SU Ag Center holds its 2024 Fall Garden Workshop
Baton Rouge, La. – Approximately 125 small-scale gardeners, teachers, and garden enthusiasts attended the SU Ag Center’s Annual Fall Garden Workshop on Nov. 26, 2024 at the M. A. Edmond Livestock Arena Multipurpose Bldg.
The workshop, themed SUmthin’s Growing!!, focused on ethnic vegetables grown in Louisiana such as mirliton, cactus, bitter melon, turmeric, and Chinese Cabbage, and how the vegetables can be cooked and eaten.
Many attendees said they enjoyed the information shared during the workshop and planned to incorporate it in their fall gardens.
“I have a lot of the plants they were talking about but I never know what to do with them,” said first-time workshop attendee Angela Dunn. “She showed the corn cobs and that you can make jelly from that, I had never heard of that. So, things like that, which I normally would take when I’m through with it and throw it in the compact bin. I’m finding other ways to use it now to be more sustainable,” she expressed.
The workshop also included a food demonstration on how to make tomatillo salsa verde was presented by SU Ag Center’s SNAP-Ed and EFNEP staff members Evan Egana and Joshua McDonald.
A special award was also presented to Mila Berhane, SU Ag Center Senior Research Associate, for her hard work and dedication to sustainable agriculture and co-authoring the Ethnic Vegetable Planting Guide. The SU Ag Center officially released the guide during the workshop and provided each attendee with a copy.
The Southern University Ag Center, its Wisteria Alliance Program, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program, LSU AgCenter, and the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service were co-sponsors of the workshop.
For additional information on the 2024 Fall Garden Workshop, contact Stephanie Elwood at stephanie_elwood@suagcenter.com, Mila Berhane at milagro_berhane@suagcenter.com, or Zanetta Augustine at zanetta_augustine@suagcenter.com.