Want to be a part of it? This project could include … you!  Send Enochs-Epley an e-mail, at yoyomisalon@yahoo.com, and schedule your hour to sit.

Collections hold our interest because we love to discover the connections among all the piece.  In this case, it’s delightful to see not only familiar individuals, but taken as a whole, a portrait of our community emerging.

For other Inside/Out & About posts, click here.

Ward Hall is open for guided tours one weekend each month, but closes soon  for the winter.  This month the dates are November 5 and 6, and also on  December 3 and 4, from 1-6 p.m. each day.   The renovation has really just begun, so visitors are met with both the finery of life in the 1800s, as well as a peek behind the scenes to have a first-hand view of the work that needs to be done, from rebuilding windows, researching garden plans, documenting the lives of families that lived in the home, and sealing up cracks in windows and roofs to prevent further deterioration.

Have a look at the slideshow, which includes just a few of Ward Hall’s fine features, from the attic, down the oval staircase past bedrooms, parlors and the grand 75-foot long  entry hall to the kitchens and utility rooms on the basement level.  But, go to experience the uplifting feeling of ascending the massive limestone stairs, marching past Corinthian columns and through the magnificent front door of this stately home.

Perhaps you’ll be able to find a tobacco stick star or ladder to use in your holiday decorating this year.  Volunteers are creating them to help fund some of the maintenance.

For more information, click here: Ward Hall.

Ken Druse has been called a “gardening superstar.”  Autho, photographer, lecturer and radio host he has contributed to nearly every garden and home design magazine in America. He is probably best known for his books, which the New York Times called “bibles for serious gardeners.”  Ken Druse shares his uncommon expertise and passion for plants in a talk that will amaze, educate, and inspire. Ken knows that every plant has a story, and these tales can capture the imagination of people, and with hope tomorrow’s conservationists – kids. For example, Ken shows how explorers once — and still do — race across the globe like Indiana Jones in search of rare specimens. He explains the dynamics of color and insects, fragrance and memory. He reveals what the seeds of a sunflower have in common with the stars in the Milky Way! And Ken describes his own plant lust – the desire to understand and grow as many beautiful plants as he can while being an organic gardener and promoting the health of the planet.  To find out more about Ken Druse, click here.

The Kentucky Landscape Architecture Board awards one hour of continuing education credit for this lecture.

Inquiries:   The Arboretum    257-6955  or the   Fayette County Cooperative Extension office  257-5582

Getting out into the countryside in late summer is good for both body and spirit.  I’ve been visiting the village for about 35 years, but never had made it to the West Lot area until just a week ago.   Dixie Huffman, who lived on or near the Shakertown grounds as a child, while here mother taught  at the Shakertown Elementary School and her family farmed on the grounds,  now works at the village, transcribing journals and ledgers for entry into computer files.  Through their writings, both poetry to be read at services like funerals, or simple records of buying and selling goods, Dixie has gotten to know the Shakers and their individual  personalities.   She also described Shakertown before it was preserved, with the main highway going straight through the village, grown-over with trees, yet supporting a tea room, inn, and gas station.  After college and her own teaching career, Huffman returned as an interpreter, sharing the wealth of information she had gathered.  I wanted to see some places she mentioned, including a wash house and the area where her childhood home had been.  The scenery was lovely, brushed by butterflies and filled with ferns in shady springs.

But don’t take my word for it:  Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill is a place which must be seen in person, andwhat better time than to celebrate a half-century celebration.

Find directions to Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill by clicking here.

To read other Inside/Out & About posts, click here.

What’s there, at the corner of Man-o’-War and Nicholasville roads?  No, I’m not talking about WalMart, but the fields just across the road to the south.  Since I’ve joined a community  supported agriculture program, or CSA, through the University of Kentucky’s South Farm, that plot of land is where my great organic vegetables are grown.  There is a weekly drop-off spot in town for the pre-picked produce, but because there is a U-Pick section, this is  a place where Ican  go for some peace and quiet, working my way down the long rows, thoughts drifting with the breeze and the butterflies.  This week, there were golden cherry tomatoes, flat Italian green beans, okra and an assortment of field flowers like zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers.  And of course, ever-present bugs to investigate.  Happiness!

UK at South Farm

Elmwood Stock Farm

Berries on Bryan STation

and others at Local Harvest

Betty wrote recently that while she was cutting back the milkweed, she got some of its milky sap in her eyes, which resulted in a chemical burn that caused temporary blindness for a couple of days.  You can read her story by clicking the link below.  And hopefully, be warned so that you avoid a similar fate.

Betty’s blog …  CLICK HERE …

For more of Inside/Out & About, click here.

Insect Encounters at Singletary …

Free Reception Thursday Night

120 Years of Entomology: The Public Event

Sept 8, 2011, 6-9pm at the UK Singletary Center Recital Hall

.

.

.

.

.

