BROOKINGS, S.D. — Bright colors, roasting turkey legs, jousting knights and belly-dancing women provide typical sights for a veritable trip back in time to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.



South Dakota Art Museum is sponsoring a day-trip with Brookings Radio to visit the oasis of medieval life on Sept. 20, with pre-registration and payment due Sept. 10.



A tour bus will take participants to the Festival for the Italian Carnivale themed-weekend, featuring a taste of Italy, Minnesota’s Bocce Ball Tournament, a spaghetti eating contest, mask fashion show and “Opera Idol.”



“The Museum strives to provide a variety of enrichment opportunities for people of all ages, interests and backgrounds,” said Lynn Verschoor, director of the Art Museum.



“Experiencing medieval culture, wares and art through re-enactment is an exciting way to discover artistic creation from another era,” she explained.



Along with the themed weekend, regular attractions of the Renaissance Festival such as jousting, stage acts and unique handcrafted wares of the marketplace are always entertaining.



The cost of the trip is $72 for SDAM members or South Dakota State University students, and $90 for non-SDAM members, which covers bus and admission fee.



For more information and to pre-register, call the Art Museum at 605.688.5423 or toll free at 866.805.7590, or go online to www.southdakotartmuseum.com.

BROOKINGS, S.D. — Trumpeter Michael Helgeson, a South Dakota State University music education major from Dawson, Minn., will perform his senior recital in the Peterson Recital Hall in Lincoln Music Hall on Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m.



Helgeson has been active in the Pride of the Dakotas marching band, the SDSU Pep Band, the Jazz I band and Symphonic Band.



In addition to his performances at SDSU, Helgeson has also played trumpet for the Civic Symphony Orchestra all four of his undergraduate years.



The recital will consist of pieces by Alexander Arutuian, W.A. Mozart, Jean Hubeau and Harold Arlen.



Dr. John Walker will accompany Helgeson on the piano, and members of the Jazz I band will join him for the last piece.



The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the SDSU Music Department at 688-5187.

South Dakota State University researchers are growing an experimental oilseed crop called camelina to learn how it performs in South Dakota.

If it does well, it could become a niche crop for contract growers in the state in coming decades for either biodiesel or food uses.

SDSU Extension Oilseeds Specialist Kathy Grady said she and Extension West River Agronomist Thandiwe Nleya are conducting yield trials of 20 different experimental varieties of camelina at two South Dakota locations — an East River site at Brookings and West River test plots at Wall — for a Montana-based company called Sustainable Oils LLC.

“It’s good for South Dakota growers, too, to get some information on a potential new oilseed crop that may have some promise for South Dakota,” Grady said. “We are mainly measuring the yield of the varieties, but we will also collect data on days to flower and maturity, plant height, lodging, seed shatter, and seed moisture and test weight at harvest. We did some camelina testing for this company last year at Brookings only. The 12 varieties we tested in 2007 yielded an average of 896 pounds per acre of seed.”

Camelina yields have been much lower at West River sites in the past few years due to dry weather, Nleya said, with yields barely reaching 500 pounds of seed per acre.

Reportedly camelina is a crop that can be grown on marginal land and requires low inputs, Grady noted.

“It has low fertility needs, and doesn’t appear to have much need for herbicides or insecticides. It doesn’t have many known insect pests and it’s a crop that is a good competitor with weeds.”

Because the seed is very small, it’s sufficient to sow three to five pounds to the acre. It’s also a crop that can be planted very early in the year.

“It’s very frost-tolerant. You almost can’t plant it too early,” Grady said. “Camelina sativa is an oilseed crop in the Brassica family, the same family as mustard and canola. It is also called gold-of-pleasure and false flax. Camelina is currently being grown commercially on a limited basis, mainly in Montana, for biodiesel. It reportedly requires low inputs of water, fertilizer, and pesticides, making it a low-cost feedstock for biodiesel. Camelina is much higher in oil content than soybeans — about 40 percent of the seed is oil, compared to about 20 percent for soybeans. Camelina oil is also relatively high in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, which makes it a good cooking oil.”

Though not quite as high as flax in healthful linolenic acid, it has other factors that make it more stable than flax oil and less prone to oxidize — factors that could give it a future in the kitchen.

