The good eating season begins June 1st with the opening of Produce in the Park Farmers Market. It will be open every Thursday through September 28 in Atlantic City Park, 4:30 to 6:30 pm.

Seventeen vendors come from Elk Horn, Brayton, Shelby, Walnut, Oakland Wiota, Bridgewater and rural Atlantic to provide fresh, locally grown and raised, and homemade food and crafts. Some have been serving you, the consumer, for several  years and new ones are joining.

Fresh, locally grown spring produce such as greens, radishes, onions, herbs and rhubarb will be the high light. But produce also includes eggs, beef, chicken and pork. Vendors will offer home produced syrup, honey, jams and baked goods. Bedding plants will be available.

Produce in the Park requires that all food, crafts and other items be locally grown or made. Goat milk soap and personal care items, other bath and body products, handmade rugs and other home décor are some of the products available.

You can choose your evening meal from Knights of Columbus, Stone Arch Pizzeria and Hy-Vee. Wells Fargo is the June sponsor so will be offering tasting samples. The Atlantic Chamber and supporting businesses will be giving away free shopping bags.

Produce in the park is a community event offering entertainment, children’s activities and the opportunity to learn about organizations and community resources. The Atlantic Public Library will be present each week. A Farmers Market Scavenger hunt for you will also be available every week.

Senior and WIC coupons and SNAP EBT cards are all accepted by certified vendors.

For continuous information, go to Face book: produce in the park.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has started its summer water quality monitoring program at state beaches as they open for the summer. Workers take water samples to test for bacteria and toxins. If levels are too high, beaches are posted with advisories against swimming. The D-N-R’s Roger Bruner says he hasn’t seen significant changes in beach water quality.

“In the last few years, the microcystin advisories have been fairly steady. Somewhere between 94 and 95 percent of the time beaches do not need to be posted for microcystin,” Bruner says. He says levels of toxins from blue green algae have been steady in the past few years. But Bruner says bacteria levels can vary widely.

“E-coli is a little different. It’s much more variable and somewhat correlates with how much rain we get,” Bruner says. The bacteria levels can spike right after a rain, but then drop as the sun comes out. The D-N-R will update an online map through the summer with weekly test results and swim advisories.

(Radio Iowa)

You’re invited to be in Elk Horn every Saturday from 9-until 11-a.m. on the lawn of the Danish Windmill for locally grown food and good wholesome family fun! The market will open on Saturday, June 3rd and will run through the end of September.

Vendors will have eggs, produce, and baked goods for sale every Saturday and the first Saturday of each month will include kid’s activities and entertainment. Vendors at this year’s market will include Pace Poultry & Produce, Harrisdale Farmstead, Brun Ko Farm, Cali Kids Farm, Barb Goos, & Morris Family Farm.

Everything sold at the Elk Horn Farmers Market is grown, raised, and/or created by the vendors and their families. Opening day of market, Saturday, June 3rd, will include a kid’s market scavenger hunt and entertainment will be provided by piano students of Melissa Morris.

If you have questions about the market or are interested in vending, contact Emily Paulsen at 712-249-3187 or brunkofarm@gmail.com.

All state court employees have an unpaid day off today (Friday) in a cost-cutting measure implemented by the state judicial system to make up for cuts in the system budget. Judges will be working today, but their offices won’t be open to the public. Budget cuts are hitting all areas of state government, including the state park system as the unofficial kickoff to the summer camping season arrives. Julie Sparks with the D-N-R’s State Parks Bureau, says campers shouldn’t notice many issues.

“We’re keeping up our campsites pretty well. There may be a little delayed maintenance in some of our parks because of some of the staffing challenges that we have,” Sparks says.

Campers were allowed to start reserving sites for this weekend three months in advance, and the sites fill up quickly. Sparks says they are ready to get the season underway. “For the most part we’re really excited and anxious to have people come to our parks — of course that generates revenue for us too — so we love to have our campers come there and visit.”

It has been a cool wet spring, but Sparks says it looks like there may be some good weather for the weekend. “We’re all hopeful,” Sparks says. “It’s beautiful, our Iowa springs, it’s a good time to be camping and out in our parks, that’s for sure.”

(Radio Iowa)

MALVERN–The Iowa watershed approach, providing nearly $100 million to improve rural watersheds, is the focus of the June 13th meeting of the State Interagency Missouri River Authority (SIMRA).

