The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Services have assigned separate government agencies to protect segments of the food supply.

If you have experienced a problem with a food product, contact the appropriate public health organization.

For the USDA to investigate a problem with meat, poultry or egg products, call 1-888-674-6854. You must have:

•The original container or packaging

•The foreign object found in the product

•Any uneaten portion of the food — refrigerate or freeze it

For help with restaurant food problems, contact your local city, county or state Department of Public Health.

 For all non-meat food products — like cereals, fish, produce, fruit juice, pastas and cheeses — call or write to the Food and Drug Administration, 850-942-8325 or 3116 Capital Circle NE, Suite 4, Tallahassee, FL.

Have the following information available:

•Name, address and phone number

•The product’s brand name, product name and manufacturer

•The size and package type

•Can or package codes and dates; these are not UPC bar codes

•Establishment number, or EST, usually found in the circle or shield near the "USDA passed and inspected" phrase

•The store’s name and location, and the date that you purchased the product.

You can complain to the store or the product's manufacturer if you don't choose to make a formal complaint to the USDA.

See a physician if you think you are ill.

If an injury or illness results from use of a meat or poultry product, tell the hotline staff about the symptoms, time of occurrence and name of attending health professional, if applicable.

Of course, if you sense there's a problem with any food product, don't consume it. "When in doubt, throw it out."

Source: Safe Food Handling Fact Sheets, United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service

Brenda Smith is with the Okaloosa County Extension office in Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EXTENSION CONNECTION: Reporting problems with a food product

Editor’s Note: We enjoy sharing stories about old North Okaloosa County from long-time residents turning more than 90 years old. Email news@crestviewbulletin.com if you or someone you know has a birthday and would like to share memories.  

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LAUREL HILL — When McDonald Campbell was born 99 years ago, Laurel Hill was the largest community in what is now Okaloosa County.

Campbell vividly recalls when Laurel Hill boasted two banks, a movie theater, a hotel and bustling stores such as Campbell Company, which relatives owned.However, she prefers the town's current, more laid back atmosphere.

"On the Fourth of July I did not hear a single firecracker, and that is certainly indicative that we've grown much quieter,” she said.

Birthday and independence

Campbell celebrated her 99th birthday Saturday with family and friends, including fellow retired educators, with some coming from Alabama and Tallahassee.

After several medical problems this past year, she said jokingly, "If 99 is worse than 98, I don't think I'll be here for 100."

Now recuperated, Campbell remains fiercely independent, recently "letting go" caregivers who sat with her around the clock when she last returned from rehabilitation.

"I just couldn't abide all those strangers in my house," she said. "They'd come in my room uninvited and then want to sit and talk for hours."

To placate relatives, she wears a medical emergency communicator and reluctantly gave up occasionally driving around town to keep an eye on things.

School and church

Campbell started her teaching career after graduating from now-defunct Palmer College in DeFuniak Springs.

"When I started in the fall of '35, the Depression — the Great Depression — was with us, and we teachers made $75 a month for eight months a year with a four-year degree," she said.

"We had heat and lights and that was good, but there was no money for field trips and that kind of thing. And we didn't have any resource officers and we didn't need them."

After teaching seventh through 11th grades, Campbell helped establish Laurel Hill School's library.

"I started at Laurel Hill and I ended at Laurel Hill. I was the librarian — no! I was a ‘media specialist,’ but I didn't care much about the media part of it," she said. "I liked being just a librarian."

Campbell is fascinated by evolving technology, but she said not all developments in education are as beneficial as they're touted to be.

"I know a woman who's taking courses online and she studies hard and she seems fairly intelligent, but … I think you need somebody there to explain things you don't understand. There's nobody there to teach you if you don't understand something.

"… There's no interaction with other students and taking part in extracurricular activities. All that, to me, is part of your education."

Church and home life

Campbell is Clerk Emeritus of the Session, Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church's governing body. She hosts its meetings and those of the Presbyterian Women community outreach group.

She's renowned among fellow congregants for bringing Bugles chips to church gatherings.

Also close to her heart is her lifelong home.

"I was born right here, in the front room, at 9 o'clock on a Monday morning," Campbell said, adding the house appears in tax records as early as 1908. Her family moved into it in 1914.

Campbell has beaten the nursing home at least three times — a source of pride — and said returning to the tidy white home motivated her, though others couldn’t relate.

“… Home is home. It has connotations they wouldn't understand,” she said. “When you've lived in one house all your life, you feel an attachment. It's part of you."

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Laurel Hill resident recalls 99 years of change; 'home is home'

CRESTVIEW — Heavy rainfall that descended on north Okaloosa County on Wednesday transformed one family’s backyard into a watering hole.

