Featured Recipe: Wavy Rancheroos
August 1, 2010
This weekend’s featured recipe from Janet Tharpe is Wavy Rancheroos pie. Colorful and flavorful, this pie is a fun take on the classic huevos rancheros Mexican breakfast, but it’s great or lunch or dinner too.
To print today’s “Just a Pinch” recipe column, you can click the image below to load a printable pdf with a recipe card.
Birth: Forester David Bryan
August 1, 2010
Heath and Shelby Bryan are proud to announce the birth of their son, Forester David Bryan, born July 2, 2010 at Thomas Medical Center.
Forest weighed eight pounds and was 21 inches long. Grandparents are Ricky and Cheryl Golson, and Terry and Sheila Bryan of Bratt. Great-grandparents are Marlene Forester and the late Curtis Forester, the late Walter Lee Golson and Doris Oline Hopkins, Pansy Bryan and the late Preston Bryan, Dillard and Rochelle Bankston, and the late Billy Macks.
Looking For A Bargain? Try The Junior Humane Thrift Store
July 31, 2010
If you are looking for some good, low cost shopping, consider the Junior Humane Society’s Thrift Store in Cantonment.
Store proceeds benefit JHS activities, such as finding homes for homeless cats and dogs. The store features of clothing for all ages, shoes, office furniture, kitchen supplies, books, toys, pet supplies and other items with new merchandise arriving almost daily.
Initially open just four days a week, hours have been expanded to include everyday except Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“Some days when we came to open the store, we had customers already lined up and waiting for us,” said Frankie Van Horn Harris, director of the Junior Humane Society. “Hopefully, being open on more days and for longer hours will help our customers and help JHS.”
The store opened for business October 2009 after weeks of planning and hard work by a group of pet-minded and dedicated volunteers. Through the store, JHS volunteers have found a way to help the animals they care about so much and the community at the same time.
The Junior Humane Society’s Thrift Store in Cantonment is located at the corner of Highway 29 and Neal Road in Cantonment.
Pictured JHS volunteers Kristi Kirby; Amanda Gifford; Crystal Clanton; Mary Foster; Director Frankie Van Horn Harris; Christa Pettijohn; Elizabeth Irby; and Janet Lewis. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Hydrangeas: Distinctly Southern
July 31, 2010
Photo by Mandy Fails of Atmore for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Nothing defines a southern landscape more than hydrangeas.
These beautiful, large flowering shrubs fill gardens with their green, leafy foliage and incredible blooms during the warm months.
In order to ensure consistent and reliable blooms, these shrubs must be cared for correctly. In addition to proper site location, fertilizer and moisture conditions, hydrangeas may require pruning. Proper pruning includes correct timing.
Hydrangea aficionados are constantly debating pruning techniques. There are many different types of hydrangeas and pruning differs according to the type. It is a big genus of plants and so it’s important to know what type of hydrangeas you may have and on what type of wood they bloom on.
Blooms on old wood, prune after flowering
The bigleaf hydrangeas, known scientifically as Hydrangea macrophylla, are what most people think of when you mention hydrangeas. Most gardeners will know these as mopheads (also called hortensias) and lacecaps. Many of these blooms will be blue or pink although other colors now are available.
Many large colonies of bigleaf hydrangeas have existed around old homes for decades, surviving and blooming in spite of neglect. This tells us that it is not necessary to prune bigleaf hydrangeas.
However, if you want to keep these shrubs within a defined boundary, control their height or rejuvenate old shrubs, it will be necessary to prune them.
Bigleaf hydrangeas can be reduced in size immediately after flowering. A general rule of thumb is that you may remove up to a third of the shrub’s height. Be sure to complete your pruning before August. This is critical because next year flower blooms start to form in August. Pruning after August will remove next year’s blooms.
There now is a small group of bigleaf hydrangeas that are everblooming or remontant. Endless Summer® is one well-known brand. According to the developers of these reblooming hydrangeas, remove spent flowers to encourage rebloom. They are quite forgiving and will not suffer if left unpruned or pruned at the wrong time because these cultivars bloom on both old and new growth.
