'Grow Your Groceries' Webinar Begins Jan. 18

LITTLE ROCK - For people interested in learning to grow healthy, nutritious food at home, the Cooperative Extension Service's Grow Your Own Groceries webinar series offers monthly Zoom presentations on Arkansas-friendly crops for gardeners of all skill levels. Krista Quinn, Faulkner County agriculture agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the Grow Your Own Groceries series is designed to connect Arkansans with extension agents' knowledge about growing and preparing nutritious food. "I think there are a lot of people who are interested in gardening but have very little experience," Quinn said. "Often, they did not grow up in families that gardened, and they didn't really know where to start. If they start looking for gardening advice on the internet or even in books, they quickly realize that a lot of that information often doesn't work in Arkansas. With the Grow Your Own Groceries program, we are giving people information based on experience and research from right here in Arkansas, so participants have the best chance of being successful." The series is a collaboration between extension agriculture agents and family and consumer sciences agents. In each presentation, agriculture agents discuss how to grow a specific crop, with information on variety selection, growing methods, soil health and common pests or problems. Family and consumer sciences agents then share how to store the produce and demonstrate recipes. "Increasing access to fresh, healthy food by teaching people how to grow it and how to use it in their cooking is one of the main goals of this program," Quinn said. "Gardening and cooking go hand in hand, and the reward for gardening is getting to eat the food you grow. At times, home gardeners may have a bumper crop, and it's nice if they know a variety of ways to use the crop and how to preserve it so it can be enjoyed later in the year. "There may be crops that people don't ...