Carol Woods visited her brother, Jim Marsh of Ceresco, a couple days. It is always fun to visit. Carol enjoys seeing Jim’s flowers and garden and his pups. His garden is winding down, but we enjoyed string beans, tomatoes and sweet corn. He has some small decorative pumpkins on the vines and large ears of colored corn on stalks about 10-12 feet tall. There are a few roses and hibicus blooming. It was strange to note that his neighbor’s lilacs were blooming. A new area in Ceresco is being developed near Carol’s brother and new houses are being built.

Kale is a wonderful fall crop, the plants can withstand several light frosts and soil temperatures down to 20 degrees. Since it is getting pretty late in the season, choose a short season variety such as Winterbor that grows to maturity in 60 days but can be harvested as small tender leaves as early as 28 days. In fact, a freeze actually makes them taste sweeter as with many other cool season crops like brussels sprouts.

Farmers and Ranchers are invited to attend a free clinic on Thursday, September 23rd. The clinic provides information on legal and financial issues. To sign up for the clinic or for more information, call Michelle at the Nebraska Farm Hotline: 1-800-464-0258

At the Homecoming Parade on Friday, September 17th, the winning float in the high school was the Junior Class. The winning float in the elementary school competition belonged to the 3rd graders.

According to this year’s Agriculture & Horticulture Division Superintendent Brenda Goeken, there were 71 participants entering 559 entries in the Brown County Fair. It was quite late the evening of Friday, September 3rd, before all entries were tagged for competition.

On Tuesday, September 14th, Ainsworth Community Schools hosted a Financial Literacy program paired with a College Fair for junior and senior high school students in surrounding areas. To start off the day, students listened to a representative from EducationQuest discuss how to prepare financially for advanced education.