- Today on Oklahoma Gardening, we're having fun.

As we take a look at the FFA career development events, we share the anniversary collaboration with Eskimo Joes.

Shelly Mitchell shows us how to regrow our groceries.

And finally we have a healthy twist on brownies.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing.

Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Shape your future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice, the easy choice.

Oklahoma Gardening 50th anniversary.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

- People in Oklahoma love their gardens.

- I feel like this is the People's Show.

We all know we're working towards the common goal and that's to produce the best quality television and information for our audience.

There's been an influx of high school students recently here on OSU campus and joining me today is Dr.

Rob Terry, who's here to talk to us about the FFA Career development events.

Dr.

Terry, thank you so much for joining us.

- So you, yeah, I'm very happy to be with you.

- So you kind of oversee all of these career development events for people who might not be familiar, can you tell us a little bit about what they are?

- Yeah.

So we can trace back CDEs to Livestock Judging Contest way back a century ago, and that's kind of the founding of FFA, you're part of it.

So it started from that and it's expanded to more than 30 events that focus on career development as well as leadership development.

Ideally it starts in the classroom.

The students would learn about that area of competency and the teacher would offer, Hey, if you want to go compete in this and find out how, how good you really are, we're gonna work in the evenings or early in the morning and we'll have workouts and go to different places, practice contests and so forth.

Leading up to competing at the state contest.

So there's really three components of school-based ag education.

There's the classroom component, there's the FFA, which people are familiar with.

There's also supervised agricultural experiences, which are really experiential learning and agriculture.

To me, CDEs fit right in the middle and the confluence of those three where they're learning in the classroom, getting to do the work on their own with supervision from their teacher and then get to compete through the FFA organization.

Some of the events range from pardoning procedure contest, nursery landscape, turf grass and flora culture that are specifically related to horticulture.

Where the rubber really hits, hits the road is where they get to do this experience and show what they know through activities.

- Maiden hair, so you got that right.

Flat leaves.

I see a lot of growth.

I know a couple of my kids on my floral team, they'll randomly be out placing and be like, oh, I know what that is, or I know what that is.

Or they'll send me pictures going, Hey, this is this.

And so it's pretty cool seeing them go from not knowing much to knowing a whole lot.

- I chose to do floral culture just because in general I really like plants.

I've always been fascinated about them and I wanted to like learn more about it and see how far I could go with it.

We have a greenhouse, which we go to like practice ID together.

We'll like set out plants and say, Hey, name all these plants.

Just stuff like that.

- A lot of schools that have greenhouses, they collect these plants.

Of our 30 teams, half of 'em have a greenhouse, so that'd be 15 roughly.

And of that 15, probably six or seven actually try to keep these plants in stock.

- The events have been put together for them and to kind of enhance what they're doing and to show what they're learning in class and then compete with each other to see who's learned it the best.

We had more than 3000 students pre-registered as far as management on our side, we have a class ag at 32 0 1, which students can enroll in primarily agricultural education students.

Okay.

That will start working in January with our planning.

And then the superintendents like Mr.

Hillock will start working on that months in advance, making sure their guidelines, the rules are as they should be.

We go through the whole process of determining the different components of the contest, making sure that we're delivering what we said we would do.

- So you guys get to be on Oklahoma gardening, by the way.

So hope you're okay with that.

That's right.

Okay.

So you have your score sheets.

Again, you can use that as a reference for the things we're gonna score you on this year.

We just completed the potting of nursery stocks.

We get these rooted cuttings or liners, and then they have to prepare them for potting and get 'em potted up into containers and do it appropriately - Throughout the year, we've been working in the greenhouse making arrangements to prepare for our plant sale.

And then today we got to get a potting container in five plants and we got to make a arrangement with those five different plants.

It's not it - Snap, it's a double snap.

It's a double one.

I've been doing Flo culture for a while and Turf Grass is a new one.

They learn a lot with turf, different seeds, and then the tools take care of those if you're using them on a golf course or a baseball field or just your own home lawn.

- So I use the The Landscape Nursery contest as a, as a basis and kind of merged it with the Collegiate Turf Bowl contest that that exists because I wanted something that was familiar that ag teachers could wrap their heads around and it wouldn't be too big of a leap.

So similar makeup with a written exam ID and practicum.

But you know, each is kind of tweaked to, to better represent the, the turf management specifically.

- Every contest we've gone to has been leading up to this.

It's just kind of a cool thing.

Just be like, Hey, I'm here at State.

