Sept. 24, 2007                                                                       Contact: Pat Frantz Cercone

For immediate release                                                         (814) 362-7505

MASTER GARDNER, PROPONENT OF BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE

TO SPEAK AT PITT-BRADFORD

            BRADFORD, Pa. – Master gardener Larry Rotheraine, who has been involved in biodynamic gardening for 30 years, will discuss his gardening methods at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

            Rotheraine’s talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Mukaiyama University Room in the Frame-Westerberg Commons.

            Rotheraine is a master gardener for Evergreen Elm in Bradford and has widely become known not only for the sizes of the vegetables that he grows using his biodynamic formula but also for the number of vegetables that are produced. One tomato plant, on average, will produce about 2,000 tomatoes.  In fact, since Rotheraine started using biodynamic preparations on the vegetables in the Evergreen Elm garden in 1993, the facility has received 298 blue ribbons at the McKean County Fair.

            According to Rotheraine, biodynamic agriculture is the environmental science of the heavens and earth combined. He said it utilizes the energies of the solar system and the earth.

            In addition to his work at Evergreen Elm, he is also the agronomist for Cummins Construction.

            Rotheraine’s talk is being sponsored by the Environmental Studies Club.