August 2006

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Designing Wheat For Lucrative Chinese Market By Hope Belli Tinney, University Relations, WSU Today If you plan to celebrate the Chinese New Year (on Jan. 29) with dinner at your favorite Asian restaurant, think about this: More research will have gone into the formulation of the noodles on your plate than your old noodle can imagine. Just ask Byung-Kee Baik, WSU's reigning researcher of ramen - as well as other types of noodles. Baik, an assistant professor of Crop & Soil Sciences, is in the business - and it is big business - of figuring out how to make superior wheat noodles. Since Asian noodles made from wheat typically have just three ingredients - flour, water and salt - it isn't hard to figure out what to focus on. "If you don't have good flour," he said, "you'll never have good noodles." And of course the quality of the flour depends on the qualities of the wheat. "It's a buyer's market in wheat right now," Baik said. "There's a competition among sellers. To be a winner, we need to provide better end-use quality of wheat." Mind-boggling variety While the discerning consumer can bypass the ubiquitous all-purpose flour on the grocery store shelf to find cake, bread and even pastry flour, the behind-the-scenes complexity of matching wheat varieties to particular end uses is mind boggling. As new wheat varieties come on the market, the picture becomes ever more complicated. Noodles are the most popular wheat-based products in the majority of Asian countries, where up to 50 percent of wheat consumed is used for making noodles. For many years nearly 100 percent of the wheat imported by Asian countries for making noodles came from U.S. farmers, but that started to change about 20 years ago when Australia developed white-wheat varieties specifically tailored to produce high-quality Asian noodles, Baik said. While the United States continues to dominate most Asian markets, from Japan to the Philippines, Australia is rapidly increasing its market share. In South Korea, for example, wheat imports are divided about 60-40 between the United States and Australia. Get ready for China WSU wheat researchers are working with industry leaders to maintain current market shares, but the real prize on the horizon is China. China, the largest wheat producer in the world, hasn't imported much wheat in the past. But as its economy grows, researchers expect that its demand for high-quality wheat for noodles also will increase. And WSU researchers, including wheat breeders and geneticists who work closely with Baik, are working to ensure that Washington farmers will be ready. WSU breeders have developed hard white wheat varieties with the potential to make superior noodles, Baik said and - while they are still being tested - they look promising. Simple? Not. While other researchers worry about the farmer's needs, such as developing varieties that are high yield, disease resistant and drought tolerant, Baik worries about end-use issues. Supported in part by WSU IMPACT (International Marketing Program for Agricultural Commodities and Trade) funds and the Washington Wheat Commission, Baik's research focuses on figuring out what various food producers want, figuring out how to measure those qualities in a reliable way and then figuring out the optimum balance of protein content and quality, and starch property in wheat to deliver those flour qualities. Simple, huh? It gets worse. Within the three to five major categories of Asian noodles, there are hundreds of different types that vary by country and by region, each with its own particular texture or "bite" that is determined by the flour it is made from. The best wheat for udon noodles is not the best wheat for instant fried noodles such as ramen, and the wheat for Cantonese noodles is different altogether. "That's one of the problems," Baik said and laughed. "One of the headaches, too." So next time you dig into a bowl of noodles, pay attention to the color. Pay attention to the bite. And then enjoy the fact that all you need to do is enjoy it. Cherries Are Delicious By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Weather conditions this spring and summer have been perfect for a bumper cherry crop in most of Oregon's cherry growing country. Whether you have your own cherry trees, or shop for the luscious sweet fruits at the grocery store or farmers' market, now is the time to pick and enjoy them, then cache more cherries for later. One of the easiest fruits to preserve, cherries can be canned, frozen or dried, and still be quite tasty, explained Nellie Oehler, Oregon State University Extension Family and Community Development faculty. Cherries can be divided into two main groups &endash; sweet and sour. The sweet varieties come in dark or light. Bing, Lamberts, Van, Black Republican and Black Tartarian are common varieties of dark cherries. Royal Ann and Rainer are popular light sweet cherries. Sweet cherries are great eaten fresh, canned, dried and brandied. Popular varieties of sour cherries are Montmorency, North Star and Meteor. Sour cherries are used in pies, cobblers, jam, jellies, preserves, sauces, and also dried. Choosing and