Larry Weber will discuss the Iowa watershed approach and how adopting conservation practices reduces peak stream flows and improves water quality. As director of the University of Iowa’s IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering center, including the Iowa Flood Center, Weber will highlight how funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development can help reduce flooding by improving watershed resiliency.

Other speakers will share progress from the Watershed Management Coalitions for the East and West Nishnabotna rivers, updates on Missouri River conditions and the Missouri River recovery program.

The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the Classic Café, 317 Main St. in Malvern. Interested people can attend the meeting by conference call. Dial 866-685-1580 and follow the prompts. The conference code is 4510673319 followed by the pound (#) sign.

The complete agenda is available below and on the SIMRA website at www.iowadnr.gov/simra.

A recent report in U-S-A Today warns of the dangers of a new type of pest called the “seed tick,” but Iowa State University entomologist Donald Lewis says technically, the story is wrong. “It is not a different species of tick,” Lewis says. “It’s certainly not something new, I’ve used the phrase seed tick for the last 40 years. It’s not a new phrase, it’s not a new pest. It just gets used by the general public to mean something teeny tiny that I think was a tick.”

Lewis says there’s no need to be particularly concerned about this insect. “All species of ticks can have the term ‘seed tick’ applied to their larval stage,” he says. “It simply means the beginning stage of any kind of tick.”

Lewis says when the so-called seed ticks mature, they can carry many types of illnesses including Lyme disease. He is not predicting a particularly bad tick season. He admits they do grow well in humid and wet conditions with a good food source like small mammals. If a mature tick of any kind does become attached, the recommended way to remove it is with tweezers.

(Radio Iowa w/Thanks to Pat Blank, Iowa Public Radio)

If you are thinking of camping this Memorial Day weekend, but haven’t reserved a spot at a state park yet, finding one could be tough. Iowa D-N-R spokesperson Julie Sparks. “The best thing I can say is for people to go in and look on our reservation site. If they’ve got a favorite park and want to check it out, you’ll be able to tell right away if there are spots available,” Sparks says.

If you do find a site — it’s likely you won’t have electricity. “Nearly all of the sites that are left open are non-electric sites, our standard non-electric sites. When our window for the holidays open, people are right on it and get those electric sites reserved as soon as they can,” Sparks says.

The window she refers too is a three-month lead time when you can start reserving a site for each holiday. Not every site is reserved ahead of time. She says there are 25 percent or more of the campsites in each park that are walk-in status, that you can try to get. “However, on a special holiday weekend like this, people are coming in a day or two early.”

The weather has been cool this year, but the forecast calls for some warmer weather. Sparks says those who have reserved site way ahead of time adjust to the conditions.
“Iowans are tough and they are willing to brave those cooler temperatures,” Sparks says.

Iowa has more than 47-hundred state park campsites.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Des Moines Water Works plans to double the size of the nitrate removal facility that treats drinking water from the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers. The Des Moines Register reports the utility’s board this week approved an $800,000 design contract. The utility expects to spend $15 million on the project, and officials say the new equipment and the cost to operate it will require bigger future rate increases.

The utility had sued three northern Iowa counties, accusing them of allowing agricultural drainage districts to send nitrate pollution into the rivers. The lawsuit sought damages for the money the utility has spent to remove the nitrates.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit March 17, saying Iowa’s water quality problems were an issue for the Iowa Legislature.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is co-sponsoring a bill designed to help keep rural hospitals open. Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, says his group backs the legislation which would create a new “rural emergency hospital” classification under Medicare.

“Rural hospitals are so important to us because they provide trauma services and emergency room services that you can’t replicate,” Lehman says. “We need to do whatever we can to help them make ends meet. By making some simple changes to Medicare, we think that’s a great way to start.”

Lehman says the bill takes on added importance because farming is one of the most lethal occupations. “We know there are risks out there in rural Iowa and rural America and farmers are doing their best to change that,” he says, “but we know there’s a long ways to go and we need to be able to access those trauma services.” A study finds 60-percent of trauma deaths in the U-S occur in rural areas where only 15-percent of the population lives.

Lehman says that’s another big reason to pass the legislation. “If you look at the statistics, the number of injuries due to trauma are significantly higher in rural America,” Lehman says. “It’s very important to our folks out there in rural Iowa and across rural America.”

Under Medicare, many rural hospitals are designated as “critical access hospitals,” meaning, they’re required to maintain a certain amount of inpatient beds as well as an emergency room. However, they’re struggling to attract enough inpatients to keep that status.

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Cass County Extension Program Coordinator Kate Olson

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