Community News & Events - Frostburg State University

Community Events

Check out our latest Newsletter!

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Frostburg Grows Community Sustainability Dialogue

October 24, 2012, 6pm at City Place~ 14 South Water Street in Frostburg

For more information contact Mimi Hernandez at 301-687-3136

The Frostburg Grows Project, funded by the EPA and American Rivers involves conversion of unused mined land to an innovative 5-acre greenhouse and shade house complex designed to train community members for high quality jobs while producing local food and tree seedlings. Goals of the program are to provide training that will help create additional job opportunities, reduce food insecurity, provide local healthy food to the residents of western Maryland, and serve as a model for Appalachia.

We are interested in dialoguing with anyone who has an interest in local food production including growers, grocers, produce vendors, and restaurant owners in and around Frostburg and Garrett and Allegany County. The dialogue would center around further development of markets for local products. The Appalachian Center for Ethnobotanical Studies would like to spearhead an effort to pursue grant funding to enhance the efforts being currently made in western Maryland. Join us to learn more and to discuss ideas for community sustainability.

September 28-29th: West Virginia Herb Association Herbal Conference, Featuring MImi Hernandez as Keynote Speaker. Event is FREE in celebration of 20 years!

The Fall Herb Festival at Jackson's Mill will begin Friday, Sept. 28th at noon. Saturday, Sept. 29th workshops will run from 8am - 9pm. Mimi Hernandez of Frostburg Univ. will be the keynote speaker.

More info here

Saturday, October 6: Homegrown's Discover Allegany Outdoors, Rocky Gap State Park, MD

Visit the ethnobotany students at the Ethnobotany Table! Bring your kids, tell your neighbors – and spend a Fall afternoon of celebrating and enjoying the outdoors! 12:00 – 4:30pm, Rocky Gap State Park, Mountain View Pavilion. More info here

October 10-14: Southeast Women's Herbal Conference. Asheville, NC

This year Mimi will be teaching World Roots, Lore of the Deadly Plants, and To Standardize or Not.

More info here

October 19th -21st : American Herbalists Guild Symposium, Seven Springs, PA
We are thrilled to announce that the 2012 AHG Symposium will be held October 18-21, 2012 at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Seven Springs, PA. Located just an hour east of Pittsburgh, this year's venue offers hiking trails, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities, as well as a beautiful display of fall foliage. We hope to see you there! More Info Here

October 26th: Western Maryland Chapter of the Archeological Society of America: Mimi will speak about Historical Edible and Medicinal Plants of Appalachia: Discover the lore, tradition, and science behind Appalachia's most popular and native medicinal plants and edible foods, from the economically exalted roots of the culture like ginseng and black cohosh to the local secret favorites like pawpaw and persimmon and many more! Come away with tidbits on Appalachian culture past, present, and future and its contribution to our herbal materia medica. More info TBA Here

SEB The 54th annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany will gather June 28th through July 3rd, 2013, at Plymouth University in Plymouth, southwestern England. The theme of the invited symposium is: “What is Our Message – And Are We Getting it Across?” The conference will begin with optional pre-conference field trips concurrent with the Council meeting on Friday, June 28th. Details of pre- and post-conference optional field trips are still being finalized. Paper and symposium presentations begin on Saturday, June 29th and continue through Wednesday, July 3rd. More Info Here

PAST EVENTS BELOW:

West Virginia Mountain Roots Series!

Sponsored by ACES, WV Society of American Foresters, WV Woodland Stewards, and WVU Extension Services. Over 600 participants in 13 WV counties came out to discover the lore, tradition, and science behind the ethnobotanical uses of Appalachia's most popular native roots in the workshop presented by ACES coordinator Mimi Hernandez.

"To be honest, I've done a lot of programs in my 16 years of extension, and this is about one of the biggest crowds I've ever had," said David Richmond, Raleigh County WVU Extension agent in reference to the Mountain Roots workshop in his area that drew over 75 community members. "Every time I teach this, especially in West Virginia, inevitably, after a class, I have older folks coming up and telling me what their grandma used to give them. I learn just as much from them as they learn from me," Hernandez said. "I think that's a part of reclaiming this lost tradition that has kind of skipped a generation or two along the way. I think people are feeling disconnected, and they're wanting to reconnect."

More Information

See ACES featured in the Organizational Spotlight in the West Virginia WV Forest Stewardship Quarterly Publication

Economic Botany Students Install Children's Garden

Economic Botany students Chris Massimino and Morgan Bauer construct the children's garden. Photo by Susan Snow

A children's community garden is being built behind to the University Children's Center on Frostburg State University's campus and will provide children with hands on interaction with the environment. The garden is raised in the form of a compass to encourage activities for the children. Vegetables will be planted including carrots, radishes, peppers, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and snap peas. Children will plant seeds and plantings from the FSU greenhouse will be transplanted. The garden is open to children of the local community to increase and diversify their education concerning growing food. Given the name, "The University Compass: A Garden for Children", the garden aspires to illustrate the Appalachian Center for Ethnobotanical Studies interest in children's gardening.

Children and FSU students participated in a planting event on Thursday May 5^th, 2011. See photo in the Cumberland Times-News!

Max Dubanski, mushroom enthusiast from Backbone Farm gives a shitake mushroom cultivation workshop

Appalachian Residents Learn About Forest Products at the "Know Your Woods; Grow Your Goods" Event.

"What a wonderful day! It was great to make so many contacts and future plans to get together to share land and time with other like minded folks. Everything yesterday was perfect; a laid back day, where we could talk and share....and good info. Thanks again!!" - Amy Shuman

Participants engaged in a full day event at the Savage River Lodge in Frostburg, Maryland where they discovered (and ate!) wild edibles, learned the ropes of maple syrup production, and inoculated their own logs with shitake mushroom spawn. Shitake mushrooms are medicinal and gourmet culinary mushrooms that can be grown on select logs. The event was sponsored by Frostburg State University, ACES, and Allegheny Mountain Naturally, a regional directory promoting nature based business in the Allegheny region of the Appalachians