I have to go out and give it my all.

- So the students that end up in the top spots will be recognized at the state FFA convention.

They'll get to go up on stage and receive their trophies and plaques, hear their name over the loudspeaker, and have family friends get to cheer for 'em as they go across stage.

The next step will be for most of these events, they now qualify for the national event, which will be held in October in Indianapolis.

We have a lot of success when we go to nationals.

Our students do really well.

Even at the state contest.

There are scholarships and cash awards and so forth that students can take home from the state convention as well for competing.

Right?

But then the idea of getting to go to nationals and represent Oklahoma at a national competition's.

Very exciting - You guys.

I'm so excited.

We are here at Eskimo.

Joe's the original right here in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and joining me is none other than Stan Clark himself, who is the owner and founder of Eskimo Joes.

And I mean, it's iconic.

I grew up with Eskimo Joes and let's say 1975 was a good year, right?

- Oh my gosh.

Very, very good year.

I was blessed to graduate from OSU in May of 75 and opened Eskimo Joes July 21st, 1975.

- So 50 years ago, you guys are celebrating your 50th anniversary and I'm so excited because we are also celebrating Oklahoma gardening's 50th anniversary and you have been gracious enough to co-brand a shirt with us.

Voila.

I was like, we've gotta get a a 50th anniversary T-shirt and when you're talking t-shirts, there's no other place to go than Eskimo Joe's.

So thank you so much for this.

Let's talk a little bit about, I kind of approached you because Eat Fresh, eat Local is a marketing campaign you guys have and it's important to you as a restaurant, right?

- Absolutely.

Well, the idea of Fresh is everything we do is fresh from scratch every single day.

So of course that makes sense.

Eat local, eat with us, you know, not with a national chain.

That's kind of really the underlying pitch there.

But, you know, eat fresh.

Everything we do fresh from scratch, we're so proud of that.

We source as much as we can, as nearby as we can.

For example, the fresh lean ground beef we use at Joe's comes from Ralph packing right down in Perkins, Oklahoma.

So just love those local partnerships to the extent that we can do that.

So thanks for mentioning that.

How cool, you know, you all being a part of OSU extension and us being right here in the shadows of Oklahoma State University.

I mean, shucks, if it weren't for OSU, I would've never come to Stillwater in my life.

You know, I came here to go to school in 71, so I just think it's a, a perfectly natural partnership and I just couldn't be more proud of the design and hopefully it reflects the spirit of Oklahoma gardening.

- Well, you know, it does.

And in fact, when we first saw the design, I was looking at it and there's so many, like I call 'em Easter eggs, things that you start finding the more you look at it, you know, and I really think that's reminiscent of a garden because when you walk through a garden, you start to discover different things.

And so Darren Maine, right?

Is the artist.

That's correct.

Did a wonderful job on this.

So we're so excited, and I know you guys work a lot with different philanthropic efforts.

So some of the proceeds from this shirt are, we're excited, are going to go to Oklahoma Gardening as well as the OSU Student Farm.

So again, supporting that eat fresh, eat local concept.

- Well, we're very proud to, to share a, a portion of the proceeds.

This was your idea, frankly, in your marketing reach and you know, the, the number of you out there that hopefully are, are viewing this and are passionate about this program for 50 years, you know, will be interested in this and just know that if you do decide to buy this shirt that you are helping Oklahoma gardening.

- So it's great.

Yes, absolutely.

We know there's a lot of gardeners out there, and so people can get these here at the Stillwater - Location.

That's correct.

- Also, you've got your Tulsa location, - Right?

Yeah, we have a store at Woodland Hills Mall, been there since the early nineties, and so if you're in that vicinity, that's handy.

But of course you can always call 1 802 5 6 Joe's 5 6 3 7 or go online to eskimo joes.com and, and we're there 24 7.

I, I'll tell, I, I'm gonna, I'll boast a little.

We set the, the standard of ship same day that, you know, everybody talks about the Amazon effect.

We've been doing that since the eighties.

We ship same day, so, you know, at any rate, great services there.

Oh my gosh, look's here.

We're getting fired, Joe, Joe and Buffy are here.

I love it.

Well, thank you all for coming.

Absolutely.

That just shows the enthusiasm that we have for this project.

- So get your gardening clothes at Eskimo Joe's.

- Oh, I like that.

It's got a little ring to it.

- Thank you so much.

- You bet.

- Today I am gonna show you how you can grow some of your own food, even if you do not have your own garden or space for a garden.