Storing Fresh Cherries When selecting cherries, look for a bright, glossy, plump appearance and fresh-looking stems. Avoid soft cherries or any with brown discoloration. With the exception of the light sweet cherries, dark color is the best indication of good flavor. Handle fresh cherries carefully. They will last longer fresh if stems are left on and the cherries are refrigerated. Canning If you plan to can cherries it will take approximately two to two-and-a-half pounds of cherries for each quart of canned fruit desired. Wash and stem cherries. Remove pits if desired or can with pits in. Cherries may be canned in water, sugar syrup, or juice such as apple or white grape. The easiest way to can cherries is raw pack. Pack cherries tightly in jars to a half-inch from top. Add hot liquid to jar leaving a half-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a plastic picnic knife, wipe rim and adjust lid. Process in a boiling water canner &endash; pints and quarts for 25 minutes. Freezing Freezing is another easy way to preserve cherries for later. "They make great low calorie snacks during the winter months, children love them," said Oehler. Dark cherries are best for freezing because they do not darken. Wash, stem and pit them, if desired. Cherries can be frozen individually on cookie sheets and when frozen, repackaged into freezer bags to make individual frozen cherry snacks. Cherries can also be frozen in syrup or juice pack. Add ascorbic acid to syrup or juice mix to help prevent browning of light colored cherries. Seal, label and then freeze. Pie cherries also freeze well. Select bright red, tree ripened cherries. Wash, stem and pit them. Pack cherries into freezer containers and cover with sugar syrup or fruit juice. Cherries can also be sprinkled with sugar, let set for 15 minutes to make their own juice, and then pack into freezer containers. Seal, label and then freeze. Drying Both sweet and sour cherries are great for drying. They can be used as a snack or in baked products in place of raisins. Sour cherries can be rehydrated for pies and cobblers. Select fully ripe fruit. Wash, stem and then pit. Large cherries can be cut in half for drying. Place on dehydrator screens and dry until pliable and leathery with no pockets of moisture. Jams, Jellies, Preserves and Sauces Both sweet and sour cherries make excellent jam, jellies and preserves. There are many excellent recipes in pectin packages and home canning books for both regular and low sugar spreads. Cherries have been eaten and enjoyed since prehistoric times. Cherries were probably cultivated first in Asia Minor but people have enjoyed the wild fruit long before that. Cherry pits have been found in the Stone Age Caves, in Europe and prehistoric cliff dwellings in America. For more information or a brochure, "Preserving Cherries," (SP50-883, no cost) contact the OSU/Lane County Extension Food Safety/Preservation Hotline at 541-682-4246 or 800-872-8980, if outside the Eugene/Springfield local calling area, or stop by the Extension office at 950 W. 13th Ave. in Eugene, or go online: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/food-preservation/documents/SP50-883PreservingCherries.pdf Preserve Your Garden Goodness By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Pickling doesn't have to just be limited to cucumbers. Peaches, green tomatoes, zucchini squash and green beans can also be pickled for a delightful addition to any meal. Quick pickles are easy to make and the many flavor combinations can add a lot of variety to meals. Then there are relishes and chutneys. Combinations of summer and fall vegetables and fruits such as cabbage, onions, peppers, squash, cucumbers, apples and pears can be chopped or ground into tasty pickled condiments, explained Nellie Oehler, Oregon State University Extension Family and Community Development faculty. Pickles, relishes and chutneys are a fun way to preserve summer's bountiful array of fruits and vegetables long after the season is over. High quality ingredients are very important to the process of pickling. "If you do not start with quality ingredients, your product will not be as successful," said Oehler. "Fresh whole spices are also important in some recipes to give good flavor and prevent darkening of the pickled product." Salt is an integral part of many pickling processes and adds flavor and crispness. Canning or pickling salt that does not contain iodine or non-caking material is best. Sea salt contains impurities that could darken and cloud the pickles. Iodized salt because of the quantity used, could give the pickles an iodized flavor. Vinegar is another important ingredient. You can use apple cider or white distilled vinegar or even wine vinegar, but be sure it is 5 percent acetic acid. Each of the different vinegars will make the pickle taste different, so unless you are an expert you might want to stay with what the recipe calls for. Cider vinegar will be the mellowest in flavor and distilled more tart. Read every recipe carefully. There is a reason for each step, and cutting corners may compromise the quality of the product or make it unsafe to eat. Make sure that each recipe used is modern, up-to-date, and kitchen-tested