Well, all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:30

Well there so it won't be Molly that we interview about uh ghost sighting. So I need someone. If you if you've got something you want to say, please contact me. Once again, uh Molly Sanfos, I I know you're busy and I appreciate your time. Thank you for coming up. Uh gotta say thanks to Janet for running all the equipment again. And most of all, uh thank you for listening to me, and we'll see you next week is Martha Jordan, and we're gonna talk about the gossip of uh in North Coast. So we don't get to that. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week.