Showers on Ann Gregg’s backyard near Twin Hills Park accumulated enough water to float on in a raft.

“You know we have enough rain when you can go boating in the backyard,” she said, adding the 30-by-40-foot yard received pools about 3 feet deep in some spots.

The family made the best of a serious situation, Gregg said.

“It's been a real pain. The flooding has (come) up to my back porch on the right side. We had to rescue my lawnmower,” she said.

“My dog can't play ball because of the swamp land I have now. The bugs are worst. You walk in the backyard and ants climb your legs for safety.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Heavy rainfall means rafting for Crestview family

CRESTVIEW — Following a work-induced hiatus from the creative world, a prize-winning local artist is once more at his easel and letting his muse run free.

Daniel Reid, 18, who graduated from Crestview High School in June, had been working so many after-school hours at a local burger joint he barely had time for homework, let alone creating art.

His detailed drawings of animals and nature scenes were well received at area art events, including the annual Crestview High student art show — in which he'd won multiple ribbons — and festivals.

However, long hours flipping burgers and making fries kept him from his pens, inks and paints. Resigning from the fast-food world allowed Daniel to return to creating.

"Plus, he's catching up on a lot of that rest he missed," his mom, Latina Reid, said.

After dabbling in oil painting, Daniel has embraced the medium wholeheartedly and churned out a succession of recent works, including a triptych in an abstract style new for the artist.

A Mississippi patron, a co-worker of Daniel’s grandmother, commissioned the three-panel work.

"She likes traditional African painting, kind of like black tribal-style painting," Daniel said. "I did a tribal angel for her before so I know what she likes."

While the dancers were a departure from his usual style, the menacing gaze of an alligator's eye peering from murky gray waters typifies the natural subjects Daniel loves to capture in minute detail.

Painting in oils lets him execute it with his eye for detail, yet provides versatility to make slight revisions not possible once ink hits drawing paper.

"I like oils a lot better than acrylic," Daniel said. "It's a lot easier to work with."

Landing somewhere between the abstract of the dancers and the detail of the gator is his recent painting of a goose flapping its wings, in which Daniel played with a feathery, soft style.

"I'm not looking to do the same style in every painting … it gets old after a while, doing the same thing over and over again," Daniel said. "I try to change it up a little bit."

While Daniel's inspiration leads him to diverse source material — often donated back issues of National Geographic —real life is inclining him toward a career in the U.S. Coast Guard.

But first, there's a lot more to paint — and another summer job to find.

"I have to go to a job fair and get a new job, then I'll see what I have time for," Daniel said. "I have a lot of oils and turpentine left."

Contact News Bulletin Arts & Entertainment Editor Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview High School graduate takes up his paintbrushes again

North Okaloosa County’s recent wet conditions — including high humidity, heavy dews and frequent afternoon and evening rains — promote gray leaf spot, a common fungal disease of St. Augustine grass.

Individual spots or lesions first appear as brownish spots smaller than a pinhead. As they grow, they become circular and elongate lengthwise on the leaf. The spots turn brown to grayish in appearance. Numerous spots or lesions appear on an individual leaf. Heavily infected leaves begin to turn brown and wither, usually beginning at the blade’s tip.

Gray leaf spot can move rapidly during prolonged warm, wet periods. Overwatering or irrigating in the evening provides the prolonged period of wetness required for disease infection.

“Severity of the disease is enhanced by application of readily available nitrogen fertilizer and is proportional to the amount of nitrogen applied,” the Florida Lawn Handbook states.

Select fertilizers that are low in nitrogen or have slow-release nitrogen. Don’t overdo it in fertilizing your lawn, and do not apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer atop an already infected lawn. In addition, some lawn weed killers, such as atrazine, will increase grass’ susceptibility to gray leaf spot.

Irrigate during early morning hours to minimize the time the grass is wet. Water only as needed, and deeply.

Don’t irrigate when it is already wet from rain. With frequent rains, very little to no supplemental irrigation has been needed in most local lawns.

Avoid leaving your irrigation timer on after adequate rainfall. It’s best to operate your irrigation controller on manual so that you can monitor the lawn and provide irrigation during dry times.

You may need to use fungicide if the disease outbreak is severe. Look for products containing propiconazole, triadimefon or thiophanate-methy. Always follow the product label’s directions and precautions.

For more information on how to correctly water a Florida lawn, visit http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_Lawn_Watering.

For more information on maintaining a Florida lawn, contact your county's UF/IFAS Extension Office or visit http://hort.ufl.edu/yourfloridalawn.

Larry Williams is an agent at the Okaloosa County Extension office in Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EXTENSION CONNECTION: Rains promote St. Augustine grass fungus