JEFFERSON COUNTY FREE FAIR

Corrected Dates!  Thursday, August 23– noon Saturday, August 25. Indoor entries are due by 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 22.   Baked items needing refrigeration may be brought in by 8 a.m. Thursday, August 23 morning – judging will take place Thursday, August 23.  Bring your creativity in crafts, arts, baked items, canned items, dehydrated foods, refurbished clothing or furniture, photography, Vintage items, Quilts, home grown fruits and vegetables, etc.  A fair book will be available prior to August.  There will be a Pet Show, Best Pie Maker and Best Cookie Jar contests!  Come join the fun!

Co-Parenting for Resilence: Divorce or separation is not an easy or favorable decision, especially when minor children are in the home.  A class for divorcing or separating parents with minor children living in the home.  My next class is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, August 14, 2018 (there will be no class in July). Pre-registration is required. Call Jefferson County OSU Extension Office at 580-228-2332 for registration information.  This class is mandatory by law in Oklahoma and is also valuable for Grandparents and other relatives of minor children going through a divorce or separation.

Jefferson County OHCE:   The 83rd Annual OHCE State Meeting will be held at the Embassy Suites/Downtown, Oklahoma City, Sunday evening July 8 through Tuesday, July 10.  Tara Brown, Jefferson County OHCE Advisor and others are planning to attend and will bring back educational materials and other information to share later.

Jefferson County Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service through Oklahoma State University offers researched-based programs and information.  Call 580-228-2332 or come to 802 East D’ Street (Jefferson County Fairgrounds and visit with Leland McDaniel, Extension Educator, Agriculture/ 4/H Youth Development and Tara Brown, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences/4-H Youth Development for questions you may have relating to Agriculture and/or Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H.

Hot Weather Safety     Whew! It’s Getting Hot!

Whether the activity is sports related like running or cycling, or work related such as lawn care or facility maintenance, considering the increasing temperatures outside is important for overall health.  Exercising or working in the heat puts a stress on the body greater than what may be experienced due to the increased activity alone.  When we are active in hot environments the body naturally protects itself through the sweating process. If you are exposed to high temperatures for too long, and your body becomes dehydrated, it could lead to heat related health conditions.  Such conditions include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and the most severe, heatstroke.  It is important to be aware of the warning signs and symptom of heat related illnesses.  According to the Mayo Clinic the following signs are indicative of a heat related illness:

·  Muscle cramps

·  Nausea/vomiting

·  Weakness

·  Fatigue

·  Headache

·  Dizziness

·  Low blood pressure

·  Increased heart rate

·  Vision problems

·  Sweating extensively or not at all

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms it is important to stop exercising or working and get out of the heat immediately.  You will also want to remove any extra clothing, place cool cloths or ice packs on skin, and drink plenty of fluids.  If you are in a location you can use a hose or shower, spray yourself with water, or sit in a tub with cold water.

As with many health issues the best defense against health related illness is prevention.  The following general precautions that may be taken to minimize the risk of heat related illnesses:

·  Limit outdoor activity to the morning and evening hours.

·  Get acclimated.

·  Drink plenty of fluids.

·  Wear clothing that is light color, and made with breathable fabrics.

·  Cut down on exercise intensity.

·  Understand your medical risks 

    Don’t forget the sunscreen!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a comprehensive website focused on extreme heat and your health at http://www.cdc.gov/extremeheat/. And if you are working to educate others, a media toolkit at http://www.cdc.gov/extremeheat/materials.html. Please continue to enjoy your outside activities during the summer months.  Now you are prepared to identify if you are experiencing symptoms of a heat related illness, as well as work prevent it from ever occurring.

Thursday, June 21, Tara Brown, Jefferson County OSU Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H Youth Development presented a nutrition program on Trail Mix to the Ringling School Summer program.  She explained that there are a variety of Trail Mixes available in the market.  After a discussion of what food items may be put into a Trail Mix and why it is good for hiking and other outdoor (as well as indoor) activities and simple snacks, the group made their Trail Mix snacks.  Later during the afternoon, Tara Brown presented a program on rocks for the Library Rocks! Program for Gleason Memorial Library at the Ringling Community Building.  After a brief discussion on the three main types of rocks, each participant creatively painted at least one river rock. There was a lot of creativity done!

