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Fruit & Veg. Equipment .

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New Varieties. . . . . . . . B1

Melissa Piper Nelson

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Greenhouse • Nursery • Garden Center • Fruit & Vegetable • Farm Markets • Landscapers • Christmas

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TTalbott FarmsPage 4

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Organic Education Page 2

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Kiyokawa KiyokawaFamily Orchards Family OrchardsPaying attention to market trends keeps them growing

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44thh Worldd Agg Expoearnss ravee reviews

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Cattle to ChristmasTrees 0

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Researchers examineway to undercut dust

emissions Pasge 7

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Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Melissa Piper Nelson



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Happy HolidaysHappy Holidaysfrom

Country Folks GrowerCountry Folks Grower

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by Kelly GatesJames A. Clark was

one of the first fruitgrowers in the GrandValley area of Colorado.More than a century andsix generations later, theClark family is still pro-ducing fruit in the regionat a Palisade, CO, com-pany called Clark FamilyOrchards.

The company waspassed on to James L.Clark, a.k.a. “Larry,”who is retired today, butstill helps his son,Dennis, and Dennis’wife, Staci, by offeringvaluable advice andhelping with “light”chores during peak sea-son.

“Together, my dad andI took the 50 acres thathe and my mom hadacquired and expandedit to 100 acres of proper-ty — some leased andsome owned,” saidDennis. “Now, my wifeand I manage the busi-ness with help from ourkey employee, JackKissell.”

According to Dennis,all the orchard’s land islocated within a half mileradius. The proximitymakes it easy to tend tothe wide variety of fruitsand vegetables grownthere.

Most of the groundhad been used for fruitproduction prior to theClarks ownership.Consequently, Dennisand Larry were chargedwith the task of uproot-ing old trees, bushes andplants and replacingthem with the newervarieties they wanted togrow.

“It’s always challeng-ing to have to plant newtrees. We have to removethe old trees, dig up thestumps, reinvigorate thesoil and plant the follow-ing spring,” explainedDennis. “But, by doingthis in each of theorchards and fields, wewere able to diversify soour company can supplya large assortment offruits and vegetables.”

Clark Family Orchardscurrently raises cherries,apricots, peaches, pearsand plums. There is alsoa vegetable garden onsite to provide a balanceof various veggies forcustomers who purchasethe produce at theorchard’s retail stand, atarea farmer’s marketsand at grocery storesthroughout the regionand even in the Midwest.

For many years, theorchard ran a sorting,grading and packing linethat enabled its workersto use machinery duringharvesting. In recentyears however, thismethod has beenreplaced by a morelabor-intensive pickingprocess.

“Customers aredemanding a more highquality, more maturepeach, so we now pick byhand and pack intoboxes right in the fields,”said Dennis. “We thenbring the boxes back toour shed and re-inspect,check the weight, put

stickers on them and putthem in a coolerovernight before ship-ping the next morning.”

The turnaround frompicking to placement inthe produce departmentat a supermarket, at afarmer’s market or at thecompany’s onsite retailstand is two days or less,he added.

As the Clarks imple-mented this new pro-cessing routine, morecustomers fromthroughout the area

began relying on thegrower for some of thefreshest producearound. That, coupledwith the increased pres-ence of wineries inGrand Valley, hasenabled businesses likeClark Family Orchardsto establish themselvesas agri-tourism opera-tions.

“Now that there are alot of vine grapes, it hasincreased tourism to thevalley,” Dennis toldCountry Folks Grower.

“We invited the public toour orchards and offerwagon rides pulled bydraft horses. Our goal isto give customers what-ever they might want,whether it’s a tree ripepeach in the store, theopportunity to buy ourjust-picked produce at afarmer’s market or ahands-on experience onthe farm.”

In order to have every-thing ready for visitors,there is a lot of work todo around the farm from

one season to the next.This time of the year,Dennis, his father and astaff of eight employeesare busy pruning trees.

Around 20 people areneeded during harvestseason to help pick pro-duce, process, ship andrun the retail stand andfarmer’s market booths.

“Many years ago, ourpeak harvest seasononly lasted a few weeks,so we were extremelybusy trying to supply asmuch fruit and vegeta-bles as we could in ashort period,” saidDennis. “Today, we haveenough varieties ofpeaches alone to spreadout our work over threemonths, beginningaround July 1st andending in September.”

As the family orchardevolved from only a fewtypes of peaches — theAlberta peach being oneof the main crops in theearly years — to an arrayof offerings, the Clarkshave managed to staytrue to their roots asgenerational growerswho have farmed theland since the late1800s.

Yet another generationof Clarks could take overin the future. Accordingto Dennis, his daughterscould eventually takeover Clark FamilyOrchards. If they do,they will undoubtedlycontinue producingsome of the freshest, in-demand fruits grown inthe Grand Valley.

Clark Family Orchards in business for over a century

Dennis Clark (owner), Larry (Dennis’ father) and StaciClark (Dennis’ wife) pose in front of their fruit stand. Year round employee, Jack Kissell and Dennis Clark prune the peach trees.

Staci Clark inspects peaches in the shed.Photos courtesy of Clark Family Orchards

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BLACKSBURG, VA — For decades,scientists and farmers have attemptedto understand how a bacterialpathogen continues to damage toma-toes despite numerous agriculturalattempts to control its spread.

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato isthe causative agent of bacterial speckdisease of tomato (Solanum lycoper-sicum), a disease that occurs world-wide and causes severe reduction infruit yield and quality, particularlyduring cold and wet springs.

In the spring of 2010, for example,an outbreak in Florida and Californiadevastated the harvest in those areas.

“There is not much that can be donefrom a farming standpoint,” said BorisVinatzer, associate professor of plantpathology, physiology and weed sci-ence in the College of Agriculture andLife Sciences, www.cals.vt.edu/, atVirginia Tech, and an affiliated facultymember with the Fralin Life ScienceInstitute. “First, farmers try to useseed that is free of the pathogen to pre-vent disease outbreaks. Then, thereare some disease-resistant tomato cul-tivars, but the pathogen has overcomethis resistance by losing the gene thatallowed these resistant plants to recog-nize it and defend themselves. For therest, there are pesticides but thepathogen has become resistant againstthem.”

So how exactly has the pathogenevolved to consistently evade eradica-tion efforts? This is where sciencesteps in, and a copy of the bacterialpathogen’s game plan is crucial.

Thanks to the collaborative work ofVinatzer, Virginia BioinformaticsInstitute, www.vbi.vt.edu/, computerscientist Joao Setubal, statisticianScotland Leman, and their students,the genome of several Pseudomonassyrinage pv. tomato isolates have beensequenced in order to track the bacte-rial pathogen’s ability to overcomeplant defenses and to develop methodsto prevent further spread.

Their findings were recently pub-lished in the August 2011 issue of

PLoS Pathogens, a peer reviewed open-access journal published by the PublicLibrary of Science.

The research team has studied thepathogen for nearly five years. In 2007,with resources from the VirginiaBioinformatics Institute and the FralinLife Science Institute, Vinatzersequenced the genome ofPseudomonas syringae pv. tomatousing a Roche GS-FLX™ sequencer atthe Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.

In 2008, Vinatzer received a $1 mil-lion, five-year Faculty Early CareerDevelopment (CAREER) Award fromthe National Science Foundation tocontinue investigation of the pathogen.Shortly thereafter, he brought Setubal,a former Virginia Tech faculty memberwho recently went to work for the

University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, andLeman, assistant professor of statis-tics at Virginia Tech, onto the projectto handle the bioinformatics and sta-tistical aspects of the research, respec-tively.

First, the scientists needed to mapchanges in the bacterial pathogen overlarge spans of time. They comparedDNA sequences of bacteria isolated inmultiple years, dating back to 1960and stored since then in internationalculture collections. Setubal, along withNalvo Almeida, an associate professorat the Federal University of MatoGrosso do Sul, provided automatedgenome annotation and helpedVinatzer with identification and analy-sis of mutations that distinguished thesequenced genomes.

“One of the questions we asked was,‘did the bacteria isolated in 2000directly evolve from the bacteria isolat-ed in 1975, or did they evolve inde-pendently from an ancestor that livedfurther back in time, maybe 100 to200 years ago?’” said Vinatzer.

To answer this question, Leman,Vinatzer, and Rongman Cai of Lixian,China, a graduate student in VirginiaTech’s Department of Plant Pathology,Physiology, and Weed Science, usedstatistical methods to correlate the dif-ferences in the DNA sequencesbetween the isolated bacteria with theyears in which they were isolated todetermine if the bacteria progressivelybecame more different from the firstbacteria isolated in 1960.

The research team found that thepathogen likely evolved on a relativelyrecent time scale and continues toadapt to the tomato by minimizing itsrecognition by the tomato immunesystem. This suggests that newpathogen variants with increased viru-lence are spreading around the globeunobserved, presenting a potentialthreat to biosecurity. Ultimately, itcalls for more precise methods ofpathogen identification to replace out-dated taxonomic descriptions thatwere established at a time when it wasimpossible to classify bacteria precise-ly because the necessary moleculartechniques had not been developedyet.

This particular pathogen is impor-tant to study because “it has beenused as a model pathogen by manylabs around the world and is econom-ically significant because it reducedtomato quality and yield,” saidVinatzer.

Currently, Vinatzer is extending theresearch project to investigate wherethe pathogen originally evolved, how itis spreading around the globe, andwhat can be done to interfere with itsspread, including how the tomatomight be engineered to be more resist-ant to the pathogen.

Tomato pathogen’s tricks of the trade unraveled

For the past two years, theU.S. Agricultural Trade Office(ATO) in Shanghai, China hasbuilt a partnership withFruitDay.com, an online pro-duce company that hasthrived by harnessing theimpressive power of internetand TV retailing to reachChinese consumers.

Last year, we introducedFruitDay.com to several U.S.producer associations whopromote fresh fruit in China.As a result, FruitDay.comintegrated U.S. fruit into itsonline inventory. This decisionled to increased sales for bothFruitDay.com and U.S.exporters.

The Washington AppleCommission, the CaliforniaGrape Commission, theCalifornia Cherry AdvisoryBoard, Northwest Cherriesand Sunkist all participated ina FruitDay.com online promo-tion last year. With the addi-tion of U.S. fruit,

FruitDay.com’s sales duringthe peak season promotionwere an impressive 180 per-cent higher than expected.

The success of U.S. fruit inonline sales led FruitDay.com

to expand to Chinese televi-sion on a popular shoppingchannel called the OCJ.FruitDay.com sold 3,500boxes of Sunkist orangeswithin 30 minutes on OCJ in

early 2011. This August, theyhad similar success whenChinese consumers bought1,900 boxes of freshNorthwest Cherries worthmore than $100,000 in lessthan 30 minutes.

