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Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County

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Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County

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CCE Suffolk is a land-grant nonprofit agency established in 1917, conducting research-based programs. (STEM)

Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is a non-profit community education agency established in 1917. We are affiliated with Cornell University as part of the national land grant university system started in 1862. We are educators, researchers, specialists and support personnel who are dedicated to making Suffolk County a desirable place to live and work. CCE-Suffolk's professional team helps preserve our county's vast heritage, protect our eco-systems, support families and provide our youth opportunities for community service and research-based education in science, technology, engineering and math.

11/05/2026

The best part of the holidays is gathering around the table with the people you love, and a few small choices can help everyone at that table feel their best.

Our diabetes educators recommend focusing on whole, plant-based foods and limiting processed foods and heavy casseroles. Building your plate this way lets you enjoy good food while keeping blood sugar and cholesterol in check.

Their bonus tip: drink more water and take a walk after your meal. Both can help lower blood sugar and keep you feeling satisfied.

This November, our educators are leading 30 nutrition and family sessions in libraries, schools and online, including Eat Smart Be Active and Food as Medicine. Many are virtual, so you can join from your kitchen table. Link in bio.

Save this for Thanksgiving, and share it with someone who’ll be at your table.

11/04/2026

If you have boxwoods, give them a closer look this week.

Box tree moth, a serious pest of boxwoods, was found on Long Island in mid-September, in southern Nassau County. It's already established in western New York and several other states, and it devastated boxwoods across Europe before arriving in North America. Boxwood is its only host, and nearly every variety is at risk.

It's the only caterpillar pest of boxwood most of us will ever see, and early damage happens deep inside the shrub, so it's easy to miss until the plant looks thin. Look for chewed leaves, small pellet droppings, webbing, and green-and-black caterpillars. (Browning leaves with no chewing point to a different problem.)

NYS Agriculture & Markets is surveying Nassau County right now to find out how far it has spread, and they're asking the public to report sightings. Every report helps. Link in bio to report, plus management options from Cornell's NYS IPM program.

The good news: researchers are working on a promising biological control that targets box tree moth specifically.

10/29/2026

How do you bring bay scallops back? You start by understanding what’s happening beneath the surface.

CCE Suffolk’s Marine Program just published a 30-year study on bay scallops in the Peconic Bays, tracking nearly 15,700 scallops across 18 sites from 1990 to 2019. It’s one of the most comprehensive looks at bay scallop biology ever conducted on Long Island.

One of the biggest discoveries: about one in five bay scallops are born in the fall rather than the expected spring and summer. These fall-born scallops play a critical role: they act as a safety net for the population. If a bad algae season or environmental event wipes out one group, the fall-born scallops help keep the numbers from collapsing entirely.

But under current harvest rules, many of these fall-born scallops grow large enough to be legally taken before they’ve had a chance to produce the next generation. The study suggests that adjusting how we manage the harvest, looking at more than just size, could make a real difference in helping the population recover.

Thirty years of research gives us something we didn’t have before: answers. And by working collaboratively with local baymen, we can use those answers to restore the health of our bays and the tradition the East End was built on.

Read the full study: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.cce.cornell.edu/attachments/78564/2026.Tettelbach_et_al.Northeastern_Naturalist.pdf?1793043818

10/27/2026

Some of the most important things a young person can learn don’t happen in a classroom. They happen by doing.

4-H is built on four things every young person needs to thrive: belonging: feeling connected to a community that cares about them. Mastery: building real skills and the confidence that comes from solving problems firsthand. Independence: learning to think for themselves and take responsibility. And generosity: discovering that their efforts to help others have meaning.

Right now at the Suffolk County Farm, our Learning Livestock program has youth in grades 6–9 working hands-on with poultry, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, llamas, and horses across five sessions, learning animal behavior, health, grooming, and safe handling from experienced educators. No previous experience required.

It’s just one of the many ways 4-H connects young people to agriculture, leadership, and real-world skills they can’t get anywhere else. From archery to livestock shows, summer camps to community service, 4-H meets kids where their curiosity is and gives them a place to grow.

Interested in what 4-H can offer your child? Learn more at ccesuffolk.org.

10/22/2026

Every vintage on the East End tells a different story. This year’s was written in rain.

Suffolk County vineyards received roughly 25 inches of rainfall between July and September (much of it in heavy downpours) and the usual stretch of dry weather never arrived. An early April frost threatened buds. Downy mildew and cluster rot pressured canopies all season. And vineyard crews never stopped: hedging, leafing, culling, and managing through every wet event.

And yet, beautiful fruit is making it to the crush pad. Sauvignon Blanc came in clean with good flavors. Albariño is showing wonderful character and promise. Sandy loam soils did their job draining the rain, not a puddle to be found. And across the region, w**emakers are finding that despite modest sugar levels, flavor development and complexity are there.