Jefferson County OHCE (Oklahoma Home and Community Education) meet the 3rd Tuesdays in the Waurika Sr. Citizens Center unless otherwise noted.  The next meeting will be April 17 at 12 noon at Waurika Sr. Citizens’ Center.  Tara Brown will present our program “Slow Cooker Meals”.  Contact Tara Brown for additional information. 

Friday, April 6, members of Jefferson County OHCE attended the SW District OHCE meeting held in Pauls Valley.  Carolyn Arnold, Secretary; Kimberly Morris, member; Melicia McFadden, President and Tara Brown, Extension Educator, FCS/4-H Youth Development and Advisor started the day early to be at the meeting place in Pauls Valley by 8:30 a.m. Each of us attended three different sessions which included “Oklahoma Wheat Commission”; “Shabby Chic Flower Pot painting”; How to write reports; there was also a session for Presidents; and others. The large group of attendees said “Farewell and Good wishes upon retirement” to Gloria King, formerly SW District FCS Program Specialist.  It was a good informative day.

Co-Parenting for Resilience:  Divorce or separation is not an easy or favorable decision, especially when minor children are in the home.  A class for divorcing or separating parents with minor children living in the home, is available monthly or as scheduled.  Our next class is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, 2018. Pre-registration is required. Call Jefferson County OSU Extension Office at 580-228-2332 for registration information.  This class is mandatory by law in Oklahoma and is also valuable for Grandparents and other relatives of minor children going through a divorce or separation.

 Jefferson County Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Services staff is ready and willing to assist you with your Agriculture, Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H –related questions.  Call 580-228-2332.  Information is also available on our website oces.okstate.edu/Jefferson.  Our Facebook pages are JeffersonCounty Fourh  and JeffersonCounty Osu Extension.

 Making room for this season’s garden harvest

Now that the spring season is underway, many gardeners are looking forward to getting their fruits and vegetables in the ground and hoping for a productive growing season.

For those who had a bountiful harvest last season and canned or froze their crops, it is time to clear off the shelves and clean out the freezer and get ready to preserve this year’s harvest, said Barbara Brown, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension food specialist.

“There’s nothing better than opening a jar of green beans or pulling a bag of okra from the freezer in the middle of winter and being able to taste that summer freshness,” Brown said. “If you had a particularly big garden, it’s likely you’ve still got a few jars of goodness on your shelves or in your freezer. Because the quality of home-preserved foods doesn’t last forever, it’s a good idea to clear out those canned foods in the pantry or those foods in the freezer to make space for what you’re planning to grow this season.”

Although freezing will not improve the flavor or texture of any food, it can preserve most of the quality of a fresh product as long as it is frozen properly and stored at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Most fruits and vegetables will last in the freezer eight to 12 months. Certainly, these foods should be safe to eat after a year, but the eating quality and nutrition may be lower. Putting dates on all your frozen foods can help make sure you use them while they are at their best. 

Some gardeners prefer to can some of their fruits and vegetables. Properly canned food stored in a cool, dry place will retain optimum eating quality for at least a year. 

“Most of us don’t have a root cellar like our ancestors did, so proper storage is a must,” Brown said. “Canned food stored in a warm place near hot pipes, a range, a furnace or indirect sunlight will have a much shorter shelf life. Also, canned items stored in a damp area can cause lids to corrode and may result in leakage, so the food will spoil. Before you get started canning this year’s harvest, go through any remaining foods from last year and check for signs of spoilage.”

Check over your home canned foods for signs of spoilage. Check the seals, make sure flats are not swollen and there is no sign of gas bubbles, mold or other unwanted growth inside the jars. Do not taste food from a jar with an unsealed lid or food that shows signs of spoilage. 

You can more easily detect some types of spoilage in jars stored without screw bands. Growth of spoilage bacteria and yeast produces gas which pressurizes the food, swells lids and breaks jar seals. As each stored jar is selected for use, examine its lid for tightness and vacuum. Lids with concave centers have good seals. 

Next, while holding the jar upright at eye level, rotate the jar and examine its outside surface for streaks of dried food originating at the top of the jar. Look at the contents for rising air bubbles and unnatural color. 

While opening the jar, smell for unnatural odors and look for spurting liquid and cotton-like mold growth (white, blue, black or green) on the top food surface and underside of lid.

“No matter which method of preservation you prefer, make sure to use proper preservation and storage methods,” Brown said. “This will help ensure you have garden-ripe fruits and vegetables all year long.” 