and that all pickled products to be stored out of the refrigerator are processed in a boiling water canner for the recommended length of time. Stainless steel, glass, or un-chipped metal pans should be used when heating pickling liquids. Aluminum can be used if the brine will only be in it a short time. Some metals such as copper and brass can react with acids or salts to create discoloration or undesirable compounds. Finally, make sure to store finished, canned pickles in a cool, dark place, because heat and light may reduce color and quality. Following these simple guidelines will ensure a higher chance that pickling will be successful. The OSU Extension Service offers a publication, "Pickling Vegetables" (PNW 355) and several other food preservation and storage publications on the web. Go to: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/results.php?cat=Nutrition+%26+Foods Then click on "Food Preservation and Storage." Or call 1-800-561-6719 to request a printed catalog. Home canners can get answers to questions by calling the OSU Extension Food Safety/Preservation hotline from July 17 to Oct. 13 at 1-800-354-7319, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (except holidays). OSU Extension Family Food Education volunteers and Extension faculty and staff run the hotline. Dozens Of "Daisies" Dazzle In Summer And Fall Gardens By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University The term "daisy" includes many flowers. All daisies are in the composite or aster family. Most have multiple white or colored rays surrounding a gold to brown central disk. But that's as far as you can generalize. Daisies include a lot of plants. Daisies liven up summer and fall flowerbeds. Many leave seed heads for bird food over the fall and winter. Here's a sampling of some of the most common "daisies" from Oregon State University Extension Service horticulturist Barb Fick. • Ox-eye daisy or common daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)&emdash;perennial, grows to two feet tall with bright green foliage and white, yellow-centered daisies. Originally from Europe, it has been naturalized throughout the United States. In fact it is considered an invasive weed and in some years, clouds pastures with its blossoms. • Transvaal daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)&emdash;an elegant perennial daisy with long, lobed, bright-green leaves. Flowers bloom on long, slightly curving stems in cream, yellow, coral, orange, and red. Great cut flowers. Originally from Africa. • Shasta daisy (C. maximum or C. superbum)&emdash;perennial, green, leathery leaves and large white flowers with yellow centers. Some varieties have ruffled, double flowers. Several varieties bloom from late spring until fall. Easy to grow from seed or divide from established plants. They bloom better in summertime with afternoon shade. • Gloriosa daisy, black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)&emdash;a biennial or short-lived perennial that blooms its first season from seed. Grows from three to four feet tall; hairy bright green leaves; large, daisy-like flowers, sometimes double, with orange-yellow rays and black or dark brown centers, flowers. These are descendants from wild plants from the eastern United States, where they line highways for miles at a stretch. • Painted daisy (C. coccineum, also called Pyrethrum roseum)&emdash;a bushy perennial from two to three feet tall; feathery bright green leaves and single, daisy-like, long-stemmed flowers. Available in pink, red, and white. The white-flowered varieties are grown commercially, dried, and used as an insecticide. Blooms in late spring, and may reflower if cut back after first blooming. • African daisy (Arctotis, Dimorphotheca species)&emdash;both annuals and perennials are available. Arctotis has lobed leaves that are hairy or woolly; large flower heads usually have a contrasting ring of color around the eye. Dimorphotheca are annuals with smooth foliage. Most nursery plants are Arctotis hybrids that grow to 12 feet tall. Large flowers bloom in white, pink, red, cream, yellow, orange, and salmon. • English daisy (Bellis perennis)&emdash;the original English daisies are found growing in lawns, unlike the horticultural varieties currently sold in nurseries. Dark-green leaves grow in a low rosette, with six-inch stems topped with white, rose, red, or white flowers in spring and early summer. This daisy requires good moisture. • Marguerite daisy (C. frutescens)&emdash;a short-lived perennial with bright green or silvery leaves, deeply-divided and ornamental; abundant daisy-like flowers in white, yellow, or pink. These grow nicely in containers. For continued bloom, deadhead regularly. • Swan River daisy (Brachycome species)&emdash;annual and perennial plants from Australia. Grows to one foot tall and spread 12 feet wide. Finely divided leaves covered with inch-wide daisies, most in blue, but also in white and pink. Great as a border plant or in containers. Compensate For High Pump Prices, Shop Smart! From University of Idaho's HomeWise Spending too much money at the gas pump? Make it up at the grocery store. University of Idaho Extension educator Linda Gossett says