Join UK entomologists on Thursday, September 8, 2011, at the Singletary Center for the Arts for a free public event that celebrates 120 Years of research, history, and bugs at the University of Kentucky. The FREE event begins at 6pm with a catered reception in the Singletary Center lobby. Featured at the reception will be a number of displays and activities, including a live insect zoo, historical artifacts, and guided viewings of the Art of Insect Illustration exhibit (see below) in the adjacent UK Art Museum. Then, at 7pm, Dr. Gary Miller (USDA-ARS) will present “Insects & their Effects on the Civil War,” followed by UK’s Urban Entomologist Dr. Mike Potter, who will give “Historical and Current Perspectives on Bed Bugs in the United States.” This will be a great opportunity to meet your entomologists, and to learn about entomological research, past and present. Visit the Singletary Center for the Arts for parking and more information.

120 Years of Entomology: Part 2 – The Outdoor Event

Sept 23, 2011, 5-9pm at the UK Arboretum

In addition to the indoor event on September 8, the Department of Entomology will also be hosting a FREE family event at the University of Kentucky Arboretum & State Botanical Garden from 5-9pm on Friday, September 23, 2011. Join us early for games and activities, including cockroach races, tattoos, and other fun stuff. Then, when the sun goes down, our faculty and staff will lead small groups into the arboretum for guided nighttime insect hikes. Scary? Maybe. Entomological? Definitely!

Other Inside/Out & About posts can be found by clicking here.

Kentucky Native Plant Garden Tour June 26, 2011    2-5 p.m.  Free!

218 Sycamore Road. Frank Becker invites to you come and see his micro-forest.

123 Wabash Drive.    Ann Bowe’s garden is an almost lawn-free design with curving  pathways and a water feature.

 224 Leawood Drive.  Betty Hall’s backyard includes sun and shade areas, a rain garden and plants for birds and butterflies.

The tour is sponsored by the lively and fun Lexington chapter of Wild Ones, a national organization that promotes landscaping with native plants.  Join them!

For more information call (859) 278-7537 or (859) 278-0069.

Other Inside/Out & About posts… Click here!

But, a couple tines on my fork are still a bit bent: some issues need to be straightened up.

First and foremost is the fact that much of the produce at local grocery stores is picked so early that it is simply not yet ripe, and therefore retains the texture and taste of cardboard.  Perhaps consumers bypass the fresh produce aisles simply because we’ve been disappointed and uninspired by what’s offered there. Once you taste a perfect, tree-ripened peach, you’ll realize what flowery sweetness you’ve missed; once you bite into a minute-old baby green bean, you’ll discover a richer understanding of tenderness.  Food scientists and marketing experts have worked for years to develop produce varieties which can be mass cultivated, transported without too much damage, and have a long shelf-life, but the trade-offs have reduced diversity of choices and palatability.  Find out for yourself, and try some locally grown, in-season taste treats. Maybe even grow some of your own, or find them at a local farmer’s market.  At least, this issue has gotten some attention in recent years, with the number of consumers reporting they’re growing edibles in home gardens increasing after a steady decline for a couple decades.  Good for us!

Second in importance is simply paying attention to where your food was grown.  “Locally grown” banners have added a positive advertising spin, but at the point in space and time where you’re actually buying produce, it’s tricky to find any information, unless the packaging carries some details.  Despite all that advertising, ferreting out locally grown (and how do you define “local”?) items can be a challenge.  Country of origin is usually available on packaging now, as are “sell by” dates, but specific details are often lacking.  How can you know if your produce really is local?  Kudos to Kroger, which has begun adding a 16-unit HarvestMark tracking code to its produce, using which can be entered at a home computer and even an iPhone app; you’ll learn the town and state where your produce was packed, and also if there are any issues with that batch.  I successfully discovered my red potatoes came from central Florida, and my mushrooms from Tennessee. Reading the packaging itself will also supply some clues.  Meijer’s, which is based in Michigan, sells “Michigan Round White Potatoes” which according to the bag are distributed through Grand Rapids.  They also carry the “Fruits & Veggies More Matters” logo (click here), representing a non-profit organization with a ton of great ideas, timely issues, and fun recipes (but Grilled Watermelon … really?)

Finally, this week also marks the release of an Environmental Working Group (EWG) study, the 2011 Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce,  which surveyed pesticide residues in and on generally washed and peeled fruits and vegetables, resulting two lists, dirty and clean, of specific items.  The Dirty Dozen includes apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, nectarines, grapes, bell peppers, potatoes, blueberries, lettuce, and kale.  The Clean 15? Onions, corn, pineapples, avocados, asparagus, sweet peas, mangoes, eggplant, cantaloupe, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit and mushrooms.  Reading through the report, I was surprised to read that peaches were found to have residues of 57 different chemicals and apples 56.  The report does advise that the trace amounts of pesticides found in produce are below federally acceptable guidelines, and that not eating recommended amounts of produce is a worse health risk.  To minimize pesticide consumption, organic produce is an option, and “If you choose 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day from EWG’s Clean 15 rather than the Dirty Dozen, you can lower the volume of pesticide you consume daily by 92 percent,” according to EWG calculations. United Fresh, an advocacy trade group for fresh produce companies, was quick to note that residue amounts in the EWG reports were generally below the tolerances and safety margins established by the EPA, and expressing concerns that consumers would be frightened away from healthy produce by EWG’s report.

Weighing in are concerns about shorter life-expectancy predictions just released.  Maintaining a healty life style is directly on our minds, but how to best accomplish that involves making choices and paying attention to developing issues.