Magic Moments Newsletter: February 2020

Feb 1, 2020

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Celebrating agriculture in everyday moments

February 2020

TN Magic Moments Podcast Moves to Weekly
Based on feedback from our listeners, we are making some exciting changes. This will be our last monthly episode. Beginning this fall, we’re switching to a new weekly, seasonal release.

Mackenzie Colt: Hee Haw, Chocolate, and a Different Kind of Cornfield
Married at fifteen and a teenage mom, Mackenzie Colt poured over cookbooks while her husband worked. Creating in the kitchen was a hobby, but singing on the stage would soon become a career. At seventeen she started performing in lounges and not long after found herself on TV as a Hee Haw Honey. Still ... the kitchen was calling. Thirty-six years later Colts Chocolates is a Nashville treasure with customers like Dolly Parton, Adam Sandler, Robert Redford, Garth Brooks, Ethel Kennedy, Oprah, and even former presidents. Samantha Jean sits down with Mackenzie to talk about music, entrepreneurship, and how there's magic in the kitchen.

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Tennessee’s Adopt-A-Highway Program Turns Thirty

For thirty years, the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) Adopt-A-Highway program has been keeping Tennessee roadsides clean and beautiful while reducing maintenance costs across the state. Adopt-A-Highway is a free program that encourages volunteers to "adopt" and clean up a two-mile stretch of any local state highway.

Trade Dispute Effects on Tennessee Agriculture Outlined in Yearly Report to Governor

Despite another year of international trade conflicts, research from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture outlines the continued economic strength that the agri-forestry industrial complex provides to the state of Tennessee. Detailed analyses from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics are included in the 2020 volume of An Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee.

Lewis County Quarantined for Emerald Ash Borer

Another Tennessee county has been quarantined for Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) after detection of the forest-devastating insect. Lewis County joins sixty-two other counties under a state and federal EAB quarantine. The quarantine restricts the movement of firewood, ash nursery stock, ash timber, and other material that can spread EAB.

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February Events in Tennessee

•	Feb. 4: Middle Tennessee Grain Conference
•	Feb. 6: West Tennessee Grain and Soybean Producers Conference
•	Feb. 9: Magnolia Avenue Makers Market
•	Feb. 10: Tennessee Wine and Grape BoardMeeting
•	Feb. 13-14: Workshops: Considerations for Growing and Marketing Wine Grapes in Tennessee
•	Feb. 27-29: Nashville Wine Pairings
•	Feb. 29: Black History Month: Memorial Service

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