consumers can minimize their grocery costs while maximizing nutrition. The trick: shop the perimeter of the store rather than the center. That's where you'll find what Gossett calls the "more nutrient-dense" foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, dairy products and breads. "The center of the store contains the packaged and processed foods that don't require refrigeration," she says. "They tend to be higher in fat, sugar, sodium and other additives and lower in essential nutrients." Venture into the center only with a list of must-have ingredients for recipes you are preparing&emdash;and don't deviate from it. Deviating from your grocery list&emdash;and, particularly, returning to the grocery store repeatedly during the week and ad-libbing again each time&emdash;is what really adds dollars to your grocery bill, Gossett says. "Limit your exposure to the grocery store&emdash;and especially to the center aisles." Gossett directs the university's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program for lower-income families with children in Ada, Canyon and Elmore counties. The program is also offered in Bannock County and at Fort Hall. Gossett's advice is good statewide and across income brackets. Other tips to prevent grocery guzzling: • Plan your meals around advertised grocery specials. • Buy locally produced fruits & vegetables when available. • Creatively substitute an ingredient you have for one you don't. • Buy larger cuts of meats but rewrap them in meal- or serving-sizes as soon as you bring them home. • Choose store brands of low-fat dairy products. • Buy day-old breads or freeze fresh loaves that are on sale. • Encourage your kids to snack on grab-and-go fruits, vegetables and string cheeses rather than on processed snacks. • Add barley, couscous or rice to fresh vegetables and leftover meats for a quick summer dinner&emdash;or briskly sauté vegetables in olive oil and flavor them with herbs. • Reheat leftovers for tortilla- and burrito-fillings or have an a la carte leftover banquet once a week. • Plant a few tomatoes and herbs in patio containers if you don't have enough time or space for a full-sized garden. "When we're talking about conserving, we're not talking about doing without but about making different, thoughtful choices," Gossett says. Research Farm Named For Turfgrass Pioneer By Denny Fleenor, University of Idaho Whenever you visit a cool green park, play on a grassy play field or enjoy a round of golf on a well-manicured course you are enjoying the legacy of retired Washington State University turfgrass researcher Roy Goss. On Tuesday, July 25, WSU will honor Goss by renaming its turfgrass research farm near Puyallup the Roy L. Goss Turfgrass Research Farm. The dedication ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. at the farm, located at 15403 Bowman-Hilton Road, Puyallup. Goss is scheduled to be at the dedication. The ceremony will precede the biennial turfgrass field day for turfgrass and landscaping professionals. Goss began his career in 1958, accepting a newly created position of turfgrass researcher and extension agent at WSU's Western Washington Research Station in Puyallup. At the time it was one of only a handful of turfgrass research programs in the country, and the second west of the Mississippi. His research found that managing fertilizer use for all types of turf including those used for sports fields and golf putting greens was an effective way to minimize fungi and diseases, thus reducing applications of fungicides and other treatments. Goss also instigated the use of sand as a base for sports fields and putting greens to improve drainage and reduce damage from heavy use, significantly reducing maintenance costs. His approach is still the standard used today. His research on planting deep-rooted fescue grass to control erosion on slopes with minimal topsoil gave the state Department of Transportation a new approach to establishing vegetation on rocky banks along state highways. The new approach has saved state taxpayers millions of dollars over the years. WSU researchers continue to build on his legacy at the research farm. The six-acre farm includes trial plots on new turf grass varieties, including twenty thousand square feet of sand-based sports turf and thirty thousand square feet of putting green turf. Goss retired from WSU in 1988 and lives with his wife in Okanogan.

Farmers Bank On Beetles As A Pesticide-Free Approach Toward Pest Management By Aimee Brown, Oregon State University Oregon farmers are cultivating predator-prey relationships and reducing the need for pesticides by adopting new pest management strategies that encourage beneficial insect populations. Farmers from Lebanon, Philomath, Grants Pass and Portland are teaming up with Oregon State University scientists to limit farm pest populations by restoring and conserving habitat for insects that perform important pollination and predation roles within fields and farms. These beneficial insects come in many forms, but are often bees, spiders, or warrior beetles. "Predacious ground beetles are the ground troops of the insect world," said Gwendolyn Ellen, the project lead for OSU's Farmscaping for