FruitDay.com’s soaringsales are a reflection ofincreased demand in Chinafor healthy, high-quality U.S.produce. During the first eightmonths of 2011, U.S. exportsof fresh fruit to China andHong Kong were $247 millioncompared to $211 million overthe same time period the pre-vious year, which is a 17 per-cent increase. Oranges, applesand grapes lead U.S. fruitexports to China.

With online and TV salesthrough companies likeFruitDay.com, Chinese con-sumers can access U.S. pro-duce more quickly and conve-niently than ever before. Webelieve that by using theseinnovative sales and market-

ing techniques, U.S. produceexports to China will only con-tinue to grow.

Beyond China, U.S. agricul-tural exports are thrivingaround the world. USDArecently forecast fiscal year2011 and 2012 agriculturalexports will reach a record$137 billion, $22 billion high-er than the previous record setin 2008 and $28 billion above2010. China is expected toremain our number oneexport market.

Strong agricultural exportscontribute to the positive U.S.trade balance, create jobs andboost economic growth.Efforts by our AgriculturalTrade Offices support thestrategic priorities of PresidentObama’s National ExportInitiative (NEI), which aims todouble all U.S. exports by theend of 2014 and create mil-lions of new American jobs.

Source: USDA Blog(blogs.USDA.Gov)

U.S. fresh fruit a hit with Chinese consumers

In August, 1,900 boxes of U.S. cherries from Northwest Cherries

were sold in less than 30 minutes after they were featured on the

popular Chinese television shopping channel OCJ.

Photo courtesy of the Agricultural Trade Office Shanghai Staff

Thanks to the collaborative work of Virginia Tech’s Boris Vinatzer, above, and other

researchers the genome of several bacterial pathogen isolates have been

sequenced in order to track their ability to overcome tomato plant defenses and to

develop methods to prevent further spread.

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by Jura Liaukonyte,

Bradley J. Rickard, and

Harry M. Kaiser, Dyson

School, Cornell University

and Timothy J. Richards

Morrison School of

Agribusiness, Arizona

State University

Obesity has become ahuge problem in theUnited States with over aquarter of the populationcategorized as obese. Theaverage American hasgained 16.3 pounds dur-ing the 21 years (1988-2008) which results in anaverage weight gain of0.77 pounds annually.The U.S. obesity problemhas been blamed on a hostof factors such as relative-ly low prices per calorie forhigh fat and sweetenedfoods, insufficient exer-cise, substantial market-ing campaigns by the fastfood industry, and otherenvironmental and eco-nomics factors. Anotherimportant factor is thetrend in fruit and veg-etable consumption,which has declined by12.5 percent (fruit) and

7.6 percent (vegetables) ona per capita basis over thelast 15 years.

One type of advertisingthat has been more com-mon in Canada (Go for2&5), Australia (Fruit andVeggies-More Matters), andthe United Kingdom (5 aDay) than in the UnitedStates is “broad-based”advertising, which isdesigned to promote over-all consumption of fruitand vegetables ratherthan specific commodities.The fruit and vegetablesector in the United Statescurrently has a voluntarybroad-based program thatis significantly smaller

than the Go For 2&5broad-based programused in Australia. TheU.S. industry has dis-cussed adopting a manda-tory broad-based programthat would be used inaddition to the currentcommodity-specific pro-grams. In 2009 advocatesof a mandatory programproposed to assess firsthandlers of all fruits andvegetables an annual per-unit tax in order to raise$30 million for broad-based advertising.However, the majority ofgrowers did not want toadopt the proposed pro-gram and the policy failedafter a plebiscite was con-ducted among all firsthandlers in 2009.

We recently conductedeconomic experiments toexamine the efficacy ofcommodity-specific andbroad-based advertisingon increasing the demandfor fruits and vegetablesand reducing obesity. Inour study, we measuredthe impact of broad-basedadvertising, commodity-

specific (apple and potato,separately) advertising,and two hybrid programsthat include broad-basedand commodity-specificadvertising across eightselected fruits and vegeta-bles. We use experimentalmethods to elicit con-sumers’ willingness to payfor various fruits and veg-etables subject to eitherbroad-based or commodi-ty-specific advertising.Willingness to pay esti-mates can be easily con-verted into changes indemand and we use thesemeasures in our simula-tion. We simulate thepotential effects of thefruit and vegetable promo-tion strategies on foodconsumption using anequilibrium displacementmodel developed byOkrent and Alston (2011).Our simulated changes inquantities of retail foodproducts are translatedinto changes in daily andannual calories consumedusing the average dailyquantity of food and ener-

gy intake in the 2005-06National Health andNutrition ExaminationSurveys.

Our results foundstrong support that broad-based advertising has asignificantly higher effectthan commodity-specificadvertising on consumers’willingness to pay (WTP)for fruits and vegetables.For example, WTPincreased by 18.1 percent,22.9 percent and 32.8 per-cent for the three treat-ments involving broad-based advertising, whichwere all statistically signif-icant unlike that for com-modity-specific advertis-ing (see Table 1).

These results are con-sistent with the findings ofa very successful broad-based advertising programfield experiment imple-mented over a three-year(2002-2005) period inAustralia, which suggeststhat both industry stake-holders and governmenthealth agencies shouldcarefully consider adopt-

ing a broad-based promo-tional strategy.

Our research providesthe first piece of empiricalevidence about the broad-based advertising effectsrelative to commodity-spe-cific. While our researchhas some limitations, it isan important startingpoint in a significantindustry debate in theU.S. Broad-based adver-tising has the capacity toincrease demand for fruitsand vegetables, and it alsohas the capacity todecrease caloric consump-tion and obesity. We findthat a successful broad-based advertising cam-paign for fruits and veg-etables, either alone or asa hybrid with commodity-specific campaigns, mayreduce average annualcaloric intake per personby approximately 1,800kcal (Table 1).

This calculation takesinto account the directeffects of advertising ondemand and prices forfruit and vegetables, aswell as the indirect effectsof changes in demand forall other products as aresult of the demand andprice effects. Although thisreduction may appearsmall, it is a substantialpart of annual weight gain(0.77 pounds per year)that average American hasexperienced. Such a strat-egy could be used as onecomponent of an overallprogram to reduce obesityand the serious healthrisks associated with it.Therefore, based on theresults of our study, anincrease in broad-basedadvertising may lead tobenefits for producers offruits and vegetables andconsumers more generally.

Evaluating advertising strategies for fruits and vegetablesand the implications for obesity in the United States

The Monthly Newspaper for Greenhouses, Nurseries, Fruit & Vegetable Growers

Country FolksCountry Folks

(518) 673-3237 • Fax # (518) 673-2381

(ISSN # 1065-1756) U.S.P.S. 008885

Country Folks Grower is published monthly by Lee Publications, P.O. Box 121, 6113 St. Hwy. 5,

Palatine Bridge, NY 13428.

Periodical postage paid at Palatine Bridge, NY 13428.

Subscription Price: $22. per year. Canada $55 per year.

POSTMASTER: Send address change to Country Folks Grower, P.O. Box 121, Subscription Dept.,

Palatine Bridge, NY 13428-0121.

Publisher, President..................................Frederick W. Lee

V.P., General Manager ....................Bruce Button, 518-673-0104 [email protected]

V.P., Production ................................Mark W. Lee, 518-673-0132 [email protected]

Comptroller .....................................Robert Moyer, 518-673-0148 [email protected]

Production Coordinator ................Jessica Mackay, 518-673-0137 [email protected]

Editor ...........................................Joan Kark-Wren, 518-673-0141 [email protected]

Page Composition .........................Allison Swartz, 518-673-0139 [email protected]

Classified Ad Manager ...................Peggy Patrei, 518-673-0111 [email protected]

Shop Foreman ..........................................Harry DeLong

Palatine Bridge, Front desk ................................ ....................................518-673-0160

Accounting/Billing Office ...............518-673-0149 [email protected]

Subscriptions ..................................888-596-5329 [email protected]

Web Site:................................................................ .............................www.leepub.comSend all correspondence to:

PO Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428

Fax (518) 673-2699

Editorial email: [email protected]

Advertising email: [email protected]

AD SALES REPRESENTATIVESBruce Button, Ad Sales Mgr . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . .800-218-5586, ext. 104

Dan Wren, Grower Sales Mgr . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . 800-218-5586, ext. 117

Jan Andrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . 800-218-5586, ext. 110

Dave Dornburgh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]. . . . . . . . . . 800-218-5586, ext. 109

Laura Clary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . .800-218-5586, ext. 118

Steve Heiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . 800-218-5586, ext. 107

Tina Krieger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . 800-218-5586, ext. 108

Ian Hitchener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802-222-5726

Kegley Baumgardner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540-255-9112

Wanda Luck / North Carolina . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336-416-6198 (cell)

Mark Sheldon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814-587-2519

Sue Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949-305-7447

Lee Publications6113 State Hwy. 5, PO Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428

We cannot GUARANTEE the return of photographs. Publisher not responsible for typographical errors. Size, style

of type and locations of advertisements are left to the discretion of the publisher. The opinions expressed in this

publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. We will not knowingly accept or publish advertising which is

fraudulent or misleading in nature. The publisher reserves the sole right to edit, revise or reject any and all adver-

tising with or without cause being assigned which in his judgement is unwholesome or contrary to the interest of

this publication. We assume no financial responsibility for typographical errors in advertisement, but if at fault, will

reprint that portion of the ad in which the error appears.

SACRAMENTO, CA — The CaliforniaDepartment of Food and Agriculture(CDT) is now accepting proposals forthe 2012 Specialty Crop Block GrantProgram, which is designed toenhance the competitiveness of theGolden State’s specialty crops.

Up to $17 million will be available,ranging from $50,000 to $400,000 perproject. CDT receives funding for thisgrant program from the U.S.Department of Agriculture through itsAgricultural Marketing Service.

The competitive process begins withsubmission of concept proposals byeligible non-profit organizations; local,state and federal government entities,including tribal governments; for-prof-it organizations; and public and pri-vate colleges and universities.Successful applicants will be invited toparticipate in phase two of theprocess, submission of a grant propos-al.

Applicants must access the Notice ofFunding Availability (NOFA) atwww.cdfa.ca.gov/grants for detailedinstructions. To streamline and expe-dite the application process, CDFA ispartnering with the California StateWater Resources Control Board, whichhosts an online application site usingthe Financial Assistance ApplicationSubmittal Tool (FAAST). All applicantsmust register for a FAAST account athttps://faast.waterboards.ca.gov.

All concept proposals must be sub-mitted electronically using FAAST byMonday, Dec. 12, at 5 p.m.

For purposes of this program, spe-cialty crops are defined as fruits andvegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, hor-ticulture and nursery crops (includingfloriculture).

Prospective applicants may contactCDFA’s Federal Funds ManagementOffice at 916-657-3231 [email protected].