As one w**emaker put it: this is a vintage when experience matters. And Long Island has it.

The strength of the Long Island w**e industry isn’t that every season is easy. It’s that the vineyard managers and w**emakers who work this land approach each one with the kind of diligence, strategy, and care that turns a difficult year into something worth tasting. Vintage after vintage, they meet the challenge, and the result is world-class w**e from a place that earns every bottle.

CCE Suffolk’s viticulture team works alongside these growers through every season, from variety research at Cornell University’s LIHREC to real-time field guidance when conditions get tough. Support your local w**eries this fall. They’ve earned it.

10/20/2026

Fall is peak season at the Suffolk County Farm & Education Center.

Right now, school field trips are filling every weekday. 4-H members are wrapping up their fall programming. Vet tech students are training alongside our animals. Families are visiting on weekends. And programs like Learning Livestock, Sunset Wagon Rides, and the Hometown Heroes veteran series are running throughout the month.

This is the farm as a living, breathing classroom, where kids meet farm animals for the first time, where students build real-world skills, where veterans find community, and where families come together in a place that feels a little different from everywhere else.

This Saturday, join us for an afternoon of trick-or-treating on the farm: costumes, farm animals, and a chance to gather with family and friends in one of the most special settings on Long Island. It’s less about the candy and more about the kind of afternoon you remember.

Register: eventcreate.com/e/halloween-at-the-farm-copy-2026

10/15/2026

Think farming has a season? On Long Island, it never stops.

Right now, across the East End, cover crops are going into the ground: rye, clover, radishes, and other species that won’t be sold at a farmstand but are essential to what grows there next year.

Cover crops protect soil from erosion, suppress weeds, improve soil structure, and add nutrients back into the ground naturally. It’s one of the most important things a farmer does all year, and most people never see it happen.

CCE Suffolk’s Agricultural Stewardship team researches and promotes cover cropping practices that keep Suffolk County’s farmland healthy and productive, season after season.

The next time you bite into a North Fork tomato or pick apples on the East End, know that the soil those crops grew in was cared for long after the last harvest, and long before the next one.

10/14/2026

Mark your calendar: November 1.

That's when applications open for the CCE Suffolk Master Gardener Class of 2027, and this one is special. 2027 marks the 50th anniversary of the Master Gardener program in Suffolk County, and we're looking for 50 participants to help us celebrate under the theme Growing Together.

For half a century, Master Gardeners have been the heart and soul of community horticulture education on Long Island. They're neighbors teaching neighbors about best gardening practices: active at public sites, schools, and community gardens from Huntington to East Hampton, Bay Shore to Greenport. They share what they know because they love to garden and believe everyone else should have the chance to learn.

To become a Master Gardener, you complete a training course (a mix of in-person sessions and online learning) and volunteer 125 hours within two years. If you enjoy gardening, have a desire to share your skills, and can volunteer your time, this program was made for you!

Applications open November 1. Stay tuned for the link.

10/08/2026

Few things are more deeply tied to the East End's maritime heritage than the bay scallop. For generations, these waters have sustained a tradition of shellfishing that's as much a part of this community's identity as the farmstands and vineyards on shore.

CCE Suffolk's marine team has been working for years to support the resurgence of scallop populations, from nursery grow-out programs to habitat restoration to the water quality monitoring that keeps these ecosystems healthy enough to sustain a harvest. Right now, our researchers are in the water, diving and collecting data that will help us understand how this season's restoration efforts are taking hold.

It's painstaking, year-round work, and it's driven by the belief that this tradition is worth protecting for the next generation.

Want to support the effort? Donate to CCE Suffolk's Marine Program by visiting the link in our bio and help us continue this essential work. And stay tuned, we'll be sharing this season's restoration notes soon.

10/06/2026

The lanternflies you saw all summer are laying eggs right now, and what you do this fall shapes next spring.

Spotted Lanternfly is a destructive invasive pest now found across Long Island, and it's a serious threat to the vineyards, orchards, and landscapes that make Suffolk County what it is. CCE Suffolk's Ag team is helping homeowners, farmers, and landscape professionals manage it. From now through spring, look for egg masses on smooth surfaces: trees, rocks, cars, patio furniture, and firewood. They look like a smear of dried mud. Scrape them into a bag with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer, seal it, and throw it away.

Every egg mass removed means fewer lanternflies next year.

Questions? Call CCE Suffolk: 631-727-4126

Address

423 Griffing Avenue, Suite 100
Riverhead, NY
11901

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+16317277850

Website

https://linktr.ee/ccesuffolk

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