Beneficials Project. "They eat a range of pests from aphids to slugs and as a result many farmers are very interested in creating habitat for them. To serve this need we're working with farmers to build 'beetle banks' within their fields." Beetle banks are swaths of raised land four to six feet wide in the fields that are planted with native bunch grasses and provide shelter for predacious ground beetles. In healthy populations the beetles are capable of devouring a variety of destructive organisms that can inflict thousands of dollars of damage to organic and conventional crops. "The banks act as a beetle hotel, providing a safe, protected environment where beetles can over-winter, and remain present in the fields during a time of year that has previously been unoccupied," said Paul Jepson, director of OSU's Integrated Plant Protection Center. The center has created three large beetle banks at OSU's Hyslop Field Research Station. Center researchers and area farmers are testing different native bunch grasses as suitable plants for the beetle banks. The grasses act as a trap crop for agricultural pests in the field and create an untilled area for the beetles to live undisturbed, said Ellen, adding that the native bunch grasses are noninvasive and should not compete with crops. "Farmers are individually designing the banks to fit into their diverse farming systems," she said. "This is not something that there is a prescription for and this approach results in a bank unique to each farm. With each bank we are gathering more data to share with other people." The interest in beetle banks and other habitat like hedgerows and diverse configurations of flowering plants suited to beneficial insects may be a response to the changing scope of farming and food production, said Jepson. "As Oregon agriculture has become increasingly larger in scale, fields have been isolated from natural habitats that act as reservoirs for natural enemies and pollinators," said Jepson, who is a professor in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences. "Today's intensive vegetable farming practices simplify farm landscapes and reduce food and habitat resources for beneficial insects. Farmers can create specific habitat for these insects that does not currently exist on most farms." Beetle banks fall under the heading of conservation biological control, a type of management that is an easy fit for organic farmers who must conserve biodiversity, and for conventional farmers wanting to benefit from the opportunities diverse farm habitats create, said Ellen. "Biological pest suppression and pollination can occur in agricultural ecosystems that are well connected with natural areas and the diverse habitats that may surround intensively managed fields," she added. "These ecological services have existed in nature for as long as plants and insects have inhabited the earth. Building beetle banks and other habitat are a means to recreate farm diversity." The Integrated Plant Protection Center's Farmscaping for Beneficials Project is a partnership between OSU, Xerces Society, Oregon Tilth and area farmers. The project, with its unique collaborative approach, was recently awarded a two-year grant from the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program for the establishment of beetle banks on Oregon farms. "The farmers help design the project at all levels; their expertise leads the science at OSU while Xerces Society and Oregon Tilth are the experts at helping make the program work at the community level," said Ellen, adding that programs like those at the Integrated Plant Protection Center help farmers look at their farms in ecological terms. Individuals interested in exploring beneficial farm habitat are welcome to attend a Farmscaping for Beneficials Farm Walk highlighting conservation hedgerows. The walk will take place at Sauvie Island Organics and the Howell Territorial Park on Sauvie Island in Portland on Aug. 18. For more information about the walk, the Integrated Plant Protection Center and the Farmscaping for Beneficials Project visit the website at http://ipmnet.org/. Those Stinkin' Stink Bugs Aren't So Bad From University of Idaho's HomeWise When Ed Bechinski picks up a scent he describes as "turpentine mixed with rotten cantaloupe," he knows that stink bugs are back in his tomatoes&emdash;again. Every summer, these slow-moving, shield-shaped, well-camouflaged insects descend on Idaho gardens, sampling tomatoes, beans, raspberries, strawberries and other large-seeded produce. The University of Idaho Extension integrated pest management specialist says stink bugs use their piercing, sucking mouth parts to extract sap from fruit. If they're caught at it, they emit an odor designed to discourage threats. "If you brush the leaves of a plant they're feeding on, you'll smell them right away," he says. "They have pores under the equivalent of their armpits that exude these smells." "Most people find that very offensive, but there are native cultures in Mexico that celebrate stink bugs and eat them as food," he says. "I've done a lot of things with insects but I have no desire to do that." Bechinski does, however, have a recipe for stink bug pate, should