For information on proper canning and freezing of garden produce, visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation at http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html 

Jefferson County OHCE (Oklahoma Home and Community Education) meet the 3rd Tuesdays in the Waurika Sr. Citizens Center unless otherwise noted.   Each month we have lessons which are open to anyone interested in attending.  Our February meeting will be Tuesday, February 20 at 12 noon at the Waurika Sr. Citizens Center.  Brenda Gandy-Jones, Extension Educator, FCS/4-H Youth Development, CED for Stephens County will present the lesson on “Caregiving 101”.  Our March meeting will be Tuesday and Wednesday (March 20 and 21) 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day; Pamela Varner, Extension Educator, FCS/4-H Youth Development, CED for Cotton County will lead us making “Crazy Quilt Jacket”.  Contact Tara Brown for additional information.

During the upcoming Jr. Livestock show, Jefferson County OHCE will sell pies Thursday, March 1 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Co-Parenting for Resilience:  Divorce or separation is not an easy or favorable decision, especially when minor children are in the home.  A class for divorcing or separating parents with minor children living in the home, is available monthly or as scheduled.  Our next class is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Pre-registration is required. Call Jefferson County OSU Extension Office at 580-228-2332 for registration information.  This class is mandatory by law in Oklahoma and is also valuable for Grandparents and other relatives of minor children going through a divorce or separation.

Early trailblazers helped ensure Extension serves all Oklahomans

STILLWATER, Okla. – For more than 100 years, the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service has been fulfilling its mission of enhancing the lives of all Oklahomans.    Annie Peters Hunter, Extension’s first federally appointed black female home demonstration agent, operated in Okfuskee and Seminole counties. Beginning in 1912, she served Oklahomans as an agent for more than 12 years.    Along the way, the organization has made history in some important ways with Annie Peters Hunter, the nation’s first federally appointed black female home demonstration agent, and John Russell Council, the first black Extension agent hired in Oklahoma.    As the nation pauses to celebrate Black History Month, it is worthwhile to recognize the contributions of both Hunter and Council.  “Extension is called to help Oklahomans of all ages and backgrounds. That’s a mission we take seriously and we remain fully committed to it,” said James Trapp, associate director of Extension. “We’re proud of our strong and ongoing tradition of service to our state and all its residents.”

Not much is known about Hunter and Council, but the few known details are significant.

Hunter, a native of Alabama, settled in Boley, Oklahoma, with her husband in the early 1900s. More than two years before the Smith-Lever Act formally created the national Cooperative Extension Service in 1914, she was putting the organization’s mission into action in Oklahoma.

Tanya Finchum, professor and oral history librarian at Oklahoma State University, partnered with Jan Scholl, associate professor at Pennsylvania State University, to write and publish an article in 2012 about Hunter in the e-journal “Forum for Family and Consumer Issues.”

According to Finchum and Scholl, Hunter was appointed as a home demonstration agent Jan. 23, 1912, as part of an effort to bolster the prosperity of black farm families. Not too unlike today’s Extension educators, early home demonstration agents were charged with helping families to conserve resources, create a little income, and safely raise and preserve food for survival from growing season to growing season.

Primarily operating in Seminole and Okfuskee counties, she served as the only black home demonstration agent within a 50-mile radius.

The researchers discovered part of her efforts included working with girls through canning clubs. There also is strong evidence her canning instructions remained popular through the 1940s and were used in homes, churches and schools.

Finchum called Hunter a visionary, dedicated leader.

“With being the first to hold any newly created position comes many responsibilities, including demonstrating that the work is necessary and beneficial,” Finchum said. “Annie served as an agent for more than 12 years, and when she vacated the position, it was immediately filled allowing the work she had begun to continue. That’s part of Annie’s legacy as an Extension worker.”

As for Council, his tenure with Extension actually predates Hunter’s by about three years. According to Donald E. Green’s “Centennial Histories Series: A History of the Oklahoma State University Division of Agriculture,” after arriving in Boley in 1908, Council petitioned and was granted an appointment with Extension in December of the following year.

As part of one of the agent’s successes highlighted by Green’s book, over the course of about three years, one of the producers with which Council worked closely rapidly advanced from a tenant farmer living in a log cabin to owning a 120-acre farm, two mules, a horse and a two-story house.

Council was originally from Tennessee and attended Tuskegee Institute in 1906-07.