Iowa State University Extension Farm Manager Alexis Stevens says that a favorite program will be held at the Guthrie County Extension office next month.

She mentions that Annie’s Project is a program that helps to teach women about the different aspects of agriculture and farm life. Stevens tells Raccoon Valley Radio that this year is a special one for the program because it’s been taught for 20 years now, and gives some insight into the history of the program.

“So Annie’s Project was started in Illinois by an Extension worker at the University of Illinois. Her mom was actually the original Annie. And her mom, Annie, in the 1940’s started keeping really good records of the farm and trying to make the farm profitable. And what she realized was that it would be better to send her husband into town to get a job in town, and she would take care of the farm. But what she found was that there was really no support network for women in agriculture in the 40’s. As you can imagine, she was alone doing this.”

Ruth Hamlin was the woman who started the project named after her mother, and she decided to start the project as a way to honor Annie and pass down what she had learned to other women, and educate them in those areas. Stevens advises that there is limited availability for this round of Annie’s Project, only 25 seats, so she encourages interested women to sign up while they can. She adds that if there are some that can’t attend this time, anyone can ask their local extension about holding another set of classes for the project.