UC Cooperative Extension made a number of appearances in the media as last year came to a close . . .
The Hanford Sentinel ran a feature story on Kings County UC Cooperative Extension nutrition education program manager Shonnon Gutierrez. "What we do is provide nutrition education curriculum for teachers in Kings County schools that qualify with 50 to 100 percent in the free or reduced lunch program," she said. In the story, Gutierrez conveyed her enthusiasm for her work: "It's a great job and everyone in the office is amazing," she said. "It's such a great place to work and Peggy Gregory is a wealth of information. It's a very supportive environment."
The Los Angeles Times reported on the spread of quagga mussels, which made their first appearance in the west about a year ago. The quagga doesn't make water unsafe to drink, but clogs up water delivery systems. Edwin D. Grosholz, an expert on invasive mussels and Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Davis, said, "There's nothing at all to limit their spread north to Northern California."
The Visalia Times-Delta ran a column by freelance writer Don Curlee about UC Small Farm Program director Shermain Hardesty's 12-year study on agricultural cooperatives. The 41 co-ops the researchers examined are doing quite well, the story said.
Capitol Press reported on the specialty crops seminar that took place in Davis in early December. UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Richard Molinar gave a presentation on unusual crops. "These vegetables are actually better than many of the vegetables we learned about and are accustomed to our mainstream stores. Sinqua is just like squash, except in my opinion it is much, much better and has more flavor than regular squash like zucchinis," he is quoted in the story. "The Chinese eggplant is really, really good, much better than the American globe eggplant, which has a flavor kind of like paper."
A news release by Marketwire included a quote from UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Connie Schneider. The story focuses on slimming down with milk. "One easy way to improve nutrition is to substitute low-fat or skim milk instead of high-calorie sugary or alcoholic drinks at meals," Schneider is quoted. "This easy step can help cut calories, boost nutrition and shed pounds."