News

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Taste panels seeking consumer opinions about pork products will be held Nov. 9 and 10 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Mississippi State University.

Graduate students in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion will conduct the taste test on Italian pork sausage on Wednesday and pork burger on Thursday at the James E. Garrison Sensory Evaluation Laboratory in the Herzer Building.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Quality horses and beef cattle will be available for bidding at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s 29th annual production sale on Nov 17.

MAFES will market 34 lots of horses and 36 lots of cattle at the Mississippi Horse Park, located on Poorhouse Road south of Starkville. Interactive video bidding during the cattle sale will take place at the Mississippi State University Extension office in Hattiesburg and the Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Raymond.

PICAYUNE – The art, history and music of the past will be celebrated at the ninth annual Piney Woods Festival at Mississippi State University’s Crosby Arboretum in Picayune.

The Nov. 18-19 festival is an opportunity for attendees to have fun while learning about the early days of the Piney Woods region.

“The arboretum provides the perfect setting for learning about arts and heritage crafts,” said Patricia Drackett, the arboretum’s director. “We want to preserve those arts by providing an engaging and interactive event.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Before heading to the woods this fall, hunters should investigate the legal seasons, education and license requirements governing hunting in Mississippi.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks offers convenient, year-round opportunities to help sportsmen of all ages meet the hunter education requirement. The options are a full-day class, an on-line class with a face-to-face component, or a weeklong youth summer camp at Mississippi State University.

As the holidays approach, many Mississippians find that using online coupons can help save money on gifts and food, even in local stores.

If children and grandchildren top your list, most major toy companies offer $5 to $10 coupons on select toys. Some companies, such as Hasbro and Fisher-Price, offer coupons that can be printed and taken to your local store. Others, such as Mattel, offer coupons that can be used only at their online store. When combined with in-store coupons or discounts, the savings can add up quickly.

From railroad ties and landscape timbers to rolls of plastic and metal edging, nothing adds interest to the landscape quite like nice, crisp bed lines.

We have all seen and used many types of landscape edging materials. But why not be a little creative? To get you started, here are some ideas for landscape bed lines between walkways and flowerbeds.

Vintage dinner plates placed in the ground on their edge create a bright garden bed edge. Get some from your local thrift store or stop at yard sales and buy chipped and mismatched plates.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Freshness is the key to quality Christmas trees, and with choose-and-cut Christmas tree farms scattered across the state, all Mississippians can get a great tree every year.

John Kushla, forestry specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona, said locally grown trees can look great for weeks when they are put in water immediately.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Bolivar County rice-farming family spent a week with television producers showing viewers what it takes to get a rice dish from the farm to the table.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – With the heat of the summer a memory and the chilly days of winter arriving soon, autumn is a perfect time to prepare homes with cost- and energy-saving strategies.

“Do your fall cleaning and home improvements while the weather is good,” said Bobbie Shaffett, family resource management specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “Clean the gutters, blow leaves off the roof and weatherize your home.”

When your digital photos have been downloaded to the computer and edited, it is time to decide what to do with them. You can keep them on your computer where no one else will see them, or you can display them.

The easiest way to display digital images is on a digital photo frame. Digital photo frames are easy to use and will rotate through hundreds of photos in an automated slideshow. When you purchase a digital photo frame, there are several factors to consider, such as price and resolution.

Plant foliage colors tend to come and go in trends, and right now purple-leaved plants are popular. I think one of the best of the newer purple varieties is Mahogany Splendor hibiscus.

In the landscape, this plant provides awesome color. It is a vigorous grower that adds height and excitement.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Best-selling garden book author Bobby J. Ward will be speaking at Mississippi State University on Nov. 4.

Ward will speak at Tully Auditorium in Thompson Hall on MSU’s campus in Starkville from 10 until 11 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Ward will present information about contemporary plant collectors around the world and the unique finds they have contributed to the horticulture trade.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Timely rains in early September made a smooth harvest for Mississippi peanuts, a crop that is in high demand due to drought in other peanut-growing areas.

As of Oct. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast 2011 crop yields at 3,600 pounds per acre for Mississippi, the highest prediction for any of the peanut-producing states. Harvest began in mid-September and was 70 percent complete by mid-October. Producers were working as fast as they could to get the crop out of the ground after cold temperatures ended peanut maturity.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mind-boggling population numbers make the introduced hairy crazy ant a big, hairy problem in Mississippi.

The ant, known scientifically as Nylanderia pubens, was first detected in Mississippi in 2009, but the earliest U.S. record is from Florida in 1953. It was not reported as a serious nuisance in Florida until 1990. It was detected in Houston, Texas, in 2002, where populations quickly spread to at least 18 counties.

The ant is thought to have come from Argentina or Brazil originally and is now found in Hancock and Jackson counties in Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi’s talented cooks who want to turn their passion into a business can improve their chances of success with tips from the experts.

Anna Hood, Extension professor in Mississippi State University’s Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, has coordinated the Food as a Business conference since 1996.

HOUSTON -- When Chickasaw County Extension director Scott Cagle brought Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers to Starkville, they were amazed by the services and artwork they saw at the T.K. Martin Center at Mississippi State University.

On the drive home, the group decided their community needed to learn about the center, which connects people with disabilities with assistive technologies.

Many software programs and features can help you manage your digital photos with the click of a button.

After photos are downloaded to your computer, decide whether editing is required. Several photo editing software packages are available that can improve pictures by removing red eye, cropping or removing blemishes.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The staff at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Sales Store, located on Mississippi State University’s campus, is encouraging patrons to place orders now for the holidays and to take advantage of products that make great additions to the tailgate.

The store’s famous cheese and other products sell quickly during the holiday season.

JACKSON – A free, all-day event at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Lakeland Drive on Oct. 29 will celebrate more than 100 years of youth development programming for the state’s 4-H members.

If you want something besides leaves to provide fall landscape color, take a good look at the American beautyberry. This Mississippi native shrub lives up to its name by putting on quite a show in the fall, with its clusters of bright purple berries.

Known botanically as Callicarpa americana, American beautyberry is frequently found on the edges of woodlands all across Mississippi. It is widely distributed east of the Mississippi River in the mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast region. American beautyberry is also quite at home in the landscape.