How would you like to learn about raising chickens for eggs? Or growing herbs, shiitake mushrooms or chile peppers? Or possibly even how to make your own maple syrup or press your own apple cider? Thanks to the helpful folks at the Cooperative Extension Service, you can learn to do all these things and much, much more.
The Extension Service was actually renamed Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) in 1994, but it has it's roots in the 1914 Smith-Lever Act that founded it along with the Land-Grant University system. It's purpose is to "advance knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being" and offering helpful information about a vast number of things is included in that mission.
Also available on their site are tips for home canning, curing a Virginia ham and making homemade cheese (a project I am itching to try).
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Global health authorities say that there is currently no bird flu in the Western Hemisphere and the most likely way
for it to enter the United States would be through birds smuggled in as pets or for cockfighting, or else from
migratory birds, particularly ducks and geese. Nearly every chicken consumed in the US is raised here. Commercially
bred chickens, including many "free range" birds, are raised inside giant airplane-hangar sized complexes and
almost never see the light of day. Outdoor-raised chickens are usually kept away from wild birds with netting. The birds
that are most at risk are unconfined birds and home raised birds, which may mingle with wild or migratory birds that
carry the disease.