Deadline for submitting specialtycrop grant proposals is Dec. 12

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by Stephen WagnerVery recently the me-

dia reported that theObama administrationhad called off its so-called Christmas TreeTax. The media beingthe media, there are afew things wrong withthat statement. In thefirst place, there neverwas a proposed tax onChristmas trees. Sec-ondly, President Obamanever had anything todo with it. The issue inquestion was a 15-centassessment on Christ-mas trees that would bepaid by the Christmastree growers themselvesto raise about two mil-lion dollars. Thosemonies were to be usedto promote real Christ-mas trees instead of ar-tificial trees. The follow-ing is a brief chronicleof how things got so

confused.About nine or 10

years ago, as PressSecretary of the Penn-sylvania AgricultureDepartment, I can re-member an agencylawyer coming into myoffice with a fat report,the size of a mediummarket telephone book,sitting down, and ex-plaining that it was tes-timony from a formalmeeting of Pennsylva-nia’s Christmas TreeGrowers, an associa-tion get-together. Afternearly a decade, memo-ry is vague on specificdetails but the mainpoint the lawyer wastrying to make is thatthere was too muchdisagreement amonggrowers for any cohe-sive promotion programtouting Christmas treesto move forward at the

state level. But thatwas then and this isnow. That was alsoonly one state and nowChristmas Tree Grow-ers nationwide are fi-nally, of necessity, onthe same page. Thetone of the argumenthas simplified to a warof real Christmas treesversus artificial trees.What could possibly gowrong?

A recent online newsreport unequivocallystated that “the ObamaDepartment of Agricul-ture is implementing a‘Christmas Tree Tax’[which] has provokedoutrage from folks wor-ried about a War onChristmas — and alsothose worried abouttaxes. The tax, howev-er, wasn’t the Obamaadministration’s idea.It was the Christmastree lobby’s creation.Real Christmas treeshave been steadily los-ing market share to ar-tificial trees, so growersand retailers lobbiedthe Department of Agri-culture to institute acheck-off tax and usethe funds to promotereal trees.”

Much of that lastparagraph is not basedon fact. Public RelationsManager for the Nation-

al Christmas Tree Asso-ciation, Rick Dungey,says it is not a tax, andattributes the so-called‘tax’ talk to a misin-formed public interestgroup and a lazy media.“The tax is a completefabrication by somebodycalled The HeritageFoundation,” he said.“It’s actually a check-offprogram that was finallypublished two days ago”[Nov. 8] in the FederalRegister. “Somebodywho doesn’t understandcheck-offs decided tocall it the Obama Tax onChristmas Trees. Thenews media, withoutchecking any facts, de-cided to start repeatingthat. It’s been an inter-esting two days.”

“I’m disappointedparticularly with theHeritage Foundationwhich broke the story,”says Jim Heater, ownerof the Silver MountainTree Farm in Sublimi-ty, OR, “because theynormally get their factspretty straight. I thinkthat in everybody’srush to take a shot atObama they tacked thistax thing on him, and itis not a tax! It is a self-help grower program.”

Some think that theHeritage Foundation isnot the culprit but

rather a fellow growerwho started the rumor.But, “I don’t think thatany grower out therewould have been foolishenough to have cut hisfoot off by trying to getthe thing stopped in theway it was done,” opinesCline Church of thenursery that bears hisname in Fleetwood, NC.

Nevertheless, it is in-teresting because thepurpose of the Christ-mas tree Check-off Pro-gram was to raise mon-ey to promote their in-dustry and applymonies to research. Theindustry now has tocombat a public men-tality that sees aChristmas tree taxwhere there wasn’t any.The media reportedthat the White Houserescinded the non-exis-tent tax, but people stillhave it in their minds.It was hoped the pro-gram would have col-lected between $2 and 21/2 million dollars,with that money beingused to promote liveChristmas trees. And aChristmas tree growerwould have to cut atleast 500 trees for the15 cents to kick in.

Cheryl Nickelson ofthe Wisconsin Christ-mas Tree Associationsees both sides of thestory. “I think artificialtrees are the threat,”she says, “and yet peo-ple tend to go with tra-dition, things thatthey’re familiar withfrom their childhood.I’ve talked to peoplewho look for a Scotchpine because they grewup with a Scotch pine.That’s what they like.Another lady said ‘wehave an artificial treebecause we always hadan artificial tree.’ Butgetting people to buy,and continue to buy,real trees, turns intoan environmental de-bate. Most artificialtrees are not made inthe United States.They’re not biodegrad-able; they’re not recy-clable.” She added thatif people buy artificialtrees instead of onefrom a local tree farm,“they’re sending moneyoverseas,” whereas if

the tree is locally in-spired, “it’s better foreverybody becausethey’re keeping moneyin the community.”

Jim Heater agreeswith the environmentalequation. “Naturaltrees provide oxygenduring their growthand provide habitat forwildlife,” he says. “Evenafter Christmas is over,they’re using them asfish habitat in some ofthe estuaries where thelittle fish can get insidebut the big ones can’t.Or they’re chipped formulch. We are definite-ly the [eco]-friendlytree.” Heater goes on tosay that about 90 per-cent of the ‘fake tree’companies are off-shore. “They’re takingbig sections of marketshare, so we’ve got tofigure out a way to letpeople know this is anon-renewable, non-re-cyclable product. We’vedone some research atthe National, and foundthat a fake tree stays inthe home for about sixyears. Six years in thehome and six centuriesin a landfill.”

Among the final pro-visions in the final ruleof the check-off pro-gram is the fact that‘there will be a delayedreferendum to takeplace three years aftercollection of the assess-ment begins.’ And allassessments for thiscrop year (August 1,2011 - July 31, 2012)are due by February15, 2012. “I feel that isprobably why USDA setthe program up on athree-year basis — togive the industryenough time to makethe program work,”Church speculated. “Ifeel there’s so muchconfusion out therewhen it comes to com-modity check-offs thatconsumers, and manyof our politicians, don’teven understand howthey work, or what theycan accomplish.”

Church sums it upvery succinctly whenhe says “There are stilla lot of trees beingpulled out of attics.”Oh well, maybe nextyear!

Happy HolidaysFrom

Santa's WholesaleSupply

We truly appreciate ourwonderful customers and wish

everyone a joyful season.www.santasupplies.com • www.wreathrings.com

Christmas Tree Checkoff Program ~ What happened?CCHH RRIISSTMATMAS SS SEECTICTIOONN

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Are you consideringagritourism on your farmor ranch? Are you ex-panding your agri-tourism business? Thenthis class is for you.

The UC Small FarmProgram, UC CooperativeExtension Fresno Coun-ty and the Fresno Coun-ty Farm Bureau inviteFresno and Tulare regionfarmers and ranchers toparticipate in a three-session agritourismclass. Participants willlearn the costs and ben-efits of various agri-tourism enterprises, as-sess their own farm orranch for agritourism po-tential, start developingtheir own business, riskmanagement and mar-keting plans for a new orexisting agritourism en-terprise and be connect-

ed with a network of ex-perienced agritourismoperators and receiveindividual consultationas they plan their newbusiness.

Classes will be held atthe Fresno County FarmBureau, 1274 W.

Hodges Ave., Fresno,CA, on Dec. 8, Jan. 25and March 14 from 8a.m. to noon each day.

For more information,contact Penny Leff, UCSmall Farm Program, [email protected] or530-752-7779.

Recently, the Na-tional Christmas TreeAssociation reportedthat the ChristmasTree Promotion, Re-search and Informa-tion Order was pub-lished by USDA. How-ever, just two days lat-er, NCTA receivedword that the checkoffwas being delayed,with no timetable set

for implementation.The delay announce-

ment was published inthe Federal Register.According to USDA,the regulations arestayed “in order to pro-vide all interested per-sons, including theChristmas tree indus-try and the generalpublic, an opportunityto become more famil-

iar with the program.”In response to the de-lay, NCTA issued thisstatement.

So, what happenedbetween last Nov. 8and Nov. 17? Under-standing that many ofyou are busy in themidst of the season, wewanted to take a mo-ment to update you onthe events and the in-

dustry response.• Shortly following

the publication of thecheckoff, DavidAddington of The Her-itage Foundation pub-lished a blog post call-ing the checkoff pro-gram a “tax on Christ-mas Trees by the Oba-ma Administration.”

• While incorrect,

this story was pickedup by numerous me-dia outlets, withoutseeking comment fromindustry members orUSDA.

• To help stop thespread of misinforma-tion, NCTA released astatement explainingthe facts. Industryleaders and NCTA staffalso spoke to media

nationwide and re-sponded via social me-dia networks. TheNCTA Blog Army alsowent to work, com-menting and correctingerroneous stories whenthey found them.

Since the originalstory broke, a numberof articles have beenpublished in defense ofthe industry.

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USDA announces delay of Checkoff ProgramCCHH RRIISSTMATMAS SS SEECTICTIOONN

Fresno guide to agritourismclass offered

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Marketing vs. sales -why two strategiesare better than oneIsn’t marketing the

same as sales? Aren’tsales what marketingis all about?

Those two questionssurface in almost everydiscussion about agri-cultural and agribusi-ness entrepreneurismand business growth.

Marketing and salesrepresent two similar,but separate pieces, toan overall businessplan. Marketing iseverything you do up-front to reach the audi-ence you feel will mostlikely buy your productor service. Sales are thefinalizing agreementbetween buyer and sell-

er that closes the deal.The strategies you de-velop for each of thesegrowth segments signalhow you plan for yourbusiness to grow andprosper over a definedtime period. Each com-ponent, marketing orsales, requires differentstrategies. That is whytwo distinct plans arebetter than combiningthem together.

Marketing asks youto strategize about thekey buying groups thatwant to introduce yourproduct to and thathave the means tomost likely purchaseit. A marketing planhelps you pare down abroad buying public tothe target audiences

you need to reach. Youmay have already de-fined that you are in-terested in reachingfamilies who buy freshproduce, or touristswho enjoy farm out-ings. You have builtyour advertising andpromotional cam-paigns around thoseinterests. Marketingasks you to delve deep-er and identify the sub-groups where sales willactually take place andmake your businessgrow. It moves from theshot gun approach oftrying to reach all pop-ulations to the specificconsumers most likelyto become your loyalcustomers.

Sales strategies takethis information andresearch to the conclu-sion of the agreementor purchase. The cus-tomer is interested andnow you must close thesale. It is wonderful tohave a stream of cus-tomers coming to lookover a product or at-traction, it takes addi-tional strategy to have

them actually pur-chase your product,buy tickets to yourevent, or agree to stocktheir shelves with yourfood and value-addedproducts.

Some business own-ers choose to seek out-side help in developinga marketing plan. Mar-keting research firmsand other businessconsulting groups candevote time to morecomplex marketing is-sues, especially indealing with wholesaleand retail contracts orfranchising. Somebusiness owners andmanagers feel thesetypes of specializedservices help zero in ontarget audiences andidentify specific pointsof sales where growthis more likely in ashorter period of time.

