Grow Your Own Groceries: A Virtual Seminar Series Teaches Home Gardening, Cooking, and Food Preservation
Extension Education
Krista Quinn
County Extension Agent
University of Arkansas
Conway
Abstract
The Grow Your Own Groceries (GYOG) seminar series was started in 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic to provide virtual horticulture and family and consumer sciences (FCS) education to stakeholders at a time when they needed it most. With people spending more time at home and grocery supply chain issues, there was an increased interest in and need for educational programs on home gardening, cooking, and food preservation. Objectives of this educational program include teaching the public how to grow, cook, and preserve edible crops at home and demonstrating the breadth of Extension work and Extension’s statewide impact to a large audience. The GYOG program continues to be one of our most popular Extension programs even now that in-person activities have resumed. Each GYOG presentation features a different crop or gardening topic. An agriculture presenter and FCS presenter are generally paired up to provide information on how to grow healthy, nutritious food in home gardens and how to cook and prepare the harvest. The monthly programs are presented as Zoom meetings which are recorded. All registrants receive a follow-up email with a link to watch the recording, copies of any recipes that were shared during the program, links to webpages or fact sheets with pertinent information about the topic, and information about how to join the GYOG mailing list. Topics have included how to grow and cook individual fruit and vegetable crops, composting, integrated pest management, starting a vegetable garden, pruning fruit crops, using cover crops, and soil preparation and fertilization. Many attendees report gaining knowledge that will help them grow their own food and making or planning to make recipes presented in the GYOG presentations. By featuring multiple programs and Extension presenters from around the state, the Grow Your Own Groceries series has become an excellent tool for demonstrating the breadth of Extension work and our statewide impact to a large audience. The GYOG program has also increased interaction between county agents and other Extension offices and improved collaboration between agriculture and FCS programs.
Poster has NOT been presented at any previous NACAA AM/PIC
This poster is being submitted only for display at AM/PIC. Poster is not to be judged, but the abstract will be published in the proceedings.
A poster file has not been provided
Authors: Krista Quinn
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Quinn, K. County Extension Agent, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Arkansas, 72034