Faces of Extenson: Craig Kahlke

I grew up on Long Island and graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 1991, I met my wife at Geneseo and she graduated in 1993. At that time, teaching jobs were scarce in New York, so we moved to South Texas on friends' advice. There, I found a job at the Texas A&M Kingsville Citrus Center as a Citrus Budwood Coordinator. I was impressed by their research supporting the local citrus industry.

We returned to New York in 2003, and I worked at Cornell in the School of Integrative Plant Sciences, running herbicide trials for commercial vegetable growers. It wasn't a great fit, so I moved to ecology and evolutionary biology with Dr. Sunny Power but still missed the extension component.

In 2007, I applied for two open positions in the Lake Ontario Fruit Program: Fruit Quality Management and Horticulture. I thought I could handle both roles and decided to apply.

One aspect I appreciated about the hiring process was the informal pre-interview day. I spent time with specialists like Debbie Breth and Allison DeMarie, visiting growers and learning about the role of an extension educator. This experience gave me valuable insights into the job and helped me prepare for the formal interview.

Every step of the way, I've relied on help and mentorship. As an extension educator, you often learn more from the industry than they do from you, especially in the first few years. It's okay to admit you don't know something and seek out the answer. For example, I learned to identify apples that won't store well by asking experienced colleagues. They taught me that firmness and background color are key indicators.

People like Debbie and Alison have been invaluable, sharing their extensive knowledge and experience. Debbie, for instance, would talk to growers for hours, sharing pesticide recommendations and other advice. Alison, being both a grower and an educator, provided practical insights that were incredibly valuable.

Professor Chris Watkins, who is a former CCE Director of Extension and one of the world's foremost experts on post-harvest apple storage, has been my mentor since 2007. He was supportive when I started in 2007. My family was in Lockport, and Chris often checked in on me. He emphasized the importance of reliable data before making recommendations. 

I hope some of the research I do can be a game changer for the industry. For example, we do a lot of work on the Honeycrisp apple, which is popular but difficult to grow. We're organizing a workshop to share what we've learned and help growers, storage people, and marketers improve their handling of Honeycrisp.

Another major focus for us is reducing bitter pit, a calcium disorder that causes pits on the fruit. Despite all the research over the last 150 years, we haven't fully solved it yet. However, if our work can reduce bitter pit by even 5% it would significantly benefit growers financially.

Chris Watkins has done remarkable work with controlled atmosphere storage, manipulating temperature and gas levels to extend the shelf life of various apple varieties. This kind of research can increase market availability and improve industry returns. Being involved in such impactful work is incredibly rewarding.

Whether it’s my team, or any of the other CCE teams, or extension educators working at work in counties across New York, our mission the is same – to provide New York communities with trustworthy, research-driven insights to enhance everyday life.
 

In a meeting about work-life balance last November, someone mentioned that I seem to unplug better than anyone they know. I was surprised because I didn't realize I came off that way. When I return from vacation, even a short one, I feel recharged. I rarely take long vacations due to my responsibilities and my kids' activities, but I make sure to fully disconnect during my time off. I leave my laptop.

Besides work, I enjoy hunting, which I started at 35, and have been doing for about 20 years now. I also love hiking, kayaking, and visiting new cities.

I'm also a NASCAR fan. Growing up on Long Island, we had a racetrack two blocks from my house, the world-famous Islip Speedway. My friends and I would go to the races on Saturday nights, get autographs from the drivers, and stay out late. It was a different time, and we had a lot of freedom that kids today might not experience.