Farm gate operatorsmay decide that localresearch is more help-ful in designing a sim-pler marketing plan.This is often more ap-propriate for new anddeveloping businesses,although businessmentoring programsand business incubatorservices provide mar-keting assistance for lo-cal entrepreneurs. Re-gardless of how a mar-

keting plan is devel-oped however, the ulti-mate goal is to lay thegroundwork for sales.

A sale is often de-fined as “the act ofcompletion of a com-mercial activity.” Salesthen are the finaliza-tions of marketing’spreparation. If youhave a team of salesrepresentatives, theyhave already learnedthe essentials of clos-ing the deal. In thecase of smaller or morespecialized operations,employees should havethat same instruction.Employees are oftenthe first line of salerepresentation yourcustomers experienceand need to have theinformation and train-ing necessary to pro-vide good informationand encourage sales.

Sales strategies out-line who you expect tosell your product orservice to, how often,and how many unitsyou will sell for a givenprice. This sounds sim-ple enough, but devel-oping this overall strat-egy demands sometime, research, andknowledge of your in-dustry or point of sales.Developing a strategyfor selling at a farmers’

market is differentthan working with ateam of wholesalersand retail outlets.

While marketing andsales go hand in hand,they represent two dis-tinct points of planningand operation for anyagricultural businessor service industry.They lay the founda-tion for your overallbusiness operation andsuccess.

Farm business plan-ning is supported by theCooperative ExtensionService, local collegesand business counsel-ing groups. From pro-viding templates formarketing and salesstrategies, to courseson completing an over-all business plan, agoperators have anabundance of resourcesfrom which to creategood, solid plans. TheUSDA’s National Ag Li-brary atwww.nal.usda.gov isone of many online sitesthat provide templatesand resources for agri-cultural planning.

The informationabove is provided foreducational purposesonly and should not besubstituted for profes-sional business or legalcounseling.

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Today’s Marketing ObjectivesBy: Melissa Piper Nelson

Farm News ServiceNews and views on agricultural marketing techniques.

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by James Carrabba,Agricultural Safety Spe-cialist, NYCAMH

Oxyacetylene cuttingand welding equipmentis commonly used inmany agricultural oper-ations. It is importantfor anyone who usesthis equipment to beable to use it properlyand safely. It is alsovery important that the

compressed gas cylin-ders are stored safely.

This article will dis-cuss some basic safetyguidelines that need tobe followed for properlystoring oxyacetylenecylinders. Acetylene isthe most common gasused for welding andcutting metals, and isvery flammable. Theoxygen won’t burn or

explode but assists oth-er gasses burn atgreater rates whenmixed together. Acety-lene and oxygen arestored separately incompressed gas cylin-ders. Due to the pres-sures inside, a com-pressed gas cylinder canbe shot through the airlike a rocket if its valvebecomes damaged orbroken. Gas cylindersneed to be protectedfrom physical damage,

heat, and tampering.Here are some basic

guidelines for properstorage of compressedgas cylinders:

Storage areas shouldbe designed to ade-quately accommodatethe various gas cylin-ders that will be used atthe farm. It should bewell-drained and well-ventilated and prefer-ably be of fire proofconstruction. Likegasses should be stored

together with each oth-er. Cylinders should notbe stored in subsurfacelocations. The storagearea should be free ofcorrosive chemicals orfumes.

The storage areashould be prominentlyposted with the hazardclass or names of thegasses that are storedthere. No smokingsigns should be postedat the storage area.

The storage areashould not exceed125° F.

There should be sepa-rate storage areas forempty and full cylinders.Empty cylinders can bemarked with MT orEMPTY written on them.

When not in service,acetylene and oxygencylinders must bestored separately fromeach other. They mustbe separated by a dis-tance of at least 20 feetor be separated by anon-flammable wall thatis at least 5 feet high.

Cylinders should bestored in an uprightposition and chainedto prevent them fromfalling.

Single acetylene andoxygen cylinders thatare being used are con-sidered “in service.”They can be stored on acart or at a fixed workstation adjacent to eachother without a fire-proof partition. Cylin-ders that are in servicemust be secured to pre-vent falling.

Containers must beprotected from any ob-jects that could con-tact the surface of thecylinder and cause anabrasion or cut intothe cylinder. Cylinderscannot be stored nearelevators, walkways,unprotected platformedges, or any locationswhere they could bestruck by heavy mov-ing or falling objects.

Keep cylinders awayfrom flammable andcombustible materials.

Cylinder valves mustbe closed when not inuse and prior to moving.

Cylinders can bestored outside, but thebottom of the cylindermust be protected fromthe ground to preventcorrosion. With outsidestorage it is preferableto store the cylinderson asphalt or concreteareas that are gradedto drain water away. Inthe summer, full cylin-ders should bescreened against thedirect rays of the sunand the outside stor-age area should not ex-ceed 125° F. In thewinter, the cylindersshould be protectedfrom accumulations ofice and snow.

When the cylindersare not in service, orduring transportation,the regulator must beremoved and the pro-tective cap screwedinto place over thevalve to protect it.

When moving cylin-ders, it is best to trans-port them on a cart.They can be movedshort distances byrolling them on theirbottom edge. Cylindersshould never bedragged over the floor.

Small Farm WorksPlant over 250 seedlings in less

than a minute with the paper chainpot transplanter. See the video at

N1749 Yerges, Reeseville, Wisconsin [email protected] 920-927-7362

www.smallfarmworks.com

Fruitt && Vegetablee EquipmentSafe storage of oxyacetylene cylinders

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The paper chain pottransplanting system isa unique, ingenious,and highly efficientmeans to transplantvegetables, flowers andherbs. It is unlike anytransplanter used inthe U.S. or Europe. Ithas no motor and ispulled by hand. It al-lows a single person totransplant as many as264 plants in less thana minute. This is ac-complished whilestanding upright thuseliminating countlesshours spent kneeling,crawling, or stooping.

The system relies onplanting into paper potsthat are in a chain. Be-cause the pots are in achain, they feed them-selves through thetransplanter. A new flatof paper pots comescompressed and isopened using a set ofmetal opening rods anda frame. The most com-mon paper pot flats have264 cells. Seeding a pa-per pot flat can be doneby hand but seeders areavailable that seed anentire flat at a time.

Once the seedlingsare ready to be trans-planted and soil pre-pared, the transplanteris pulled into a bed tobegin creating a furrow.A tray of seedlings isplaced on the trans-planter platform andone end of the paperpot chain is pulled

down into the furrow. Anarrow metal stake isinserted through thefirst cell into the soil tosecure the start of thepaper chain. Then thetransplanter is pulleddown the bed and allthe seedlings go intothe ground, one afterthe other. Small metalflanges at the rear ofthe transplanter pushsoil over the paper potsand packing wheelstamp the soil.

The paper pot systemis ideally suited toclosely spaced crops,especially onions,leeks, scallions, andshallots. This is be-cause in-row spacing isdetermined by thelength of the paperchain connecting eachcell. Currently, paperchain pots are availablethat result in 2 inch, 4inch and 6 inch in-rowspacing. The systemalso works very well forspinach, various Asiangreens, and many typesof cut flowers. Othercrops that can be growninclude chard, kohlra-bi, basil, cilantro,beets, corn, peas,beans, and lettuce. Byskipping cells, it is alsopossible to plant cropslike broccoli and kale.

The paper chain potsystem was invented inJapan and is currentlybeing imported to NorthAmerica by Small FarmWorks (www.smallfarm-

works.com). A video ofthe transplanter in ac-tion can be viewed atour web site. A videodemonstrating how toopen, fill, and seed thepaper pot flats is alsoavailable.

The paper chain pottransplanting systemis an economical op-tion for vegetable grow-ers because it can sub-stantially reduce laborcosts. It also enableshoophouse growers toexpand the number ofplantings in a season(due to transplantingnormally direct seededcrops). Another benefitis achieving higherdensity stands of cropsthat germinate betterin controlled condi-tions (in a greenhouseof germination cham-ber) rather than fieldconditions.

For more information,

contact John Hendrick-son at smallfarm-

[email protected] or 920-927-7362 or N1749

Yerges Road, Reeseville,WI 53579.

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As the transplanter is pulled down the bed, the seedlings go into the ground, oneafter the other.

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PENSACOLA, FL — Emerald CoastGrowers’ Marketing Manager, JohnFriel, has been named president ofthe Perennial Plant Association(PPA).

The PPA is known as an industry-leading organization hosting Na-tional and Regional Symposia with

educational seminars, networking,camaraderie and tours to publicgardens, private gardens, retailnurseries and wholesale growers.

The Association's most visible pro-gram allows members to choose aPerennial Plant of the Year. Growersand gardeners alike eagerly awaitthe announcement of the winner.

PPA's 2012 National Symposiumwill be held July 3-10, 2012. JoinECG and all the major players in theperennial world in Boston. If yougrow, sell or design with hardy plantsand grasses, it's the place to be.

Emerald Coast Growers is proudto celebrate 20 years of success inthe horticulture business. Knownfor its wide variety of perennialstarter plants and specialty plants,Emerald Coast Growers maintainsthe distinction of being one of the in-dustry's largest suppliers of orna-mental grass liners to North Ameri-can growers and retailers. Withmore than 400,000 sq. ft. of green-house space, 55 acres of farmlandand growing locations in both thenortheast and southeast, EmeraldCoast Growers supplies top qualitystarter plants to growers throughoutNorth America. ECG starters areavailable by common carrier, growertruck or customer pickup in Floridaor Pennsylvania. For more informa-tion, visit www.ecgrowers.com.

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WENATCHEE, WA —Mariah Elgin, age 13,from Tacoma, is theWashington Apple Edu-cation Foundation(WAEF) Grand Prizewinner in the 16th An-nual Year of the AppleArt Contest presentedby Dow AgroSciences.

The announcementwas made at StadiumHigh School on Friday,Oct. 21. As the GrandPrize winner, Elgin re-ceived $750 cash forher award-winningartwork titled, “RedDelicious.”

In addition to thecash prize, Elgin’s art-work will be publishedon the 2012 Dow Agro-Sciences wall calendar.Elgin’s winning entry isa sliced red deliciousapple created in col-ored pencil. Elgin iscurrently a freshmanin high school andcompleted the drawingduring her 8th gradeyear at Meeker MiddleSchool in Tacoma, WA.

In total, seven Wash-ington state studentsreceived a share of the$1,650 in prize moneyrecognizing their artis-

tic talents. The winningstudents’ schools willalso be acknowledgedfor their support of thearts and the Year of theApple art contest.Checks for $100 will bedelivered to each of theschools attended bywinning artists fortheir purchase of class-room art supplies.

The Year of the Appleselection committeechose the gifted win-ners amongst many en-tries submitted by K-12students from acrossthe state. Artists com-peted in three grade di-visions: kindergarten tofourth grade, fifth-eighth grade andninth-12th grade. TheYear of the Apple artcontest is open to allWashington state stu-

dents, grades kinder-garten to 12.