anyone be interested. The fleeting odor of these typically green or brown thumbnail-sized insects isn't what gets them in trouble with Idaho gardeners. Instead, it's the yellowish corky blemishes they leave on fruit. "These are just surface blemishes and they don't change the nutritional value of a tomato," Bechinski says. "If you have a lot of these thickened areas on young berries or tree fruits, the fruit can actually become semi-deformed, but in most cases stink bug damage is fairly tolerable." Gardeners who can't or won't tolerate a few stink bug blemishes on their tomatoes have several alternatives. Bechinski recommends placing a plastic sheet under the plants and literally shaking the stink bugs down. Once they're on the ground, you can squash them or toss them into soapy water. You can also inspect leaves for the small, brown, barrel-shaped eggs the stink bugs lay in clusters of one or two dozen; if the barrels are still full, rip off those leaves and discard them. Finally, you can use a broad-spectrum insecticide that will kill the stink bugs but unfortunately will also kill lady beetles, lacewings and other beneficial insects. Bechinski recommends that alternative only where damage is considerable. Be sure to read the label to see how soon after a pesticide application you can safely harvest the treated produce. A complication in deciding what to do is that some stink bugs are actually beneficial themselves. Rather than attacking your garden produce, they attack the caterpillars that are feeding on it. Beneficial stink bugs look a lot like their pestiferous cousins, except that the equivalent of their beak is as thick as a pencil lead rather than as thin as a thread. Philosophically, Bechinski says most of us have probably been eating stink bug-damaged tomatoes all along, without realizing it. "In my garden, I've made up my mind to just share my tomatoes with the stink bugs," he says. Keep Summer's Roses Looking Sharp From University of Idaho's HomeWise Have those roses that looked so heavenly in early summer become overgrown, tangled and ratty? Not to worry, says University of Idaho Extension horticulturist Dan Barney. "If you keep your pruning shears handy, you can have healthy and attractive roses all summer," he says. Start by removing any shoots that are weak and any canes that are showing signs of disease. Also clip off suckers, which develop below the graft union and bear leaves of different colors and shapes than the variety you're trying to grow. "If necessary, dig down into the soil to prune off the suckers where they join to the crown," says Barney. "They can quickly take over a plant, producing rank masses of canes and leaves and few or no flowers." For hybrid tea and tree roses, which flower in waves throughout the summer, remove blossoms as soon as they start to fade by cutting back the stems below the old flowers to just above a leaf with five leaflets. "If you allow these roses to set seed&emdash;or hips&emdash;the time between flowering increases," Barney says. If one of your gardening goals is to produce large, single-stemmed hybrid-tea roses, retain only the large, topmost bud that develops on each new shoot and remove the smaller buds below it on the same stem. "This is the strategy that rose enthusiasts use to produce big, showy blooms for exhibition," Barney notes. "When you don't disbud, you produce more&emdash;but smaller&emdash;blooms." Summer-pruning of climbing roses is a little different. For ever-blooming varieties, pinch off the flowers right after peak bloom. They'll develop new flowers just below the old clusters, so don't shorten their stems. For hybrid climbers, leave two leaf buds on each flowering shoot as you remove faded blooms. In autumn, let the rose hips fill and ripen. That will slow the roses' growth and allow them to begin acclimating for the coming winter. Squash Bugs Usually Requires An Insecticide From University of Idaho's HomeWise It's July and your squashes, pumpkins and melons are surging. You're counting the weeks until you can slice into their rich, ripe fruit. Unfortunately, your stealthy squash bugs are counting the seconds until they can sip up some more of these vegetables' essential sap. As they sip that sap through their piercing mouthparts, they inject a plant toxin that's deadly to leaves, stems and vines. "At first your plants will appear healthy, but suddenly you'll see individual leaves or vines start to wilt," says Ed Bechinski, University of Idaho Extension integrated pest management specialist. "When you examine the plants, you'll see bugs crawling all over them." Yuck. These flat, gray-brown insects with orange edges reach a half-inch or longer as adults and fold their wings tightly into X shapes over their backs. Their less colorful nymphs hatch from bronze, football-shaped eggs laid in patches of about two dozen on plant stems or leaf undersides. Bechinski says scraping off those eggs or ripping off the leaf sections they're pasted to will stop many of these wanna-be pests at their source. "You can also shake the leaves over a tub of soapy water and kill some of the nymphs or adults that way, and you can put a board or piece of burlap on the soil, turn it over