Posts Tagged “feature”
Florida tropical fruit shipments are expected to remain good this fall, despite extreme weather of combined heat, humidity and storms earlier in the year.
Brooks Tropicals Inc. of Homestead FL reports its passion fruit and other items are looking great. The company will be have peak loadings of avocados during the fall and early winter.
J& C Tropicals of Miami notes between January and May both Florida and Central America experienced a major drought, and the summer brought heavy rains and high temperatures. This adversely affected dragon fruit and yucca. The company also ships malanga blanca, star fruit and calabaza.
A big thank you to those who are serving and have served our nation to defend our freedom and way of life! And to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, I salute you.
I recently visited the National Cemetery in Ft. Gibson, OK paying respects to those who have served our country, including my cousin Martin L. Johnson and his wife Irene Johnson. Irene passed away earlier this year and was such a wonderful person, who served in the Marines where she met my cousin.
As for Martin L. he served combat duty in 3 wars — World War II, Korea and Vietnam. They met in Honolulu and 2 weeks later were married. The marriage lasted 64 years until his passing in 2015 and they were as devoted to each other as any couple I have ever known.
My God Bless our veterans and this great nation on this Veteran’s Day.
Heavy rains followed by freezing cold weather created the perfect storm during the growing and harvest season in the Red River Valley. As a result, fresh potato shipments from North Dakota and Minnesota could be slashed by more than 50 percent.
With the close of October , the Red River Valley potato harvest was basically shot down.
The Northern Plain Potato Growers Association in East Grand Forks, MN reports there were several days of freezing temperatures, probably ruining in potatoes left in the fields.. Industry observers are estimating shipments may down down by 45 to 55 percent. Additionally shipments could be over sometime in February, weeks ahead of a more normal season.
Shippers are expected to take care of their long-standing customers first, Some packing sheds are operating at partial capacity and running only a few days a week.
The Red River Valley accounted for about 25 percent of the U.S. red potato shipments last season.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention affirms that children who eat healthy foods at school learn better lifelong eating habits and are more prepared to learn. Since most children spend close to six hours a day and consume as much as half of their daily calories at school, parents want to make sure they’re packing the right stuff to keep them in optimal learning mode.
A healthy lunch + healthy snacks = healthy learning. So whether the little one is heading off to school for the first time or one is going off to college, they will need a nutritious lunch, as well as some healthy snacks to fuel their day and stimulate neural activity.
Start with a nutritious lunch. Crispy Fruit Freeze-dried snacks are the perfect complement to any healthy lunch. Parents who will be packing their kids’ lunches should check out the sixth annual Power Your Lunchbox campaign from Produce for Kids. This campaign has been growing exponentially since its inception with more parents making the promise to pack a healthier lunch for their kids
“We are proud to be one of the founding sponsors of this wonderful campaign that promotes packing healthier school lunches, which aligns perfectly with our mission of using food as a force for good,” said Angela Liu, Crispy Green founder and chief executive officer.
Packing along real fruit that snacks like a chip to school or any other extra-curricular activity will make it easy for the kids to stay away from other, less healthy snacks.
By T&G Global
The Envy™ apple is poised to ship sweetness, orchard fresh crispness and delightful satisfying crunch, 365 days a year.
Envy™, the New Zealand-born varietal with year-round production in Washington, Chile, Europe and New Zealand, is set to increase its 2019/2020 domestic conventional volume by nearly 40 percent versus last year, with organics growing by more than 50 percent.
With considerable year-on-year production spikes forecast through 2025, ultimately harvesting 150 percent more fruit than this coming season, Envy™ is elevating to a mainstream premium status.
About T&G Global: New Zealand-based T&G Global works with growers around the world to produce, sell and deliver the highest-quality fruit. T&G is a leader in the premium apple segment with its Envy™ and Jazz™ branded varieties.
About Envy™: Envy™ is a trademarked brand that refers to the Scilate apple variety. It was developed in New Zealand by Plant and Food Research and was patented in 2009 – the same year T&G, which owns the Envy™ trademark, began distributing in the U.S. via its marketing partner Oppy.
The Little Potato Co. commissioned a survey that has found 55 percent of Americans rank potatoes as their favorite comfort food. ‘
Spuds outranked pizza (21 percent), macaroni and cheese (15 percent) and pasta (9 percent), according to a news release.
