September is Food Safety Awareness Month ! We Welcome you to our online event on Food Safety: Fall Food Safety, Nutrition and Wellness Tips! Join us on Thursday, September 3rd at 11:30 AM EDT to learn about how to keep your food safe and healthy this fall season. Our experts will share nutrition and wellness tips to help you make the most of your meals. Don't miss out on this opportunity to enhance your knowledge and improve your well-being. Register now and get ready to dive into the world of food safety!

Growing your own food is one of the simplest ways to improve both nutrition and overall wellness. When you combine gardening with healthy eating, you’re not just growing plants— you’re growing access to fresh, nutrient-rich foods that can support your daily meals in a powerful way.

Fresh vegetables like spring salad greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, mint, onions, squash, jalapeños, and spinach are easy to grow in small garden spaces, raised beds, or even containers. These foods don’t require complicated setups—just sunlight, good soil, water, and a little consistency.

Once harvested, they can be used immediately in everyday meals. Imagine adding crisp cucumbers and tomatoes to a fresh side salad, mixing spinach into smoothies or sautéed dishes, or using fresh parsley and mint to brighten flavor without extra salt. Even onions, squash, and jalapeños can easily move from garden to skillet, making meals more flavorful and nutrient dense. Gardening also encourages better eating habits. When healthy food is visible, fresh, and accessible, it becomes easier to include it in daily routines—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s a practical way to support wellness, reduce processed foods, and reconnect with what we eat.

Food as Medicine

This Food as Medicine session explores the intersection of nutrition science, functional foods, and seasonal dietary strategies to support health, prevent chronic disease, and address emerging public health priorities. Designed for faculty, practitioners, and health-focused educators, this session integrates current research with practical applications for individual and community wellness.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

1. Understand Seasonal and Functional Foods: Examine the benefits of spring-specific foods, including their nutrient density, phytonutrient content, and role in supporting detoxification, immunity, and cellular health.
2. Explore Superfoods and Chronic Disease Prevention: Identify evidence-based superfoods and their mechanisms for addressing inflammation, oxidative stress, and chronic health conditions.
3. Integrate Dietary Guidelines and Nutrient Principles: Review the latest Dietary Guidelines, emphasizing the 7 core nutrients for health, nutrient density, and strategies to meet caloric needs while managing chronic disease.
4. Develop Practical Meal Planning Skills: Learn to plan balanced meals using pantry staples, seasonal produce, and nutrient-dense ingredients to enhance health and food security.
5. Address Food Safety and Insecurity: Examine strategies for maintaining food safety, reducing waste, and supporting populations experiencing limited access to nutritious foods.

Join the University of Maryland Extension Family and Consumer Science Educator for an online webinar to learn more about the MIND Diet. The MIND Diet is a hybrid of the DASH diet and Mediterranean diet that can make a difference in the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, as you age.

Join us to learn about the foods that help improve brain activity, focus, mental alertness and mental wellness.

Join the Talbot County Master Gardeners for a hands-on workshop about saving seeds from the garden, how to store them. Learn seed saving techniques and more about our local Seed Library.

If you require reasonable accommodation, please contact the Talbot Extension Office at 410-822-1244 or mboley@umd.edu by August 7th.

Each visit date holds a unique opportunity to discover something new in AGNR. This session includes a general presentation about academic program options within AGNR. The presentation will be followed by an optional visit to environmental science and fermentation science laboratories, as well as a visit to our on-campus farm!

Each visit date holds a unique opportunity to discover something new in AGNR. This session includes a general presentation on academic program options within AGNR. The presentation will be followed by an optional tour of landscape architecture and plant sciences, and the unique opportunity to step onto UMD athletics fields to learn about turf management!

Each visit date holds a unique opportunity to discover something new in AGNR.  This session includes a general presentation about academic program options within AGNR. The presentation will be followed by an optional visit to a wildlife ecology laboratory and then our on-campus farm.

Each visit date holds a unique opportunity to discover something new in AGNR. This session includes a general presentation on academic program options within AGNR. The presentation will be followed by an optional visit to environmental science laboratories and a unique opportunity to step onto UMD athletics fields to learn about turf management!!

Join us for an evening of delicious BBQ, sweet ice cream, and beautiful twilight views at Crops Twilight, BBQ & Ice Cream Social  at the Central Maryland Research and Education Center (CMREC), 2005 Largo Road, Upper Marlboro, Maryland on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, from 4:00 to 9 PM.

A barbecue dinner will be served at 4:00 pm followed by homemade ice cream prior to the evening tour. University of Maryland Extension Educators and Specialists will showcase their field crop, vegetable and fruit research plots.

Barbeque begins at 4:00 PM, Ice cream Served at 5:15 PM, Crops Twilight at 6:00 PM

Please arrive on time as the wagon tour will start promptly at 6:00 PM.

This event is free. However, a reserved meal ticket is required. If you need special assistance to participate, please contact the Anne Arundel County Extension office at 301-226-7470 by August 3rd.