in the morning and kill some more." Despite your "green" efforts, Bechinski suspects you'll soon be hot-footing it to the garden shop for a traditional, conventional insecticide. Look for one that's specifically labeled for squash bug control on the crop that specifically needs it-and be sure to observe the required safety interval between application and harvest. Fortunately, squash bugs generally have just one generation a year, although Bechinski says two are possible in Idaho's hottest climates. That means you won't need to treat more than once or-worst case-twice each year. Squash bug damage can be extensive because of the pests' habit of feeding in "friendly" groups and injecting their plant-damaging toxins at concentrated sites. The initial yellow- or brown-specked damage on leaves soon evolves into crispy, blackened plant parts beyond the sites where the bugs fed. "The damage won't all of the sudden kill the plant," Bechinski says, but he doesn't recommend his typical wait-and-see tolerance because squash bugs overwinter right in Idaho vegetable beds, poised to return next spring. "If you've had them in the past, they'll get worse and worse and worse," he cautions. Bechinski advises squash-bug afflicted gardeners to thoroughly clean their squash, pumpkin and melon beds this fall-removing all plant material-and then follow up with the rototiller. "If you have the luxury of space, plant your squash in a different part of the garden next year. That won't be totally effective, because squash bugs do fly, but it will help." So will planting varieties that you've observed are less prone to squash bug damage. Rural Kids Wish For More Stuff To Do By Marlene Fritz, University of Idaho Sure, many of them are plenty busy already, but more than 70 percent of sixth through 12th graders in 10 rural Idaho communities say they wish they had more things to do after school and on weekends. Half of 2,445 youthful survey respondents told researchers from the University of Idaho and the University of Georgia that they wanted some more things to do in their communities, and a third said they wanted a lot more. Maureen Toomey, research leader and University of Idaho 4-H Afterschool coordinator, thinks adults in Idaho's rural communities should work closely with broad cross-sections of their young people to determine what activities interest them and to develop strategies for delivering them. Indeed, fully three-fourths of the youth surveyed said kids should have a say in which activities are offered in their communities, and two-thirds wanted input in how they're run. "Wouldn't it be great if communities put together youth advisory teams to sit down and decide what's really critical?" Toomey asks. Last fall, Toomey and co-author Christine Todd of the University of Georgia surveyed middle and high school students in the school districts of Boundary, Cambridge, Cascade, Castleford, Kendrick, McCall-Donnelly, Meadows Valley, Midvale, Troy and Weiser. Altogether half of the students agreed that their communities need more sports and athletic activities, and greater than two in five wanted more weekend programs, evening activities and youth clubs. Interest in creative arts, tutoring, recreation programs and skills-based enrichment activities was somewhat lower. Toomey emphasized that kids aren't just looking for anything at all to do but something that matches their interests. While three out of four respondents said other responsibilities and being "too busy" have kept them from participating in activities that their communities already offer, 59 percent said not liking available activities is a reason they've stayed away. Mismatches between kids' interests and community offerings are not only a shame for the kids but should be a concern to communities, Toomey says. That's because young people who are positively engaged are less likely to get into trouble. Although the students' interests varied from one town to another, the survey's young respondents consistently requested more sports activities. Toomey suspects that's because competitive school teams limit participation to youth who qualify athletically. "Maybe what kids are saying is, 'I'm not good enough to play on the varsity team but I would still like to go to the gym for pickup games.'" In the Weiser School District, superintendent Jim Reed agrees. "There truly is a great need," he says. "In any school in Idaho, there are probably only about 45 students playing basketball. We have at least 250 boys here, and many, many of them love the game." In Cascade, where students play freely in the gym late in the afternoon and evening, superintendent and Valley County native Elsie Krause wonders aloud about another possible factor. "With our mobile society now, we have a lot more kids who have moved in who don't explore and enjoy our outdoors like we did," she says. Involving youth in developing new recreational opportunities for their communities "might be powerful," Reed says. "You're not just coming to decisions but providing students with an opportunity for leadership and participation in processes that they may have felt excluded from. When they learn leadership and how to work with others, the results can