Year of the AppleHonorable Mentioncash awards in theamount of $150 eachwere presented to Eliz-abeth Xiong, age 9, andAnika Hidayat, age 10,from Vancouver in Divi-sion One; Division Twowinners were HaeunJung, age 13, andStephanie Constantin,age 12, both from Van-couver; and DivisionThree winners wereDmitriy Semenor, age14, from Vancouverand Jennifer Guiher,age 15, from BattleGround.

The winning entriescan be viewed atwww.waef.org. Promo-tion for the 2012 Yearof the Apple art contest

begins later this year.The deadline for stu-dents to submit entriesis Aug. 1, 2012.

2012 Year of the Ap-ple poster calendarswill be available Dec. 5-7 at the Dow Agro-Sciences booth at theWashington State Hor-ticultural AssociationAnnual Meeting in We-natchee. To receive acopy via the mail,please contact the

WAEF office at 509-663-7713.

In addition to pub-lishing artwork on the2012 calendar poster,WAEF utilizes the stu-dents’ creations on notecards. Order forms areavailable atwww.waef.org. Proceedsfrom the sale of notecards support WAEF’sscholarship and educa-tion programs.

The Washington Ap-

ple Education Founda-tion fosters educationalopportunities, encour-ages academic excel-lence and promotesawareness of the val-ues of the Washington’stree fruit industry.WAEF is a charitablenon-profit organizationcreated in 1994 by thegrowers of Washingtonstate tree fruit and isfunded through volun-tary donations.

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Country Folks

Tacoma student wins Year of the Apple Art Contest

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SUBLIMITY, OR —The Northwest Ag Showwill host the region’slargest agriculturaltrade and consumershow Jan. 24-26, 2012at the Portland ExpoCenter. The secondlargest agriculturalshow west of the Missis-sippi, and the largestand longest running inthe Northwest, the NWAg Show will feature theag industry’s newestproducts, services, ex-

perts and information.“For 2012 we’ve

brought the industryseminars and meetingsback on-site,” said NWAg Show Manager, AmyPatrick. “Both ex-hibitors and attendeeshave asked that we finda way to keep every-thing at the PortlandExpo Center and we’vedone that 2012 show.”

Patrick continued,“With tens of millions ofdollars of farm equip-

ment on display andhundreds of onsite ex-perts, this is a great op-portunity to see what’snew and get all the in-formation you needfrom the top names inthe business. Year afteryear, Ag Show atten-dees agree that this isthe most importantfarming event they at-tend. Between themeetings, seminars,exhibits and displays —it’s all here under one

roof.” From large farm oper-

ations, tree farms andorchards to vineyards,small acreage farmersand nurseries, there’ssomething for every-body involved in North-west agriculture at theNW Ag Show. With hun-dreds of exhibitors, theNW Ag Show is jam-packed with ag-relatedproducts, services andequipment.

Still in the planning

stage, the 2012 showwill feature an all-in-dustry roundtable dis-cussion with variousstate legislators. Thiswill be a “don’t miss”event as the industryshares their vision forNorthwest agriculturalinterests and growthwith some of the state’skey decision-makers.

Back for their eighthyear at the show, theFFA Equipment Compe-tition welcomes highschools from aroundthe region to partici-pate.

“We’re seeing moreand more high schoolsattend the show, somefrom as far away as Pi-lot Rock,” Patrick said.“Certainly, the showand competition is adraw, but thanks to ourshow sponsors we’vebeen able to offer travelscholarships that helpdefray the cost of fuel

and other costs associ-ated with attending theshow. FFA members areadmitted to the showfree-of-charge.”

Family Day, a popularone-day event, offers asingle $15 admissionticket for the entirefamily on Wednesday,Jan. 25.

Show hours are Tues-day, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.;Wednesday, 10 a.m. to9 p.m.; and Thursday10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There’s a completelisting of seminars, ex-hibitors and show de-tails online atwww.nwagshow.com.

The NW Ag Show isproduced by the North-west Horticultural Con-gress. The NW Horticul-tural Congress includesrepresentatives fromOregon Association ofNurseries, Oregon Horti-cultural Society and theNut Growers Society.

New features,on-site seminars planned for NW Ag Show

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Contact Owner • 518-568-5115or Hubbell’s Real Estate • 607-547-5740

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by Anna Meyerhoff,Bilingual Farm SafetyEducator, NYCAMH

Worker hygiene andsanitation practicesduring sorting, pack-ing, and transport playa critical role in mini-mizing the potential forcontamination of freshproduce. Additionalsafety topics such asbiosecurity, mechani-cal hazards, safe liftingpractices and forkliftsare also important todiscuss with yourworkers. Good hygieneand safe work prac-tices will help keepeveryone in your pack-ing house safe andhealthy.

Personal Hygieneand Safe Food Han-dling practices are cru-cial in keeping fruitsand vegetables cleanand safe to eat, and inreducing illnessesamong workers. Goodpersonal hygiene in-cludes proper handwashing before start-ing work, before andafter using the toilet,before and after eatingor smoking, and afterhandling garbage. Hereare some other person-al hygiene tips:

Cover coughs andsneezes to avoidspreading germs toothers or contaminat-ing produce

Clean and bandageany open wounds orcuts, and wear glovesto keep dirt and germsout

Shower daily andwear clean clothes towork

Stay home if you aresick, and report any ill-ness to your supervisor

Biosecurity helps toassure the safety andsecurity of produce bycontrolling access tothe packing house andfields. Buildings andvehicles should belocked at night. Chem-icals and pesticidesshould be stored in alocked area. Employeesshould be aware, andreport anything suspi-cious to their supervi-sor such as strangers,abnormal activities,and unusual sub-stances in the work-place. Visitors shouldreport to the mainoffice.

Mechanical Hazardsare present in packinghouses. Equipmentwith moving parts cancatch loose clothing,jewelry, and long hair.Employers shouldmake sure all shieldsand guards are onequipment. Be sure totrain employees onproper operation ofprocessing line equip-ment, the location ofthe nearest shut offswitch for each work-station, and the appro-priate attire and per-sonal protective equip-ment (PPE) to wear. Asa general rule, employ-ees should wear close-fitting clothing to re-duce the risk of entan-

glement injuries. Jew-elry should be re-moved, and long hairshould be tied back.Gloves, safety glasses,hearing protection,aprons, and hairnetsor hats may be neces-sary, depending on thework task.

Safe Lifting and Car-rying practices helpprevent back injuriesto workers. When lift-ing a heavy load, keepa straight back andbend the knees. Alwayslift using the musclesof the legs, and try tokeep the load close tothe body, betweenwaist and shoulderheight.

Forklifts represent ahazard in packinghouses. Most injuriesoccur to bystanders, soall workers should bealert and make surethey are visible to theoperator. A hornshould sound when theoperator is backing up,at intersections, travel-ing through doors, andanywhere the opera-tor’s vision is limited.Forklift operators needto be trained and au-thorized to operate aforklift. They shouldnot use drugs or alco-hol before coming towork or on the job. Op-erators should careful-ly read the labels ofover-the-counter orprescription drugs tobe sure there are noside effects whichmight impair their abil-

ity to operate equip-ment safely. A dailywalk-around inspec-tion of the forklift isimportant in order todetect any problemsprior to use. Any fork-lift that is not in good,safe working ordershould be put out ofservice until the prob-lem has been fixed.Never allow workers toride on a forklift orstand under the forks.

A rose by any other namemay smell as sweet, but anapple by another namecould fetch a much sweeterprice for farmers.

Using experimental auc-tions, researchers at CornellUniversity’s Charles H.Dyson School of AppliedEconomics and Manage-ment tested participants’willingness to pay for fivedifferent varieties of apples,including a new, patentedvariety developed at Cornell,currently named NY1. Par-ticipants didn’t know aboutthe apples’ history or theCornell connection, but theylearned about each variety’sattributes, such as sweet-ness and crispness, andthey tasted slices of each.

The researchers’ conclu-sion? Consumers were will-ing to pay more for NY1,and they were willing to pay

still more when it had an“exciting, sensory” name,said assistant professorBradley J. Rickard. He pre-sented the research Nov. 8at the New York ProduceShow and Conference inNew York City.

Rickard and co-authorsTodd Schmit, Miguel Gómezand Hao Lu, all of the DysonSchool, wanted to test theinfluence of branding onpatented fruit varieties.

“There are a lot of brandsthroughout the grocerystore. The one exception isfresh produce,” Rickardsaid. “But in the case of ap-ples, pears, tomatoes andpeaches, that’s the oneplace in the fresh producesector where you have achoice. Not really acrossbrands, but across these va-rietal names.”

And what’s in a name?

Quite a bit, it turns out.Apple names generally fall

into three categories,Rickard said: sincere namesbased on a breeder or loca-tion, such as Cortland orGranny Smith; sophisticat-ed names, which usuallyhighlight the fruit’s appear-ance, such as Red or GoldenDelicious; and excitingnames that evoke the tasteor texture of the apple, suchas Honeycrisp.

In the experimental auc-tion, the researchers testedthe new Cornell apple underthree names: sincere“Williams,” sophisticated“Burgundy Beauty” and ex-citing “Flavor Haven.”

In all cases, the averagebid for the new apple was 12percent higher than the av-erage for four other apples(Empire, Fuji, Honeycrisp,and Piñata). With the Flavor

Haven name, the averagebid jumped to 27 percentover the other varieties.

Perhaps most interesting,Rickard said, bids on NY1influenced bids on the othernew, patented Washingtonapple, Piñata, but made nodifference in bids on thetraditional varieties.

New York grocery shop-pers already enjoy a wideselection of apples — in-cluding some of the 66 vari-eties developed at Cornell,such as Cortland, Empire,Macoun and Jonagold —but new, patented varietiesare starting to hit shelves.These varieties often sell fora premium, but they’re alsomore expensive to grow, asfarmers have to buy licensesto grow them.

Historically, public uni-versities developed new ap-ple breeds and released

them to the public. But in1980, the Bayh-Dole Actgave universities the right toretain the intellectual prop-erty rights for their re-search. In May 2010, Cor-nell forged a partnershipwith a new industry group,the New York Apple GrowersLLC, to establish an exclu-sive licensing agreement forthe new apple varieties, NY1and NY2. “The license willentail some fairly substan-tial upfront fee. It could be$1,500 an acre upfront,”Rickard said. “Then onceyou sell a box of fruit, youalso need to pay a royalty.”

Rickard’s primary re-search interest is determin-ing the best price and setupfor that license. In Septem-ber, he was awarded a two-year, $348,700 USDA grantto study that topic.

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Apples with catchy names may boost revenue for farmers

Packing house safety

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SPOKANE, WA — Agri-culture Secretary TomVilsack announced re-cently that the U.S. De-partment of Agricul-ture’s (USDA) Risk Man-agement Agency (RMA)will support crop insur-ance education and out-reach in 47 states to en-sure that small and un-derserved producers getthe information theyneed to effectively man-age their risk and re-main productive.

