Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County

A week can hold so much! Last Thursday the GROWS team accompanied IPM Specialist Regina Clinton and CCE Monroe's Hort Team Leader to Massachusetts Avenue Project in Buffalo! Road trip! Great to see another style of urban farming in action. We "herded" chickens out of their coop so we could treat the rodent burrows beneath with the Burrow Rx! Curious about this device? There is a FREE workshop tomorrow (Thursday 8/6) at Taproot Collective 🥕 First Market Farm, 5 - 7pm!
New GROWS member, Michaela, took the opportunity to work some extra hours and join community garden volunteers at School 50, removing bindweed from a daffodil bed and thinning and replanting the biggest bulbs! Great work!
New at South Lawn Farm this week - tomatoes are ripening! And we harvested potatoes on Monday the only way we know how, in the rain!
Gratitude to University of Rochester Simon Business School, URochester grad students for coming out and helping us with our fenceline project! We're looking forward to seeing you again next week!

Are you a blueberry lover? Instead of buying at a grocery store, you can pick fresh blueberries at your local U-Pick farm. In August, the berries are at their best! They are loaded with nutrients and antioxidants that help boost our immune system, and whether you pick berries for fresh consumption or for long-term storage, you will enjoy your time on the farm while picking!
When you arrive, farms will often provide containers for you to use. They may have guidelines about which rows to pick or how to tell if fruit is ripe. Some farms have ready-picked berries at their pay area for additional purchase, and most U-Pick operations accept cash or check only. Check our U-Pick farm list and get picking! https://monroe.cce.cornell.edu/agriculture/local-food-guide/blueberry-u-pick

Our Nutrition Education staff is looking forward to attending this Community Celebration next week!

** Don't forget to join Monroe County WIC for our Annual Breastfeeding & Community Celebration!

Wednesday, August 5, 2026
12:00–3:00 p.m.

📍 Greece Canal Park
Thomas X. Grasso Erie Canal Lodge
241 Elmgrove Rd., Rochester, NY 14626

An afternoon of family fun, support, and community connections. What to expect:
• Family-friendly activities
• Free giveaways
• Breastfeeding support and information
• Community resources
• Light refreshments

We can't wait to celebrate with you!

Workforce development teams unite! 4-H's Cultivating Community teen group received their second workshop presented by the GROWS team.
The GROWS team got a lesson on sodium and herb use from County Nutrition Educator Alyssa last week, and this week they shared that new knowledge with Cultivating Community.
We've learned all about salt, sodium intake, reading nutrition labels, and how to identify and use herbs to season food.
Great job to all! 🌱
Monroe County 4-H Youth Development

✨Welcome to our new series: "What's In My Bowl?" ✨

Did you know? Only about 1 in 10 adults eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables each day. Building a colorful, balanced bowl is one simple way to add more nutritious foods to your plate. Let's take a look at what's in mine! 🥗

• Corn – provides fiber for lasting energy.
• Avocado – heart-healthy fats that help your body absorb fat soluble vitamins such as vitamins A D E & K.
• Broccolini – fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin K.
• Salmon – rich in protein and omega-3 fats, which support heart and brain health.
• Spring Mix – vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
• Rice – carbohydrate that fuels your body.
• Red Onion – adds flavor and contains beneficial plant compounds.
• Roasted Bell Peppers – loaded with vitamin C and a naturally sweet flavor.
• Cucumber – refreshing, hydrating, and low in calories.
• Tomatoes – A source of vitamin C and lycopene, an antioxidant that supports overall health.
• Carrots – Rich in beta-carotene, which your body converts to vitamin A to support healthy vision.

Healthy Tip: Try combining raw AND cooked vegetables in the same meal. Roasted vegetables add warmth and flavor, while fresh vegetables provide a cool, crisp texture. Mixing both creates a satisfying bowl that's full of color, variety, and nutrition! 🥦🍅🫑🥕🥑🥬🫜

Tomato season is here! What's on your menu?

Will you be making fresh salsa, a batch of pasta sauce, tomato soup, bruschetta, or preserving your harvest with canned tomatoes or salsa?

Tell us—what's your favorite way to use fresh tomatoes? Share your go-to recipe or tradition in the comments!

You're gonna want to take a look through this photo carousel :)
Last Thursday (the really severe AQI day! 🔥) the GROWS team stayed indoors and presented a lesson on the importance of food safety practices on farms and vegetable gardens to the 4-H teen workforce development team, Cultivating Community. 🫧 (Relevant to the current food safety concerns regarding the parasite, cyclospora!🦠) Then we closed up by processing the garlic - with a clip, rub 'n' roll! 🧄
In other news, everything on the farm continues to amaze and surprise us! 🥒Cucumbers filling out over night, 🫘endless beans, 🌽corn cobs from the 3 Sisters, 🫜big gorgeous beets, 🥕hearty carrots, 🧅globes upon globes of onions, and the first eggplant🍆!
Thankfully, as the farm grows, so does the team! GROWS welcomed it's 7th team member of the season! Many hands make light work, and seeing GROWS members gain the skills and confidence to do tasks autonomously and teach them to others makes for a well oiled machine! 🦾⚙️

Are you enjoying u-pick berry season?

One easy way to enjoy berries months later is to freeze them. Simply wash, dry, and spread berries in a single layer on a baking sheet and carefully place in the freezer. Once the berries have become frozen, transfer them to a freezer-safe bag or container and label them with the date. This keeps them from clumping together, and you can grab just what you need. Frozen berries are best used within 8–12 months for the best quality.

For more food preservation information, visit our website here: https://monroe.cce.cornell.edu/nutrition/food-preservation

Are you seeing what we are seeing? Many of the maple trees in the area are developing unsightly black leaf spots, and the foliage is turning brown and dropping rapidly.

This aesthetic damage is caused by a combination of the fungal pathogens ‘tar spot’ and ‘anthracnose’. Tar spots, raised black spots on the upper surfaces of maple leaves, appear on maples in early summer as light green or pale-yellow spots. As the season progresses, the yellow color intensifies to black tar-like spots. Tar spot alone is rarely serious enough to be detrimental to the overall health of infected trees. But as the infection progresses, trees become unsightly. If infected maple leaves begin to crinkle and turn brown, anthracnose, another common disease of maple, may also be present.

You can reduce the number of overwintering fungi by raking and destroying infected leaves in the fall. The application of fungicides is not practical because complete coverage of all infected leaf surfaces is necessary, and that can be extremely difficult and costly.