So I'm gonna show you some different fruits and vegetables you can grow.

You can just buy most of these from the grocery store and grow more from those.

So the first thing I'm gonna show you is carrots.

So when you grow carrots, all you have to do is chop the top part off and then you can just place it in water, or you can place it in soil.

So what you're gonna get, I, I started this in soil, what you're gonna get is just the tops of the carrots.

You're not gonna get the whole carrot.

If you want to get another set of roots, you have to wait until this grows up, make seeds, and then plant those seeds.

So you're just gonna get carrot tops, but you can use those for cooking.

Another thing you can grow real easily is green onions.

So green onions come with their little roots right here.

So all you have to do is plant them.

You can even keep 'em on your kitchen table if you want.

And then whenever you're wanting a green onion, you just come up and clip it off, leave that in the soil and it will grow another one of these.

So that's pretty fast.

If you wanna grow more lettuce, all you have to do is take the lettuce you get at the store and you're gonna cut it off right here where there's a little bit of roots.

So you're gonna keep a little bit of roots on there.

You're just gonna saw the bottom inch or half inch off.

And then you're gonna take this with this side down and just put it in water.

If you're really patient, you can grow your own avocados.

So this is an avocado tree, a baby avocado tree.

It's, it's like several months old.

But the way you start an avocado tree is you take an avocado and you get the pit out of the middle.

Now you can either just stick it straight in the soil like this one was, or you can suspend it in water and to suspend it in water, you just take toothpicks, get 'em in there so that you've got enough room underneath for it to sit in water.

And then just put it in like this one.

Just making sure that the bottom part is always touching water.

So as it evaporates, you're gonna have to add more water.

All right, celery.

So if you get celery as a bunch at the store, you'll notice here again where it's cut off, this is where the roots are gonna come out.

So just like, just like the lettuce, you just take the bottom, you can take like about an inch, you cut that off.

Now you can still eat all this and this part you just put in some soil just like that, and you just wait, you water and wait.

And eventually, like this is a couple months old, you'll get your own celery sprouting back out.

Okay?

Sweet potatoes.

Some people grow these for their ornamental value.

If you wanna grow your own sweet potatoes, you take a sweet potato, you can get it from the store.

All this came from a store.

And when you look at a sweet potato, it has a pointy end and a blunt end.

So the roots, and some of these are already coming out, the roots are gonna come out from the bottom.

This is where it was attached underground when it was growing.

You're gonna do the same kind of thing you do with the avocado, I mean with, yeah, with the avocado.

And you suspend this in water again, you just need to have the lower half submerged.

So as long as the water is touching the bottom now after about six weeks, you'll get these little guys, and these are called slips.

And this is what you're gonna plant.

So for each one of these you plant, you're gonna get a sweet potato.

For onions, it also has a root.

So these are the roots right here.

So you can just take, just like the others, just take the bottom inch or so, you don't even need that much.

You can take the roots and put 'em right on top of the soil, just like you can do with the celery and the lettuce.

All right.

Potatoes have a bunch of these little growing points called eyes, and you can actually see some of them have little sprouts coming out already.

So what you can do with the potato is just cut it so that you have at least one little eye, and you can have more if you want.

But you take all these pieces and you let 'em harden over a couple of days, and eventually they're gonna sprout like this.

Now what you do when they've sprouted or when they've dried off enough that they're not gonna rot, you put them in soil.

But here's the key to potatoes.

You don't just put 'em in soil and cover them up like a normal crop.

What you do is you put the potato pieces in and then as they grow, you cover 'em up a little bit.

As they grow and they get their leaves, what you're gonna do now is you're gonna take it, and let's say that we're gonna cover up to here.

If you just keep it up as they grow and you just keep adding and adding and adding, all those are gonna make more and more potatoes.

So that's how you get more potatoes.

Now one of the more fun ones to do is a pineapple.

So pineapples grow on stuff that looks like a yucca.

All right?

And then you're gonna get one stalk coming up from here.

Now if you see all these little flowers, those are actually separate fruits.

So when you look on a pineapple, all these are actually the remnants of the petals from the fruits forming.

So all these are separate fruits.

Now, when you get it from a store, it's usually green or brown.

That's not a ripe pineapple.

But unlike tomatoes, they don't keep ripening after you harvest them.

So what you would wanna do is find one.

This is, this is kind of starting, you know, gold when you do your own, this whole thing will be gold and it'll melt in your mouth.

It won't have any hard crunchiness, like some pineapple chunks when you buy 'em.