Awards totaling ap-proximately $13.6 mil-lion from two RMA pro-grams — Targeted Statesand the Education andOutreach programs —will support thousandsof American farmers,ranchers and producers.

Of that total, $651,954in partnership agree-ment awards will sup-port crop insurance edu-cation and outreach inthe Pacific Northwest Re-gion serviced by RMA’sSpokane Regional Office.“The partnerships willprovide farmers andranchers access to acomplete set of confer-ences, targeted instruc-tion, strategies, and net-working opportunities ata local level.” Dave Paul,Director of RMA’sSpokane Regional Officestated, “We are very ex-cited about the diversityof these partnershipagreements and believe,through these programs,many farmers andranchers will be betterequipped to address themany risk managementrelated challenges facedon their farms andranches.”

RMA accepted propos-als from public and pri-vate entities, includingcolleges and universities;federal, state, and local

agencies; non-profit andfor-profit organizations;and others. All partner-ship agreements werecompetitive and awardedbased on merit.

The following awardeesrepresent approved proj-ects in the RMA SpokaneRegional Office area only(representing Alaska,Idaho, Oregon, andWashington).

Northwest Center forAlternatives to Pesticides— “AGR-Lite and FarmProducts BrandingTraining for OrganicSpecialty Crop Produc-ers in Idaho” to ensurean effective program ofagricultural risk man-agement education andinformation throughsmall sessions will be es-tablished in the state ofIdaho that will meet theneeds of its producers.

Oregon Cattlemen’sAssociation — “OregonRisk Management Out-reach on Livestock RiskProtection Insuranceand Ranch, Pasture,Range, Financial and Le-gal Management for Tra-ditionally UndeservedLivestock Producers” toprovide risk manage-ment outreach and edu-cation for livestock pro-ducers in Oregon whoare traditionally under-served

Washington State Uni-versity — “Breaking NewGround — Using Agri-tourism as a Risk Man-agement Strategy in theSpokane Region” to as-sist priority producers inthe region to developnew agri-tourism enter-prises that can captureadditional income forproducers, and helpstimulate localeconomies. A major partof this project will beworking with producers

so they understand, andcan mitigate both tradi-tional risks of farming,as well as some uniquenew risks associatedwith agri-tourism.

Oregon State Universi-ty — “Expanding NicheLivestock Ranching inOregon” to strengthenrisk management pro-gramming for under-served livestock produc-ers throughout Oregon

RightRisk, LLC —“Risk Management Edu-cation for RMA’sSpokane Region: RMEon Insurance, Succes-sion Planning, Market-ing, and Financial Plan-ning to Women/New/Hispanic/Senior/Spe-cialty Crop/Other Pro-ducers in Idaho and Ore-gon” to promote sus-tained profitability foragricultural producers inIdaho and Oregonthrough effective riskmanagement decisionmaking.

Washington State Uni-versity — “EnhancingFarming Practices andMarketing Skills as RiskManagement Tools forHispanic, Asian Ameri-can, and BeginningFarmers in WashingtonState” to expand the suc-cessful implementationof “Cultivating Success”farm production and

business managementcurricula with Hmongand Latino farmers inWashington.

Washington State Uni-versity — “Educationand Outreach Project forProducers, Ranchers,Limited Resource Pro-ducers, Ranchers, Newand Beginning Farmersin Northeastern Wash-ington, RMA SpokaneDistrict” to provide mul-tiple learning and net-working opportunities inaspects of small agricul-ture risk management.

Board of Regents of theUniversity of WisconsinSystem — “Delivery ofEducational Materials toIncrease LGM-Dairy Uti-lization by Dairy FarmOperators in Generaland Limited ResourceOperators in Particularin Washington State” todevelop and subsequent-ly deliver an integratededucation program com-posed of computer-based LGM-Dairy train-ing workshops

Rural Community De-velopment Resources —“Risk Planning Educa-tion for Socially Disad-vantaged Farmers Sus-tainability in WashingtonState” to provide out-reach and create aware-ness of risk managementissues for SDA produc-

ers, provide individualrisk planning and pro-vide outreach to RMA re-gional offices in regard tothe new and beginningfarmers and the Center’srole within WashingtonState.

Institute for Washing-ton’s Future — “Produc-tion, Financial, and Hu-man Risk ManagementOutreach and Educationto Hispanic Farmers inWashington State” to de-velop and conduct a pro-motional program cropinsurance and other riskmanagement tools inSpanish.

The Risk ManagementEducation and Outreachprograms are designedto help ensure that farm-ers and ranchers effec-tively manage their riskthrough difficult periods,helping to maintainAmerica’s robust foodsupply and the survivalof small, limited re-source, socially disad-vantaged and other tra-ditionally under-served

farmers. RMA adminis-ters these partnershipprojects as well as theFederal crop insuranceprogram, with fundingand authority from theFederal Crop InsuranceAct.

RMA helps producersmanage their businessrisks through effective,market-based risk solu-tions. RMA’s mission isto promote, support, andregulate sound riskmanagement solutionsto preserve andstrengthen the economicstability of America’sagricultural producers.Federal crop insuranceprovides support toAmerican producers aspart of the “farm safetynet.” A strong farm safe-ty net is important to thevitality of American agri-culture. Complete list-ings of the agreementscan be found on the RMAwebsite atwww.rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/agreements/

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USDA invests in crop insurance education in Pacific Northwest

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Proud to be the Official Publication of:• Northeast Dairy Herd Improvement Association• New York Ayrshire Club• New York Forage & Grasslands Council• New York Beef Cattlemen• New York Brown Swiss Association• New York Corn & Soybean Growers• New York Meat Goat Association• New York Milk Producers• New York Pork Producers• Empire Sheep Producers• FARMEDIC• Maine Beef Cattlemen• New England Milk Producers Association• New England Sheep & Wool Growers Association• Vermont Dairy Herd Improvement Association

Country Folks

Country FolksYour weekly connection to agriculture.

www.countryfolks.com518-673-3237

Published by Lee Publications, Inc.PO Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428

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Country Folks Grower Classifieds(800) 836-2888E-mail: [email protected]

PO Box 121, 6113 State Hwy. 5Palatine Bridge, NY 13428 Fax: (518) 673-2381

Announcements Announcements

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JANUARY ISSUEADVERTISING DEADLINEThursday, December 15th

For as little as $9.25 - place a classified ad inCountry Folks Grower

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If you have used equipment for sale, ask about our group of weekly farm newspapers that cover from Maine to North Carolina.

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ADVERTISERSGet the best response fromyour advertisements byincluding the condition, age,price and best calling hours.Also we always recommendinsertion for at least 2 timesfor maximum benefits. CallPeg at 1-800-836-2888

Announcements

CHECK YOUR AD - ADVER-TISERS should check theirads. Lee Publications, Inc.shall not be liable for typo-graphical, or errors in publica-tion except to the extent of thecost of the first months inser-tion of the ad, and shall alsonot be liable for damages dueto failure to publish an ad.Adjustment for errors is limit-ed to the cost of that portion ofthe ad wherein the erroroccurred. Report any errorsto Peg Patrei at 518-673-3237 ext. 111 or 800-836-2888.

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Calendar of Events

DEC 13Food Safety for Local

GrowersShamrock Foods 5199 IvySt., Commerce City, CO. 9am - 3 pm. Registration at 8am. $50. Contact Chris Cas-son, 303-482-5356.

JAN 8-92012 National Green

CentreOverland Park ConventionCenter,6000 College Blvd,Overland Park, KS. Call 888-233-1876 or [email protected].

JAN 2216th Annual P.L.A.N.T.Seminar - Perennials &

Design - A Perfect Combi-nation

Greater Columbus Conven-tion Center. $75 per person..Call 614-771-8431. OnInternet at www.perenni-alplant.org

JAN 24-2643rd Annual Northwest

Agricultural ShowPortland Expo Center, 2060N. Marine Dr., Portland, OR.Call 503-769-7120.

JAN 25-28ANLA Management Clinic

Galt House Hotel & Suites,Louisville, KY. ContactANLA, 202-789-2900 or e-mail meetings@anlaorg. OnInternet at www.anla.org.

FEB 10-162012 NAFDMA Williams-

burg ConventionWilliamsburg Marriott,Williamsburg, VA. On Inter-net at www.nafdma.com/VA2012.

FEB 14-1645th Annual World Ag

ExpoInternational Agri-Center,4450 South Laspina St.,Tulare, CA. The Expo is thelargest annual agriculturalshow of its kind with 1,600exhibitors displaying cuttingedge agricultural technologyand equipment on 2.6 mil-lion square feet of showgrounds. On Internet atwww.WorldAgExpo.com

FEB 15WGGA Annual Conference

& Trade ShowRamkota Best Western,Casper, Wyoming. Call 307-234-7583.

MAR 4-6California Small Farm

Conference Hyatt Regency Valencia,Santa Clarita ConventionCenter. The state’s premiergathering of small farmers,agricultural students, farm-ers’ market managers andothers involved in the smallfarm industry. The three dayeducational conferenceincludes day long shortcourses and on farm tours;(one of the short courses isan agritourism tour.)focused workshops; engag-ing keynote addresses andnumerous networkingopportunities. On Internetat www.californiafarmcon-ference.com.

E-mail announcements of your regionalevent(s) to: [email protected] must receive your information,plus a contact phone number, prior tothe deadline that’s noted under theAnnouncements heading on the 1stpage of these Grower Classifieds.

* * *

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Regional Horticulture

Are You Involved In More Than One Industry?We Are Here to Help You.

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Familiar blueberriesand their lesser-knownwild relatives are safe-guarded by U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture(USDA) scientists andcurators at America’s of-ficial blueberrygenebank. The plants,collected from through-out the United Statesand more than twodozen foreign countries,are growing at the USDAAgricultural ResearchService National ClonalGermplasm Repository

in Corvallis, OR.The blueberries are

maintained as outdoorplants, potted green-house and screenhousespecimens, tissue cul-ture plantlets, or asseeds, according to re-search leader Kim E.Hummer.

The genebank’s pur-pose is to ensure thatthese plants, and the di-verse genepool that theyrepresent, will be pro-tected for future genera-tions to grow, enjoy,

study and improve. Forexample, plant breederscan use plants in the col-lection as parents fornew and even betterblueberries for farm orgarden.

Blueberries and sever-al other small berries areamong the fruit, nut andspecialty crops housedat the Corvallis reposito-ry, which in turn is partof a nationwide, ARS-managed network ofplant genebanks.

Likely the most com-

prehensive of its kind inthe United States, theblueberry collection nev-ertheless continues toexpand, Hummer re-ports. Some acquisi-tions, referred to as ac-cessions, are donationsfrom breeders. Othersare acquired throughcollecting expeditions,which have taken plantexplorers to Russia, Chi-na, Ecuador andUruguay, among otherplaces, as well asthroughout the UnitedStates to find new blue-berry plants for the

repository.The collection includes

species of wild blueber-ries native to the PacificNorthwest that have pig-mented flesh or pulp.Some breeders are tryingto breed some of thesespecies into the familiarhighbush blueberry thathas a white interior,Hummer noted.

