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Stanley Wise Jr., has been working with the MSU Extension Service for 23 years. He has severed three counties with various positions in MSUES including 4-H Agent and County Agriculture Agent. He is past president of the MS Association of County Agriculture Agents and received that organizations Distinguished Service Award in 2003. He currently serves as County Extension Director in Union County and lives on the family farm in Pontotoc County where he was raised. The small 80 acre farm was purchased by his grandfather in 1926. Stanley is responsible for the direction of educational programs in Agriculture & Natural Resources and Enterprise & Community Resource Development. He is coordinator of the Union County Master Gardener Program and is responsible for coordinating activities at the Union County Fair and Livestock Show which has a yearly attendance of over 15,000. He organized the Union County Farmers Market in 2004. Stanley has worked with landowners, farmers, market gardeners and home owners to help them improve their agriculture and horticulture interests. He organizes and facilitates educational programs to help people become better managers of their agriculture and horticulture resources. He teaches classes on gardening, market farming and agritourism on the local and state-wide level. In his “spare” time, Stanley manages Wise Family Farm, working with his brothers, sisters and kin folk to grow and sell tomatoes, sweet corn, purple hull peas, watermelons, corn, soybeans and hay on a small scale. Wise Family Farm also has an agritourism enterprise in October of each year, where they have a corn maze and pumpkin patch. They also plant plots of many Mississippi grown crops to educate students, families and other groups on the importance of Agriculture. Stanley helped organize the MS Agritourism Association in 2006 and is currently serving as President. Stanley is an innovator and has developed growing techniques through experimentation on his own farm. One such innovation is growing tomatoes in bales of hay. He began this experiment in 2003. This method of gardening lead to his publishing a local information sheet called “No Stoop Gardening” and co-authoring an extension publication called “Growing in the Bale”. Growing tomatoes in hay bales has spread throughout Mississippi and the U.S. Stanley is a believer in “leaving the tiller in the shed.” He loves no-till farming. In 2010, Wise Family Farm received an NRCS grant to build a High-Tunnel where Stanley grew tomatoes using the hay bale method without ever disturbing the soil. This helps to retain soil structure, biological processes, conserves water and nutrients, and negates soil loss. He also promotes using other no-till methods for backyard gardens and small scale horticulture production. Stanley likes to refer to himself as an Educated Tractor Driver and Philosopher of the No-Tellin. No tellin what might come out of his mouth. |
Kevin is actively involved in the floral
industry and currently serves as a board member of the Mississippi Florists’
Association and the Southern Chapter of AIFD, Vice President of the Mississippi
Teleflora Unit, member of the Tennessee State Florist Association and a member
of the Society of American Florists. Kevin
was inducted into the American Institute of Floral Designers in 2011 and is one
of fifteen floral artists in the state of Mississippi to be an Accredited AIFD
member. He has participated in design
shows, workshops, and competitions all over the United States and currently
serves on the design team for Fiesta Parade Floats, creating beautiful entries for
the Tournament of Rose Parade. Kevin’s
dedication and love for floral design drives him to continue the learning
process, share his knowledge, creativity, and enthusiasm with others. Kevin loves to share his passion of the Floral
Arts at every opportunity in hopes of making the public more appreciative of its
beauty and the fragrance it provides. Kevin’s love and interest of nature’s
botanicals began at childhood from helping his parents and grandmothers in
their flower beds and vegetable gardens. “The purpose and function that God created for
each plant has always just amazed me. I
love to observe the flowers and vegetables in the garden as they mature though
out the summer and the bounty that they produce during harvest. I will have to say, I’ve learned many valuable
life lessons in our hot Mississippi garden as a child that have followed me
though out my life. Everything in li |