So what you're gonna do with the pineapple is you're gonna cut off the top and you're gonna put it in a pot of soil and you're just gonna cover it up to about there.

Alright, so then you're gonna let it grow.

Now you have to be patient because a pineapple can take 18 months to two years to actually start to where you can harvest it.

So it starts off with these little individual fruits that have their own flowers.

And as it gets bigger and bigger, it'll look more like a regular pineapple where it closes up closer.

And then as each one ripens, it'll get more and more yellow till you have yellow with green edges.

And when there's no more green edges and it's all yellow, then it's ready to harvest.

And when it's fully ripe, you just barely touch and it'll come off and it'll be really good and juicy.

So if you wanna grow your own food and you don't even have a garden, it's possible just go to the store, eat what you want, and then regrow your leftovers.

- Today we'll be making gluten-free chocolate zucchini brownies.

So whether or not you're wanting to find recipes to add in some extra vegetables, or if you're looking for gluten-free recipes to make, you know, maybe a dessert for family or friends that can't have gluten, you'll wanna try this recipe.

So starting out, we're gonna use one zucchini.

And this zucchini has already been washed and I've trimmed the, the starting end of the zucchini.

So I'm just going to use a, the large ends of a vegetable grater to start grading, grating the zucchini.

You could also use a food processor for this step.

Okay?

And now that we've got all of our zucchini grated, then just make sure that we've got all of it in our bowl.

And I think it's easier when you grate right into the bowl, that way you have less cleanup.

Okay, now we'll move on to the rest of our ingredients.

And the next ingredient is one cup of almond flour.

And again, we're using almond flour for this recipe so that it's gluten free.

You could though if you don't have almond flour or you, it doesn't matter to you if the brownies are gluten free, you could use a regular all purpose flour and you would just use equal ingredients.

So still one cup of flour.

And the next is two eggs.

And remember, when you add eggs, two ingredients like this, always cook them in or crack them into a bowl first before you add them into the bowl.

Just in case if you, you know, drop any shell so you're not mixing it into your, with your other ingredients.

Then we have one quarter of a cup of sugar.

And you know, a lot of the traditional brownie recipes will use a lot more sugar.

So, so this is a little bit less sugar than what we typically use for making brownies.

And then we have one half of a tablespoon of baking powder and two tablespoons of melted butter.

And then we'll have one quarter of a cup of cocoa powder and it, this is unsweetened cocoa powder.

Okay, and then we'll just mix all of this in here really well.

The last ingredient is our chocolate chips, but I'm gonna wait and add those at the end so that we'll just sprinkle those on the top.

And if at this point when you mix your brownies, if you notice that the mixture seems a little thicker or more dry than you're used to with brownies, don't worry about that because zucchini have a lot of water.

They hold a lot of water inside.

So as those, as the zucchini begins to cook with the brownies, it'll release that moisture or water into the brownie mixture.

So if it looks dry right now, then that's not really anything to con be concerned about at this point.

But we're gonna go ahead and spread the batter into a prepared nine by nine baking sheet.

And I've already sprayed this with cooking spray, so we'll just add that to the pan.

Try to make sure that it's spread out evenly so that we, so that our brownies are even sizes.

Now you could, if you wanted to add the chocolate chips to brownie mixture, you could do it that way.

Also, I've made it both ways and it just seems that if you like a kind of a goo or more chocolatey brownie, then go ahead and mix it inside the batter.

But I think the appearance wise, it'll look better if you add the chocolate chips to the top.

So whichever way you prefer, but I'm just gonna sprinkle these around, try to get 'em evenly on top of the batter.

And again, if you're wanting the recipe to be gluten-free, always check the ingredients to make sure that there isn't any gluten added.

Most chocolate chips and baking powder are naturally gonna be gluten-free, but it's always good to check.

Okay, and now these are ready to go into the oven and we're gonna cook them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Okay?

And now that it has been 30 minutes, our brownies are done.

So we'll get those out of the oven and we'll just leave them on a cooling rack to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Okay?

And now that our brownies have cooled, now we can begin cutting into them.

Okay, and there we go.

That is the gluten-free chocolate zucchini brownies.

- There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week as we take a look at some of the projects at the OSU Student Farm right here on Oklahoma Gardening To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices.

Be sure to visit our website at Oklahoma gardening dot OK state.edu.

You join in on Facebook and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune into our OK Gardening Classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at Ossu is home to our studio gardens and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater Gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.