Learn more about Sustainable Oils LLC. at its Web site, http://www.susoils.com.

 

BROOKINGS, S.D. — The second performing arts concert of the SDSU Woodbine Productions concert series will bring Grammy award-winning artist, Mark O’Connor, “arguably the finest, fastest fiddle player in the country,” to Larson Concert Hall in the Performing Arts Center, Sunday, Sept. 28 at 2:30 p.m.



“I cannot say enough about the musicianship of Mark O’Connor,” said SDSU Music Department head David Reynolds.



“I know of no one else who will play with Yo Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall on Friday and then be heard on the stage of the Grand Ol’ Opry the very next evening.



“His hands move like lightning.



“He performs earthy, down-home melodies that bring tears to your eyes, then follows them with what has been described as ‘knock ‘em dead, brown dirt whine of a Texas fiddle,’” Reynolds enthusiastically concluded.



The 47-year old New York City violinist’s compositions have been performed by the likes of professional musicians Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, Sharon Ibsin and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Dance troupes also stage and choreograph his expressive American music.



In 2007, O’Connor received commissions from 15 symphony orchestras. He has appeared in concert at the White House, the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games, on CBS Sunday Morning, PBS Great Performances and Kennedy Center Honors concerts.



After a 10-year hiatus, O’Connor is again touring in solo recital. The greatly anticipated revival features his six caprices — short, free-form, works — among other repertoire.



Woodbine Productions, a performing arts series affiliated with the SDSU Foundation, plans to bring two, world-class musical productions to Brookings each year. Another top-name performer is scheduled to play the Woodbine series in April.



Tickets are available through the SDSU Music Department in Lincoln Music Center, the Tomkins Alumni Center or the Information Exchange in the Union. General admission seats are $25 and tickets are available to SDSU students with ID for $5.



Because of generous, anonymous support, all proceeds from ticket sales go directly to support music scholarships at South Dakota State University.



Information is available from the music department at 605-688-5187.

BROOKINGS, S.D. — South Dakota State University President David Chicoine and five faculty and staff members have been invited to present at the third annual South Dakota Biotechnology Summit in Sioux Falls, Wednesday, Sept. 10.



The summit is open to the general public and will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Ramkota Inn Exhibit Hall in Sioux Falls. This year’s theme is “Investing in Biotechnology for Life, Food and Energy.”



President Chicoine is the plenary speaker giving an overview of SDSU’s future research and development plans.



Other Brookings scheduled presenters include a representative from BIOSPACE; Chris Mateo of Rural Technologies, Inc.; David Francis of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Vaccinology; William Gibbons of the 2010 Center for Bio-Processing & Research Development; and Denny Otsuga, SDSU’s director of technology transfer. They each will speak on subjects from bio-energy to intellectual property.



“SDSU’s place in biotechnology spans agricultural biotechnology, medical biotechnology through our veterinary science program and industrial biotechnology,” said Kevin Kephart, SDSU’s vice president for research and advisor to the South Dakota Biotech Association board of directors.



“SDSU’s very involved in biotechnology, particularly going from the agricultural production of switchgrass and corn to its conversion into biofuels,” Kephart said.



Biotechnology typically involves genetic manipulation of living organisms or their components to produce useful, usually commercial, products.



Three years ago, SDSU was one of the state Biotech Association’s founders and, according to Kephart, plans to continue to take an active role in future summits and activities.



“It is no secret that our educational institutions like SDSU produce the next generation of highly trained and skilled workers,” commented Biotech Association executive director Jeremy Freking.



“Our association wants to help create new opportunities for them right here in South Dakota by keeping our number one asset: our people,” Freking concluded.



The annual summit does that by gathering industry representatives, educators, businesspeople, legislators and the general public every year to share ideas, listen to plans and simply interact with one another to increase South Dakota’s visibility in biotechnology.



“The South Dakota Biotech Association wants to be the bridge between private sector biotechnology companies, our state research institutions and state government bioscience initiatives,” explained Freking.



“By gathering everyone together, we can plant the seeds of future opportunities and growth for South Dakota.”



More information on the S.D. Biotech Association and an early registration form for the summit are available at www.sdbio.org.