Our native oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is a large, deciduous shrub that can grow up to six feet tall. It has deeply lobed, oak-like leaves which turn bronze in the fall. This plant does not usually need pruning. If reshaping or size-reduction is necessary, prune after blooms begin to fade.
Article Continues Below Photo
Lacecap hydrangea Photo credit: Theresa Friday
Blooms on new wood, prune in early spring
Smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens) is the other U.S. native. The most common cultivar, ‘Annabelle’, produces rounded inflorescences that may reach up to a foot in diameter.
The panicle hydrangea (H. paniculata) is more of an upright type. It is typically a 10 to 15-foot large shrub or low-branched tree.
Panicle and smooth hydrangeas flower on current year’s growth and can be pruned anytime from late summer until early spring. If pruning these two species in the spring, try to prune before leaves appear.
Winter pruning
Established bigleaf, panicle, oakleaf and smooth hydrangea plants can often benefit from rejuvenation pruning. Remove about one-third of the oldest stems each year. The result is a fuller, healthier plant. This type of pruning is easiest to do in winter, since the absence of leaves makes it easier to see and reach inside plants.
Hydrangeas offer a wide variety of plants which can make the timing of pruning difficult to remember. Just keep in mind, if in doubt, either don’t prune at all or prune after flowering.
Theresa Friday is the Residential Horticulture Extension Agent for Santa Rosa County.
Hospital Honors Dr. Smith For 30 Years Of Service
July 29, 2010
Jay Hospital employees and affiliated physicians recognized C. David Smith, M.D., for 30 years of dedicated service.
“There is no greater example of a caring, loyal, and hard-working physician anywhere,” said Mike Hutchins, administrator of Jay Hospital. “Dr. Smith’s positive impact on our hospital and community over these 30 years is beyond measure.”
Baptist Health Care partnered with Jay Hospital in 1979, to strengthen the then county-owned facility with resources related to technology, personnel and support services. Securing a physician to serve the rural community was critical to the hospital’s survival.
At that time Dr. Smith was in the middle of his residency at the University of South Alabama in Mobile when approached to return to his hometown of Jay, Fla. He agreed to fill the role and began his practice on July 16, 1980. Since then, he has cared for thousands of patients in the North Escambia area.
“We could not ask for a more dedicated physician than C. David Smith,” said Don Salter, Santa Rosa County Commissioner. “His life’s work has been at Jay Hospital for the benefit of his fellow residents.”
VBS: Having A ‘Blast’
July 29, 2010
Cadets and Mission Leaders are having a blast this week at Aldersgate United Methodist Church’s Vacation Bible School. Galactic Blast VBS will continue Thursday and Friday evenings from 5:30 until 8:30. New “Cadets” are welcome to join.
There will also be a “Final Debriefing” for VBS participants and parents Sunday afternoon from 5-6:00 in the church’s “Astro Bistro” fellowship hall. A “Starship Galactic Praise” event will follow from 6-7:00.
Pictured above and below: Scenes from the “Galactic Blast” VBS at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Molino. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Do you have news or photos to share from your church? Email news@northescambia.com
Photos: Century Care Center Babes And Beaus
July 28, 2010
Century Care Center recently held a “Babes and Beaus” photo shoot for their residents.
For a gallery of photos, click here.
Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Bratt Man Celebrates 100th Birthday
July 27, 2010
John B. Gilman of Bratt celebrated his 100th birthday Saturday, surrounded by family and friends at the First Baptist Church of Bratt.
Gilman said his secret of a long life was “always getting along well with others”. He still lives at home, and family members said he is doing quite well, has a remarkable memory and enjoys spending time with his family.
Gilman has nine children, 19 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren.
Salters Named Farm Family Of Year During Farm Tour
July 26, 2010
Organizers say the 44th Annual Santa Rosa County Farm Tour was a success with over 200 local officials and citizens taking part.
On the day-long bus tour, participants learned first-hand of the importance of agriculture and forestry in the county and the issues facing local farmers. Stops on the tour included the Santa Rosa County Extension Demonstration Gardens, Lundy’s Berry Patch, Panhandle Growers, Chumuckla’s Farmers Opry and House Garden, the Jerry Jones Farm, and Holland Farms.
