Nineteen 4-H horse club members will represent Somerset County at the New Jersey State 4-H Championship Horse Show, Aug. 21-23 at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown… Over 200 4-H members from throughout New Jersey will gather to compete in the English, Western, Dressage, Driving, Very Small Equine, Challenged Rider and Game Divisions… “The competing 4-H’ers are the best of the best from each county; they have earned the right to participate through county-level qualifying shows,” says Carol Ward, Somerset County 4-H Agent… The 4-H Youth Development Program is part of Rutgers, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station – Cooperative Extension.

The “Rutgers Scarlet,” a new strawberry bred to be grown in Jersey soil and eaten soon after picking, will be available to home gardeners at a South Brunswick open house Saturday… Organizers may impose a limit per customer if it looks like demand is outpacing supply and the gathering of normally well-behaved gardeners starts to behave like a crowd outside Wal-Mart on Black Friday… Also on display – and available for tasting – will be an even newer variety of strawberry that has been bred to bear fruit twice in one season. While New Jersey strawberries are typically harvested in late May though early June, this newest variety has been coaxed through the use of a type of plastic mulch to bear a second crop of fruit in August… “It tastes pretty good,” said Bill Hlubik, professor of Agricultural Science and an agriculture and resource management agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension.

Whatever happened to the famous Jersey tomato? Bred by Rutgers University and Campbell Soup Co. in the 1930s, it was a staple of every backyard garden. Intensely flavorful, it became synonymous with the Garden State… The imposters “look a lot better – but probably taste much worse,” said Tom Orton of Rutgers’ Department of Plant Biology and Pathology. “The visual appeal has gone up, but the culinary appeal has gone down.”… Through a twist a fate, Rutgers has recently been able to recreate the famous, original tomato, and will let people vote on which of final three variations of it should now wear the Jersey tomato crown… The original Rutgers tomato was a cross between a regular heirloom tomato popular at the turn of the century, and the “JTD” variety, named for John T. Dorrance, the chemist who invented condensed soup. And Campbell’s still had seed stock from those both two original “parents” of the 1934 tomato… Since 2010, Rutgers researchers have selected the best tomatoes from each subsequent generation for continued propogation. Some make the cut because of taste, others for insect-resistance, durability, visual appeal, or high yield.

The Rutgers Equine Science Center will be gaining more prominence with a series of three new special events to offer a broad spectrum of equestrian-oriented information, from life with the U.S. Equestrian Team to a business and legal slant on the horse industry and a lecture on the history of the horse… “The traditional role of the center is having the vision to identify issues of importance to horse owners and the horse industry,” said Karyn Malinowski, ESC’s executive director… Malinowski noted the forum is particularly appropriate for show managers, horse farm owners, breeders and horse owners. The date, she pointed out, is not only a holiday, but is even better because most professional barns are closed on Mondays, and there is no racing or showing that day.

There is hope on the horizon for the sweaty masses of New Jersey. It’s distant, but it’s there. The state is just going to have to endure another week of hot weather first… Until then, however, forecasters predict more unpleasantly hot conditions as a high pressure system remains parked to our south… “There’s going to be a couple of fronts that pass through, so there’s going to be subtle changes to humidity,” said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. “It’s not the prototypical, really powerful heat wave. But it is enough to put temperatures persistently five to 10 degrees above normal for the longest period of time we’ve seen in two summers.”

Snyder Farm Open House and Great Tomato Tasting at the Rutgers NJAES Snyder Research & Extension Farm is on Wednesday, Aug. 26. The event includes the very popular tasting of more than 60 heirloom and hybrid varieties of beefsteak, plum, cherry, an…