be tremendous." In the McCall-Donnelly and Meadows Valley school districts, superintendent Terrell Donicht noted that securing funding for activities in out-of-school settings is an increasingly steeper hurdle. "Nobody is going to do it for free," he says. "Normally, it takes governmental entities to handle it, because they can get insurance without breaking the bank." Developing out-of-school activities for kids "doesn't seem to be a community priority in very many places," Donicht says. "It has to be-if it's going to work." To see the full report, click on www.4h.uidaho.edu and choose 4-H Afterschool. Grant For Research On Power Grid Cybersecurity By Robert Strenge, WSU News Services A team of researchers from Washington State University's College of Engineering and Architecture has been selected to play a major role in a National Science Foundation-sponsored research initiative intended to address the challenge of protecting the cybersecurity of the nation's power grid. In an announcement issued Monday (Aug. 15), WSU was named as one of four universities that will participate in a new five-year collaborative research effort supported initially by an NSF grant of $7.5 million. Other collaborators are Cornell University, Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). UIUC will serve as the home of a national center to be called Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIP). The TCIP center will be dedicated to developing new technologies for the electric power grid's cyber infrastructure, making it more secure and robust. The solutions created are expected to be adaptable for use in other critical infrastructure systems. Nearly $1 million of the NSF grant money has been pledged to support WSU research, which is the largest sub-award outside the center's home at UIUC. The research by the WSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will be led by Carl Hauser and David Bakken, associate professors of computer science, and Anjan Bose, Distinguished Professor in Power and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. "This center brings together security-related research by 19 faculty members and senior researchers, together with their students at the four institutions," Hauser said. "Their combined expertise in distributed computing, simulation, modeling, cybersecurity, power engineering and energy policy will be leveraged to help secure the power grid's cyber infrastructure." Hauser noted that the center will have a 14-member industrial advisory board from the electric power industry that will help ensure that the research addresses real-world problems. The award was one of 36 grants totaling $36 million announced this week by the NSF as part of its 2005 Cyber Trust program. Cyber Trust is the centerpiece of the NSF's cybersecurity efforts. TCIP is one of only four center-scale awards granted in the history of the Cyber Trust program and the only one supporting research at a university in the Pacific Northwest. The Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security also have pledged to join NSF in funding and overseeing TCIP. The awards come at a time of increased public and government concern over the vulnerability of the nation's power grid. The August 14, 2003 blackout that affected an estimated 50 million customers in the Northeast and Canada demonstrated the fragility of the grid and raised concerns about the ease with which terrorists might take advantage of that weakness. The WSU researchers have been designing and developing GridStat, a communication system intended to improve the security, efficiency and reliability of the power grid. Poor communication of operational data has been recognized as a major contributing factor to all recent blackouts. GridStat is designed to overcome this problem. It delivers status information to participants in the power grid in a much more flexible and robust manner than is possible today. GridStat is the first operational implementation of such a flexible system. It has been deployed for two years in a technology demonstration project using real power grid data from Avista Utilities. "We have been working on identifying and solving the power grid's communication problems since 1999 and are excited to be taking GridStat to the next level with this award", Bakken said. Bill Sanders, director of both the UIUC's Information Trust Institute and the new TCIP center, said "WSU has a long history of providing research advances for the electric power grid's communication system. Their excellent interdisciplinary research, involving both computer science and power engineering faculty, was instrumental in our team's obtaining funding for this project." The funding will support further development of GridStat concepts and integration with technologies developed by other collaborators. WSU research will extend trust management concepts to provide more dynamic and adaptable access control for grid communications. Contact: David Bakken, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 509/335-2399, bakken@wsu.edu Living Life Large 1. Never judge a day by the weather. 2. The best things in life aren't things.

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