A highlight of the tour was recognition of the John Salter Family as “Outstanding Farm Family of the Year”. John and his wife Stacy accepted the award from County Commissioners Don Salter and Bob Cole during the lunch program at the Farmers’ Opry. Congressman Jeff Miller also presented the couple with a resolution he read before the U. S. House of Representatives honoring the Salter family for their accomplishments. John is a fourth generation farmer who started farming with his dad in 1980. Today the Salters farm 850 acres of cotton, peanuts, corn, and hay. The Salters are leaders in our county’s production of food and fiber and are active in various agricultural organizations.
The Farm Tour is organized each year by the Santa Rosa Farm Tour Committee, comprised of representatives from various agricultural support agencies in the county, and conducted in cooperation with the Board of County Commissioners. Of course, the tour would not be possible without the help of numerous local supporters and corporate sponsors.
The Farm Tour Committee thanked the following sponsors: Burkhead Gin Company, Crop Production Services, Escambia County Bank, Escambia River Electric Coop, Farm Credit of Northwest Florida, First National Bank of Florida, Golden Gin & Warehouse, Griswold Peanut Company, Gulf Power Company, Hall’s Hardware, Helena Chemical Company, Jay Peanut Farmers Coop, Kiwanis Club of Santa Rosa-Sunrise, McKenzie Motor Company, Pen Air Federal Credit Union, Publix, Regions Bank, Resource Management Services, Santa Rosa County Farm Bureau, Smith Tractor Company, Syngenta Crop Protection, Three Rivers RC&D Council, and United Bank.
BLOG: Big Change For NorthEscambia.com
July 26, 2010
NorthEscambia.com celebrated a major milestone of sorts over the weekend that we hope will benefit you.
Friday evening, we moved to a much faster dedicated web server. That’s it pictured at the top of the page. We had been hosted on what’s called a “shared server” — a server that contained multiple web sites. But, thanks to readers like you, we had experienced growing pains on that server.
During peak hours, it just was not possible for the server to deliver thousands of requests per minute. Over the past month, our underpowered little server delivered over 8 million pages to tens of thousands of people. That, quite frankly, is a huge number of views for a local website and was almost technically impossible for us to pull off with our old server setup. In fact, a small number of our readers would, on rare occasions, receive an error message or notice that a page took a little longer than usual to load.
Friday evening, we moved to our very own, brand-new dedicated server. We are the only company on what is, in simple terms, a mega-server. It’s loaded with all the bells and whistles. We did not change web hosts; our company has been with same web host for 13 years. The web server is connected to eight different major Internet backbone providers with multiple GigE (up to 10,000Mbps) connections.
What does this mean for our readers? First, the end of error messages and slow load times. Second, it means will be able to offer more services and present the news to you in an improved fashion. The new and exciting changes won’t happen right away; there’s lots of behind the scenes work involved.
It also means we will now be able to accept more advertisers. We had to hold back a little bit before due to the technical limitations of the old server. (If you own or manage a business, we’d love to have you as an advertiser. Send us an email, and we’ll talk.)
You are reading NorthEscambia.com from the bottom server in the picture at the top of the page. It is located in a secure facility in the Northeastern United States along with servers for Reader’s Digest, Barack Obama, Yamaha and more high profile companies.
This, by the way, marks the return of our blog column. We’ll work on publishing the column on a more regular basis. The blog will present a variety of topics, from opinion based editorials, to news stories that perhaps we would otherwise never cover, to inside information behind the scenes of our stories. The column will be available on our front page and under the “Blog” tab on the top of each page.
We are looking for a name for the column. If you have any suggestions, please pass them along. And don’t forget to send us your news tips and photos to news@northescambia.com.
And, as always, we thank each one of you for reading NorthEscambia.com and being part of the NorthEscambia.com family. We appreciate you.
– William, NorthEscambia.com
*** Here’s an insider secret: We have also started a Facebook page. You can be among the first to join now at www.facebook.com/northescambia
Pictured top: The NorthEscambia.com web server is seen on the bottom. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.