Another finding from the survey was one in four millennials would give up cheeseburgers if forced to choose between them and potatoes.
Favorite ways to eat potatoes include mashed (30 percent), as French fries (23 percent) and baked (22 percent), per the release. Among younger generations, the preference is French fries (32 ;percent), while older generations listed mashed potatoes as their favorite (35 percent).
The survey, which polled more than 1,000 people, found that nearly half of Americans eat potatoes a few times a week, with dinner as the most popular occasion (67 percent). The popularity of potatoes expands every holiday season, when more people (75 ;percent) eat potatoes than any other time of year.
Good volume citrus shipments are expected this season from California and Texas, but the big news could be this may be the year of a turn around for Florida, which has been clobbered in recent years by citrus greening and hurricanes.
Florida citrus shipments may be up a little this year, and that may be a big deal.
The first recently released forecast by the USDA shows a moderate increase in Florida citrus shipments during the 2019-20 season.
The USDA’s first estimate for 2019-20 Florida orange loadings is 74 million boxes, up 3.4 percent from last season. The agency projected Florida grapefruit volume at 4.6 million boxes for the 2019-20 season, up 2 percent from the previous crop. Florida’s combined tangerine and mandarin crop is forecast at 1.05 million boxes, 6 percent higher than a year ago.
“This incremental increase is good news for the industry as we continue to recover from Hurricane Irma and the devastating effects of citrus greening,” Michael Sparks, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said in a news release. “We believe that this number — if it holds throughout the year — will strike a nice balance of getting the processors the oranges they need while firming up prices to the Florida citrus grower.”
Sparks said growers are slowing building output after declines caused by citrus greening disease pressures.
“We are not out of the woods but we are making gains,” Sparks said in the release.
The USDA issues its first estimate in October of each year and revises it monthly during the harvest until the end of the season in July.
“This reflects what we’ve been hearing from growers,” Shannon Shepp, executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus, said in a release. “Florida Citrus is here to stay.”
That sentiment was echoed by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
“Today’s forecast reflects the resilience of Florida’s citrus growers, dedication to the citrus industry, and commitment to innovation in the face of challenges,” Fried said in the release. “Citrus is Florida’s signature crop, and we’re committed to supporting our citrus producers with new research, technology, and techniques to fight the spread of citrus greening.”
California, Texas Shipments
In California, navel orange shipments are predicted to be at 47 million boxes, down 6 percent from last season’s final estimate.
The California valencia orange forecast is 9 million boxes, unchanged from last season. Texas orange Volume is forecast at 2.70 million boxes, up 8 percent from a year ago.
Meanwhile, the combined tangerine and mandarin forecast for California is 23 million boxes, down 12 percent from last season.
Grapefruit loadings in California is forecast at 4.2 million boxes, up a whopping 32 percent compared to last season.
Texas grapefruit shipments are projected at 5.7 million boxes, down 7 percent from last year.
Lemon volume in 2019-20 is forecast at 20 million boxes in California, 12 percent less than last season. Arizona lemon output is pegged at 1.4 million boxes, 4 percent higher than last season.
Wisconsin cranberry shipments are the largest in the world, and peak loadings are now occurring as Thanksgiving (November 28th) will be here soon.
DuBay Cranberry Company of Junction City, WI points out the Badger State has been the nation’s leading cranberry producer for the past 26 years. The company works with about 250 farmers throughout 20 counties in the state.
Last season the Wisconsin cranberry production totaled over 5.5 million barrels, equaling about 20,600 acres. Farmers believe this year will be about the same.
Other states producing cranberries are Massachusetts, Washington and New Jersey.
DURHAM, N.H. – Pumpkins are synonymous with Halloween. At the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire, researchers have ensured that pumpkin lovers have plenty of variety to choose from, including the popular white pumpkins, when decorating for this spookiest holiday of the year.
For more than 80 years, UNH has made a substantial contribution to Halloween and autumn because of its breeding of new and often unique varieties of pumpkins. Currently under the direction of Brent Loy, professor emeritus and researcher with the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, of the 150 or so pumpkin varieties available from Northeast seed companies, more than 30 hybrid pumpkin varieties contain either one or two parental lines from UNH pumpkin breeding.