If breeders can put col-or on the inside ofberries through cross-breeding the internal-color berry plants withhighbush plants, thebreeders may be able to

produce a berry thatgives fuller color toprocessed blueberryjams, jellies, juices anddried or frozen fruit.

Other prized speci-mens at the genebankmay someday becomelandscaping favorites.One example: low-grow-ing Vaccinium praestansfrom Russia, China andJapan. Also known asredberry Kraznika orrock azalea, it couldmake an interesting, at-tractive ground coverthat comes completewith edible fruit.

See us At The GREAT LAKES EXPODec. 6-8, 2011 Booth #1210

See Us AtGREAT LAKES EXPOBooths 240-242 &

311-313

World’s blueberries protected in unique, living collection

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Weeds have a greaterimpact on crop yieldsthan any other pests.Over the past severaldecades, farmers havecontinually turned tosynthetic herbicidesbecause they are themost effective deter-rent against weeds.However, demand fororganic food is rising,and public sentimenttoward synthetic herbi-cides is increasinglynegative. There is aneed — and a market— for new, naturalweed managementtools.

In an article entitled“Manuka Oil, A NaturalHerbicide with Pre-emergence Activity,”the current issue of thejournal Weed Sciencereports on the possibil-ities of manuka oil as anatural herbicide. Dis-tilled from the manukatree, this essential oilshowed good results infield tests as both apreemergent andpostemergent herbi-cide. Field tests wereconducted inStoneville, MS, againstcrabgrass, velvetleaf,pigweed, and otherspecies of broadleafand grass weeds.

Natural alternativesto synthetic herbicidesare often essential oils,used after weedsemerge to “burn down”the undesired plants.

To be an effective her-bicide, these oils oftenrequire multiple appli-cations in highamounts. The cost ofthe oil and the cost ofmaking numerous ap-plications drive up theoverall expense.

Manuka oil containsnatural beta-trike-tones, which target thesame plant enzyme assome commercial syn-thetic herbicides. Withthis component, smallamounts of manuka oilcan be combined witha commercial organicherbicide of lemon-grass oil to achievegreater results. In thisstudy, this combina-tion made the lemon-grass oil more potent

in postemergent appli-cations, causing asmuch as a 94 percentreduction in dry weightof remaining crabgrasscollected.

However, it is the po-tential of manuka oilas a preemergent treat-ment that makes it anattractive option fordeveloping a new natu-ral herbicide. Largecrabgrass growth wasreduced 50 percent to90 percent in the cur-rent study, dependingon the dose of manukaoil used. No other es-sential oil currently incommercial use forweed control hasshown such strong ac-tivity.

Agrochemical compa-

nies are looking for“greener” options tomeet market and gov-ernment demands.This study found thatmanuka oil and itsmain active ingredient,

leptospermone, werestable in soil for up to7 days, with half-livesof 18 and 15 days, re-spectively. This longer-lasting, but natural, ef-fectiveness opens more

possibilities for this oilin both organic andconventional farming.

For more informa-tion, view the entire ar-ticle at www.wssajour-nals.org.

Growing Systems, Inc.2950 N. Weil St. Milwaukee, WI 53212

Ph (414) 263-3131 Fax (414) 263-2454

VandanaTubeless SeederSows entire tray at one dropTemplates easy to changeWill handle any tray size.

TravellingIrrigatorCustom-built to fit yourgreenhouse or crop shelterfrom the highest qualitycomponent parts.

Growing TraysAvailable in many sizes and styles tomatch a wide variety of needs.

Plug DislodgerDesigned to accommodateseveral sizes of plug trays,using a common frame.

See Us At TPIE

Jan. 18-20, 2012Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Booth # 1007

Manuka oil shows promise as effective but natural weed deterrent

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As we enter our 66thyear in the seed businesswe continue towards ourmission of helping farmfamilies feed theirfriends and neighbors athome and around theworld. We are continual-ly evaluating vegetablevarieties as we strive to

bring growers the bestavailable products fortheir market opportuni-ties.

For the 2012 season

we have added over 30products to our commer-cial vegetable seed cata-log including beans,broccoli, corn, peppers,

pumpkins, squash,tomatoes and watermel-on. Several sweet cornvarieties have beenadded including the new

Performance Series™from Seminis.

Ka-Ching, a 78 day,synergistic bi-color fromCrookham is everything

a grower desires in qual-ity, ear size and yield.The plant has greathealth and architecture

Rupp offering more than 30 new products

Country FolksSECTION B

WEST

New Varieties

WeeeeeOne

Tirreno

Passion II

Obession II

Majus

Xanthi, Belcanto andOranos peppers.

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which translates intoyield potential. It isrugged and adaptablewith a large ear for itsseason. The uniformityof the ears in size, place-ment and maturity,lends itself to machine

harvesting. It also dis-plays a nice package forthe consumer in its tipfill, husk protection andeating quality.

Give your early cornmarket a boost by plant-ing Cuppa Joe to followEspresso. Cuppa Joe,from Seneca Vegetable

Research, is a 73 daysynergistic bi-color thatprovides an 8 to 8 1/2inch ear. It offers excel-lent eating quality for anearly corn along with thecold soil vigor and a cleansturdy plant you look for

in an early time slot.Allure is a 75 day syn-

ergistic bi-color fromSeneca Vegetable Re-search with excellenteating quality. Allureproduces a very refined8-by-1.75 inch ear withstrong tip fill, good huskcover and great flagleaves. This is the perfectvariety for growerswhose consumers de-mand quality.

We are excited to beable to offer growers thenew Performance Se-ries™ sweet corn hybrids

from Seminis. These hy-brids are the only freshmarket sweet corn hy-brids proven to have:outstanding yield, up to85 percent less insecti-cide use, dual mode ofaction for above-groundinsects, below-groundprotection, tolerance toRoundup WeatherMAX®and Roundup Power-MAX® and taste and nu-trition value on par withconventional counter-parts. The PerformanceSeries hybrids include:Obsession II, Passion II

and Temptation II.We are pleased to be

able to offer growersthree new conical pep-pers for the 2012 sea-son. Belcanto (red), Ora-nos (orange) and Xanthi(yellow) from Enza Zadenare high quality peppershaving superior flavorwhen compared to bellsof the same color. Theyproduce high yields ofmature colored pepperswith little yield reductioncompared to green.These 6-7inch pepperswould be ideally market-ed in multi-coloredpacks and will be sure tocatch the eye of yourcustomers. Your cus-tomers can dice them foruse in flavorful fresh sal-sas, larger pieces forstir-frys, serve stuffedfresh or roasted as a newkind of wrap that can bea feature on the platebut not dominate asmost bell peppers would.

We’re excited to releasea new jack o’ lanternpumpkin. WeeeeeOne isa new unique miniaturepumpkin, with powderymildew resistance. The3-by-3 inch fruit haveshallow ribs and a fullround shape similar totraditional jack o’lantern pumpkins.Weeeee One can becarved and brings a newlook to fall decoration.

2011 was a launchyear for Tirreno, a newcantaloupe from EnzaZaden. Growers hadgreat success producingthe 4-6 pound fruit. Tir-reno has shown tremen-dous plant health in thefield which provides theopportunity for excellentyield potential. Tirrenohas absolutely the besteating quality of any va-riety that we have mar-keted to date. For 2012we are offering Majus abig brother to Tirreno.Majus shares many ofthe characteristics withlarger 6-8 pound fruitand coarser netting. Thisis a must try for your2012 growing season.

"From Asparagus toZucchini with everythingin between, for Profes-sional Growers of anysize" — and with over1,100 vegetable varietiesfrom all the major veg-etable breeders, RuppSeeds is uniquely able tohelp farm families feedtheir friends and neigh-bors at home andaround the world.

To request your copyof our 2012 Commer-cial Vegetable Seed cat-alog, visit our websiteat www.ruppseeds.comor give us a call at800-700-1199.

HAPPY HOLIDAYSFrom the Staff at

Country Folks Grower

Ka Ching Cuppa Joe Allure

Rupp from B1

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SummitSummit Pumpkin is

fast becoming the stan-dard of comparison forlarge fruited pumpkins.Fruit average 30 to 40

lbs., are dark orangeand nicely ribbed. Han-dles standout for size,durability and blackcolor. Plant is semi-bush. Maturity is 95

days. Summit has ho-mozygous resistant toPowdery Mildew.

ApogeeApogee Pumpkin is

possibly the largestfruited Powdery Mildewresistant pumpkin onthe market today. Fruitaverage 40 to 50 lbs.,

are dark orange withgood ribbing and extra-large handles. Plantshave large vines. Matu-rity is 105 days.

Rascal PMRR Pumpkin

Rascal PMRR Pump-kin has homozygous re-sistance to PowderyMildew and heterozy-gous resistance toWMV and Phytophtho-ra. Pink fruit are large,flat, deeply furrowed,thick-walled and semi-hard shelled. Fruit av-erage 30 to 40 lbs. Ma-turity is 100 days.

PrudencePrudence Pumpkin is

a smaller version ofSummit. Fruit average20 to 25 lbs, are darkorange and well ribbedwith a large, thick han-dle. Plant is semi-bush.Maturity is 90 days.Prudence has homozy-gous resistant to Pow-dery Mildew.

ProgressProgress Pumpkin is

perfect for markets de-siring a smaller carvingpumpkin. Fruit average7 to 10 lbs., are verydark orange, very wellribbed and have a longtwisting handle. Plantis semi-bush. Maturityis 100 days. Progresshas homozygous resist-ant to Powdery Mildew.

For more informationvisit www.pumpkinveg-etableorganicseeds.com.

Outstanding new varieties from Outstanding Seed Company LLC

Apogee

Progress

SummitRascal

Prudence

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Porcelain Doll F1Porcelain Doll is an

eye-catching, exoticPink Pumpkin perfectfor all holiday decora-tions. Porcelain Doll’sdeep-orange, sweetflesh can be used forpies, soup, and gour-met culinary delights.

Full vine plant habit.Good Powdery Mildewtolerance. 20-24 lbs.

Limon

Limon is a commer-cial green zucchini withan open bush habit andvery low spine count.Unusual and eye-catching lime-greenfruit with lemon-yellow“effervescent” colormixed in for the gour-met market.

Golden GirlGolden Girl is a Hy-

brid, Yellow Zucchini

Squash. This top yield-ing hybrid seed bringstogether an outstand-ing, true golden yellowcolor and a strong,open bush habit. An at-tractive presentation ofconsistent quality andshape make this yellowzucchini a winner. Tol-erant to PowderyMildew 2.

BootyBooty is a hybrid, de-

terminate, open field

tomato characterizedby strong yields. Fruitare dark red and firmwith good tomato taste.A beautiful tomato thathas wonderful flavorand is perfect for EastCoast production. Did

very well in trials and isstill under test for tol-erances.

