Announcements:

Office closed December 26 & 27

Upcoming Events:

Extension Board Meeting December 6

Horticulture-Nicole Stoner

Holiday Decorations from the garden

Season Extension

Water & Integrated Cropping Systems-Nathan Mueller

Farm & Ranch Lease Considerations for 2023 Workshop

Pasture Biennial Forb Control in Late Fall

Food, Nutrition & Health-Tara Dunker

The accidental invention of the microwave

Holiday Do's & Don'ts

4-H & Youth Development- Jacie Milius

4-H Enrollment

Happy Holidays! I know it is hard to believe, but Thanksgiving has come and gone. We will soon begin preparing for the holiday season. With the holiday season comes all the decorations, which I love! Horticulture pieces are a large part of our holiday decorating, which makes it even better for us gardeners. We can use pieces from our own landscape to decorate our homes for the holidays.
Thanksgiving Gourds
For Thanksgiving, we decorate with many types of gourds of various color combinations, sizes, and shapes. These can all be grown in our own gardens throughout the summer and stored for holiday displays. These cucurbits can just be stored in a cool, dry location through the early fall until display at the holiday season, but they could develop some rotten spots or fade in color prior to display.

It is beneficial to cure the produce before storage, so they last longer and will look better for Thanksgiving. Winter squash should be cured at 80-85 degrees with 80-90% humidity for 1-2 weeks and this will enable storage for up to 6 months if kept in a cool, dark location until displayed. They should be stored at 55-60 degrees after curing.

This is the time of the year where we begin to put our gardening gloves and shovels to bed for the winter. However, there are many different ways to extend the growing season, at least for a few more weeks, if you prefer. These methods come in a wide range of price tags for any gardener to find some type of season extension.

Extension ag land management, leasing workshop scheduled in Beatrice

Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 7, 2022— Nebraska Extension will host a workshop covering agricultural land management and leasing considerations for 2023 in Beatrice from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 9 at the office of Nebraska Extension in Gage County, 1115 W. Scott St.

It will offer updated leasing information relevant to landlords and tenants, including tips for communication and negotiating. It will address topics like equitable rental rates, managing and adjusting farmland leases, landlord-tenant issues, pasture leasing, crop share leasing and other management considerations.

The presentation will be led by Allan Vyhnalek, an extension educator specializing in farm and ranch transition and succession, and Jim Jansen, an extension agricultural economist. Both are with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Agricultural Profitability.

The meeting is free to attend, but registration is required with Nebraska Extension in Gage County at 402-223-1384 Lunch will be included.

Follow link to register online....

Late fall herbicide applications can be a good alternative to early spring for control of several introduced biennial forbs or broadleaf weeds in southeast Nebraska. A few of these biennial forbs are considered noxious weeds in Nebraska including musk thistle, plumeless thistle, and spotted knapweed while bull thistle, common mullein, and poison hemlock are just troublesome weeds in pasture. Some of the herbicides recommended for these weed species are restricted used pesticides that require private pesticide applicator training and license to buy and apply. However, there are some general use pesticides that can be used to control these noxious and troublesome weeds. Mechanical and cultural control options can be effective at low densities or to prevent future infestations.

There are two Extension publications that are helpful resources when it comes to plant identification and herbicide control options. The first publication is the Extension Circular 118: Common Forbs and Shrubs of Nebraska Rangeland, Prairie, and Pasture published in 2017 that helps identify common forbs. The publication provides key information about each species including a distribution map of the plant in Nebraska, when it flowers, how tall it gets, where it prefers to grow, uses and values, and other important information. The publication is free to download at extensionpubs.unl.edu as a pdf or a print copy can be ordered for $12.00 plus applicable tax and shipping. The second publication is the 2022 Extension Circular 130: Guide for Weed, Disease, and Insect Management in Nebraska. There are several sections that are useful including weed control in non-crop areas, noxious weeds, and troublesome weeds and woody plants. We still have some free copies available in the Saline, Jefferson, and Gage County Extension offices.

As a mom of two tiny human wrecking balls (whom I love dearly), I take for granted how often my microwave saves me from drinking unintentionally cold coffee.
Those first few sips of piping hot caffeine are precious because, without a doubt, I’ll be interrupted a hundred times before seeing the bottom of my mug. Thanks to a guy named Percy LeBaron Spencer who never finished elementary school but taught himself engineering decades before I was born, I can push a few buttons, wait about a minute, and enjoy my coffee all over again. And again, and again, and again—parents of young ones know what I mean.
Why am I talking about my microwave? Because next Tuesday, Dec. 6 is National Microwave Day. I’m shocked you didn’t know that already. To celebrate, I figured we’d all learn its history together.

Confession: I have never cooked a whole, bone-in turkey for a crowd.

Now that we’ve gotten that little bit of awkwardness out of the way, here’s my annual column outlining the best practices that’ll keep you and your family free from foodborne illness.

Food safety starts at the grocery store with something as simple as cleaning your shopping cart. Make good use of those sanitary wipes next to the cart corral. My toddler’s hand washing skills are terrible, and he may have sat in that cart before you grabbed it.

Got a long shopping list? Start with the room-temperature foods. Picking up cold and frozen foods at the end of your shopping trip keeps those foods out of the temperature danger zone—41 degrees F to 135 degrees F—where bacteria like to grow.

When organizing your cart, keep raw protein separate from fresh produce. Keeping the juices of raw protein from dripping on other foods helps avoid the spread of foodborne germs.

When you get to the checkout, you’ll be asked if you’d like your raw protein wrapped separately. Give a resounding yes. Speaking of protein, let’s talk turkey.

Enrollment is open for the 2022-2023 Gage County 4-H year. The enrollment website is v2.4honline.com. All 4-H youth (ages 8-18), Clover Kids (ages 5-7), and leaders/volunteers are required to enroll online every year. Enrollment deadline is June 15. We encourage all members to enroll using a computer and not your mobile device. Call or email Jacie or Sarah at 402-223-1384 with any enrollment questions.

Please make sure to include or update your child's t-shirt size! This is the sizing guide we use to order the Exmark t-shirts for county fair! It is not a required field so can often be missed.

Updated help guides can be found on our website.

Enrollment fee is $12 for each 4-H youth to be paid online or in the office. There is no fee for Clover Kids or adults. We will not be accepting enrollments until we have received payment.

Email: Gage-County@unl.edu
Location: 1115 West Scott Street, Beatrice, NE, USA
Phone: 402-223-1384
Facebook: facebook.com/NebraskaExtensioninGageCounty
Twitter: @GageCoExtension