Loy’s experiment station-funded work, which has largely taken place at the experiment station’s Kingman Research Farm, Woodman Horticultural Research Farm and Macfarlane Research Greenhouses, has resulted in more than 80 new varieties of cucurbits — squash, pumpkins, gourds, and melons — sold in seed catalogs throughout the world. Along with cucurbit breeding introduced by the late Dr. Yeager in 1940, this breeding research represents the longest continuous squash and pumpkin breeding program in North America.
According to UNHInnovation, UNH has executed more than 50 exclusive licenses for inbreds and hybrids developed by Brent. Throughout his career at UNH, more than 200 hybrids and inbreds have been licensed or utilized in trial and germplasm agreements. Royalties generated by this portfolio continue to increase each year, including an expected 10 percent increase from last year. Royalties have generated more than $2 million for the university since commercialization began of these varieties.
Recently, UNH has concentrated on developing different sizes of white pumpkins, and pumpkins with unique pigmentation such as yellow and tan. Moonshine was the first white pumpkin released from UNH, a medium-size pumpkin with a dark handle. Other white pumpkins containing a UNH breeding line are Blanco and Snowball, developed respectively by Seneca Vegetable Research and Hybrid Seed of New Zealand. Six additional white hybrid varieties, representing different size classes, have been released to Northeast seed companies for production and sale. All new hybrids have intermediate resistance to powdery mildew disease.
In the yellow class of pumpkin, UNH has developed Owl’s Eye, marketed by High Mowing Organic Seeds, and Sunlight and Mellow Yellow, both produced by Hybrid Seed. “Sunlight is one of my favorites because of its high productivity, good tolerance to powdery mildew, and attractiveness for sales when marketed with white pumpkins. It is excellent for face painting,” Loy said.
“In the standard orange class of pumpkin, there are a lot of varieties from which to choose, but the key is finding pumpkin varieties that have consistently good handles,” Loy said, explaining that the handles of many varieties fall down in this category, especially when growing conditions are challenging.
Secretariat, a relatively new variety containing UNH breeding, has a very robust stem and an appealing, slightly flattened shape. And an older variety, Racer, which has a UNH inbred line, still is popular the 15 to 20-pound class, despite lacking resistance to powdery mildew.
This year saw two new UNH-developed varieties, Carbonado Gold (Rupp Seeds) and Renegade (Johnny’s Selected Seeds), hit the market. “Both look like real winners for the 15 to 20-pound pumpkin class. These two have nice ribbing, outstanding color, and most importantly, handles that resist shrinkage and breakage after harvest. Renegade has a slightly more robust handle than Carbonado Gold; whereas, the latter variety has earlier maturity,” Loy said.
Two years ago, Rupp Seeds introduced Bisbee Gold, another variety containing a UNH breeding line. In the 8 to 10-pound class, this pumpkin is an excellent size for younger children to carve. This variety also has superb color, a very robust handle, and is extremely productive. With the exception of Racer, all the above-mentioned varieties have intermediate resistance to powdery mildew.
“There does not seem to be an end to the new stream of varieties entering the market,” Loy said.
Founded in 1887, the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture is UNH’s original research center and an elemental component of New Hampshire’s land-grant university heritage and mission. We steward federal and state funding, including support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to provide unbiased and objective research concerning diverse aspects of sustainable agriculture and foods, aquaculture, forest management, and related wildlife, natural resources and rural community topics. We maintain the Woodman and Kingman agronomy and horticultural research farms, the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses, the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, and the Organic Dairy Research Farm. Additional properties also provide forage, forests and woodlands in direct support to research, teaching, and outreach.
The University of New Hampshire is a flagship research university that inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top ranked programs in business, engineering, law, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. UNH’s research portfolio includes partnerships with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, receiving more than $100 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.
California pomegranate shipments are expected to be off some from a year ago, but volume from Trinity Fruit Sales Co. of Fresno, CA is forecast to be up about 5 percent due to new plantings.
Harvest started in early September with the company’s proprietary Aco variety, which originated in Israel. The company cites this variety as better than other early varieties such as foothill.
The company also has expanded its production lines this season. In addition to fresh pomegranates, Trinity Fruit has year around shipments of fresh, dried and frozen arils.
“It’s been very successful for us,” he said.
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