Canopy Roads of South Georgia

Peppers!

Gretchen picking peppers:

Gretchen picking peppers
Video by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 July 2012.

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Gretchen Quarterman at Lowndes County Extension 14 June 2012

As a Georgia Master Gardener, Gretchen Quarterman volunteers two afternoons one afternoon a week at the Lowndes County Extension Office on US 84 east of Valdosta, identifying plants and pests, and making recommendations to citizens who call in or who bring in samples.

Closeup sample in bottle:

Closeup sample in bottle
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2012.

Sample in bottle:

Troubled youth heal by healing troubled watersheds

We already knew nature makes healthy. Here's a group helping nature help troubled youth make nature healthy.

From the website of Youth and Ecological Restoration Program:

Planting native trees and shrubs in local watersheds provides habitat and protection for fish, birds and many other species.

Stephen Hume wrote for the Vancouver Sun yesterday, Healing power of troubled waters: An ecological program that links at-risk teens with damaged watersheds has breathed new life into both,

After Carnation Creek, Wendy applied and was accepted at university as a mature student, successfully studying ecology and land reclamation, presenting her own scientific papers. Then, eight years ago, she began putting her wisdom to work teaching the next generation to pay attention to the consequences of heedlessness, greed and ignorance about our dependence on the natural world.

Her innovative Youth and Ecological Restoration Program helps teenagers at risk. Some struggle with

Okra on the cleaning screen @ Okra Paradise Farms 2012-07-24

Washed and drying before chopping up for dehydrating:

Washed and drying before chopping up for dehydrating
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 July 2012.

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Floating bottom, Okra Paradise Farms, 22 July 2012

Gretchen, Yellow Dog, Brown Dog, and the floating meadow:

Gretchen, Yellow Dog, Brown Dog, and the floating meadow
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 July 2012.

Yellow flowers, Gretchen, Yellow Dog:

At the beaver dam, 22 July 2012

Brown Dog and Gretchen at the beaver dam:

Brown Dog and Gretchen at the beaver dam
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 July 2012.

Both dogs:

Relics: forty years later you can still read their labels

I remember when my father and I put these things there, around forty years ago. They're still intact, and if you look closely you can still read the labels. We prefer taking things to the dump these days.

Metal can:

Metal can
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 July 2012.

Plastic bottle:

What happens when you step in the mud @ Okra Paradise Farms 2012-07-22

Gretchen on the beaver dam:

Gretchen on the beaver dam
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 July 2012.

Gretchen and her footprint:

Beautyberry as insect repellant

Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, proven insect repellant!

Barbara Pleasant wrote for Mother Earth News April/May 2009, Beautyberry Banishes Bad Biting Bugs: Researches are finding evidence that beautyberry, long used as a folk remedy, really does deter bugs such as ants, ticks and others.

In 2006, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Miss., found that extracts from beautyberry leaves could match DEET for repelling mosquitoes. The next year, experiments showed that the active ingredients from the leaves (callicarpenal and intermedeol) provided 100-percent repellency of black-legged ticks for three hours. In 2008, the four-person research team, headed by chemist Charles Cantrell in Mississippi and entomologist Jerome Klun in Maryland, published research that added fire ants to the list of pests repelled by essential oil distilled from beautyberry leaves....

Fresh green leaves, crushed and rubbed on people or pets, often repel insects for a couple of hours.

Looks like Charles L. Cantrell of U. Miss. has published several papers about this:

Bee in okra flower, Okra Paradise Farms, 19 July 2012

This is how we get new okra to eat:

This is how we get new okra to eat
Picture by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 July 2012.

I've seen on the okra blooms honeybees, bumblebees, and several kinds of wasps, all pollinating and making more okra.

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