NapoliNapoli is a hybrid,

Tuscan type melon thatfeatures a high brix,bright orange flesh witha tight cavity and a vig-orous vine with a terrif-ic canopy for fruit pro-tection. Tolerant toPowdery Mildew Race 2and Fusarium Race 1and 2, Watermelon Mo-saic Virus.

Orange SherbetOrange Sherbet is a

hybrid, Tuscan, east-ern shipper cantaloupethat exhibits extremelyhigh quality. Combin-

ing a high brix with astrong melon flavor,Orange Sherbet is oneof the best eating mel-ons available. A highfiber content gives thismelon variety goodshipping ability. Or-ange Sherbet’s appear-ance makes for an at-tractive display. Toler-ant to Powdery MildewRace 2 and FusariumRace 1 and 2, Water-melon Mosaic Virus.

AmarilloAmarillo is a hybrid,

golden, indeterminatecherry/cocktail tomatothat can be grown in agreenhouse or openfield with excellent leafcover. Featuring a tastethat is outstanding,

Amarillo’s fruit changesfrom yellow to gold withmaturity with 20-80fruit per cluster. This isan early maturingtomato — just 75 days.Tolerant to TobaccoMosaic Virus, Verticilli-um Wilt and FusariumWilt.

SummertimeSummertime is a hy-

brid, triploid watermel-on that is a tremen-

dous variety for anywatermelon program.Summertime’s ultra-sweet flesh is testing inthe range of 4-5 on thepenetrometer andmany fields have hadbrix readings of 11-12.With excellent shippingqualities and an attrac-tive, well-definedflesh/rind margin,Summertime is an ex-citing new watermelon.

Red RockRed Rock Seedless

Watermelon features ahigh brix content withexcellent shipping ca-pabilities and shelf life.

Small seed pips.

Red HeadRed Head is a hybrid,

open field/greenhouse,saladette type Romatomato. Red Head fea-tures a compact habitand is ideal for thefresh market. Determi-nate at 70 days to ma-turity.

TandyTandy features a

strikingly beautiful off-white color with astrong, medium darkgreen handle. Tandy isan excellent yielderwith a medium vinehabit. Ideal as an edi-ble pumpkin or noveltycolored pumpkin. Formore information onthis and many moregreat varieties, visit usat www.dpseeds.com.Buy online at www.ne-seed.com.

New varieties from NE Seed

LimonPorcelain Doll F1

Golden Girl

Booty

Napoli

Orange Sherbet

Amarillo

Summertime

Red Head

Red Rock

Tandy

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Stokes Seeds pridesitself in the number ofvegetable trials it putsout each year. Each va-riety is “Stokes Tested”in many geographic ar-eas in the Northeast,Midwest, and Canadaor it does not go in the2012 Stokes SeedsCommercial GrowersGuide. Generally eachvariety is tested formultiple years in nu-merous locations. Thisstrategy was especiallybeneficial in 2011 withthe challenges of vary-ing temperatures andprecipitation. Whetherit is green beans orseedless watermelon,you can be certain thatyou are getting thebest new varieties onthe market. Growersdo ask for “StokesTested” varieties.

Following are com-ments on some of ourfavorite new “StokesTested” varieties.

In green beans, In-spiration and Wyatthad exceptional yearsin Stokes trials. Inspi-ration is a classy highquality 5.7- inch beanwith an upright plantthat set well in theheat in 2011 and alsoholds well in the field.It has demonstratedsome tolerance to sea-son Midwest viruscomplex and whitefly.Wyatt had a very con-sistent yield in thespring and fall of 2011,of nice dark greenpods, 4-sieve in diame-ter and is 5.7 incheslong on an uprightplant. It has excellentbacterial disease andvirus resistance.

Archimedes pepperwas introduced lastyear and performedvery well in both trialsand production fieldsthis year. Archimedesis a 76-day green tored blocky bell pepper.It has resistance toBLS 1,2,3 and interme-diate resistance toPhytopthora.

Sugar cube can-taloupe was the pre-ferred variety for tasteand yield in 2011. It isfor the farm marketthat is looking for asmaller high qualitypersonal size 2 LBmelon. It has high sug-ars (14 percent brix),deep orange flesh,tight interior, amazing

taste and excellent dis-ease tolerance.

For those growersthat raise onions for

storage, Hendrix is thenew onion for you. It isa nice 106-day long

day onion with a medi-um gold color, longstorage, and a niceglobe shape. This vari-

ety performed very wellover a wide geographicarea in 2011.

Ask your Stokes

Seeds Sales Represen-tative about thenewest “Stokes Tested”varieties.

Coming Soon - The newest publicationin the Lee Publications, Inc. family of

agricultural papersWine and Grape Grower will offer fea-

tures, news and information on growinggrapes, and making and selling wines.

As readers of Country Folks andCountry Folks Grower you know thevalue of our publications as you run andimprove your business.

If your current business or futureplans include grapes or wine you cannow have a publication with thosesame benefits for that branch of yourbusiness.

Subscribe today and don’t miss asingle issue.

If you have friends or family whowould be interested please feel free toshare with them also.

If your business provides products or services for the grape growers and wine makers, pleasecontact us for information on marketing opportunities to this important segment of agriculture.

You can reach us at P.O. Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428 or call 880000--221188--55558866 •• Fax 551188--667733--22338811 •• Email: ddwwrreenn@@lleeeeppuubb..ccoomm

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or [email protected]

Deadline Dec. 1

New ‘Stokes Tested’ varieties available for 2012

Archimedes Hendrix Inspiration Sugar CubeWyatt

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Following are severalnew varieties that we areoffering for 2012. Feelfree to visit our website,www.noursefarms.com,for our complete listing ofvarieties. Our 2012 cata-log will be available in De-cember. Contact us for afree copy at 41 RiverRoad, South Deerfield,MA 01373, telephone413-665-2658, fax 413-665-7888, or [email protected].

Mayflower Strawberry(EM-995) (U.S. PlantPatent Pending) *Exclu-sive to Nourse Farms

We are introducingMayflower as a new late-

midseason variety. Bredby David Simpson at theEMR East Malling Re-search Center, U.K.,Mayflower exhibits highproduction and firm, highquality berries. Mayflowerwas identified in our testplots in a very wet fruit-ing season, as the fruitstood up under difficultconditions. In our ad-vanced grower trials, 80percent of the growers re-sponding to our surveysaid the variety per-formed well in their trialand that they would plantit again. We highly recom-mend Mayflower for trialplantings.

Octavia Red Raspberry(Licensed Variety) *Ex-clusive to Nourse Farms

This is a new late-sea-son floricane raspberrythat we first offered in2011. It is the latest fruit-ing summer variety avail-able. Octavia will pickseven to 10 days laterthan Encore and until theearly primocane varietiesbegin. Octavia is highlyproductive with good fla-vor and firmness. Consid-er Octavia for fresh mar-ket applications. We arestill learning about levelof winter hardiness, butrecommend trialing it inareas where late season

production is desired.Natchez Blackberry

(Plant Patent 20,891) Natchez is a recent re-

lease from the Universityof Arkansas breeding pro-gram. This is the earliestripening thornless varietywith very high productionpotentials. Very large andgood tasting berries canbe harvested during athree-to-five week sea-son. Due to its semi-erectgrowth habit, Natchezperforms best with a trel-lis. We highly recommendthis variety.

Prime Ark® 45 Black-berry (Plant PatentApplied For)

Prime Ark® 45 is a newrelease from the Universi-ty of Arkansas breedingprogram. It is a thornyprimocane-bearing black-berry with an erect grow-ing habit. Fruit size ismedium-large and trialsindicate that Prime-Ark®45 is much more produc-tive than Prime Jim. Fruitholds up well after pick-ing and is suitable forshipping. The floricanefruiting season is afterPrime-Jim and Natchezand before Ouachita.Early indications are thatthe primocane cropripens later than Prime-Jim. Ripening may be toolate for some northern ar-eas, but will extend theblackberry season for sit-uations where late fruit isdesired. We would recom-mend Prime Ark® 45 asthe outstanding primo-cane-bearing blackberry.

Portola Strawberry(U.S. Plant Patent No.20,552)

This is a strong day-neutral variety from Cali-fornia. Fruit is lighter incolor than most everbear-ers and should be har-vested before fully red. Ithas good flavor with alarge crop that is as earlyas Evie-2. Recommendedfor beginners, this varietywill perform in warmerclimates. Recommendedfor zones 5-7.

Daroyal Strawberry(Licensed Variety) *Exclu-sive to Nourse Farms

Daroyal is our secondintroduction from the Dar-bonne-Inotalis breedingprogram in France. Daroy-al is vigorous with strongrooting capacity. Berrieshave an attractive conicshape, darker red color,good internal color and aglossy appearance. Ourproduction fields showhigh yields during a longseason. Daroyal will easilycompete with Honeoye dueto its excellent flavor. Thisberry ripens quickly, werecommend harvestingevery other day.

Monterey Strawberry(U.S. Plant Patent No.19,767)

This is a moderate day-neutral cultivar from Cal-ifornia. It has great flavor,like Seascape, while moretolerant to high summertemperatures. This planthas good leaf disease re-sistance, but is suscepti-ble to powdery mildew.Recommended for begin-ners and experiencedgrowers. Recommendedfor zones 5-7.

Albion Strawberry(U.S. Plant Patent No.16,228)

Albion produces verylarge fruit that is mostlyconical, very firm and redin color. Its flavor is verygood for a day-neutral. Toget the high yields it is

capable of producing,this variety will need astronger watering andnutrient program thanany other everbearer.Wider plant spacing willdeliver the largest berries.It is resistant to verticilli-um wilt, phytophthoracrown rot and has someresistance to anthracnosecrown rot. Recommendedfor zones 5-7.

Nourse Farms offering several varieties for 2012

Albion Strawberry

Daroyal Strawberry

Mayflower Strawberry

Natchez Blackberry

Octavia Red Raspberry

Portola Strawberry

Prime Ark®

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Harris Seeds has along history of selectingvarieties that excel interms of field perform-ance, market appear-ance, and eating quality.This tradition continueswith 2012's vegetable in-troductions, whichrange from crowd-pleas-ing small pumpkins totruly mouthwateringsweet corn and melonvarieties.

Little Giant F1 Pump-kin is small in size andbig on kid-friendly ap-

peal. Its rich, dark-or-ange color and smoothsides make it great forpainting, but its lightribbing and strong, darkgreen handle give it thelook of a miniature jack-o-lantern. This beautifullittle pie pumpkin is thelatest addition to HarrisSeeds' extensive line ofpumpkins with interme-diate resistance to Pow-dery Mildew.

Crunchkin F1 Pump-kin is a hard shell ver-sion of Harris Seeds'

popular Munchkin minipumpkin and is sure tobe a hit for fall decora-tion. The flattened,deeply ribbed shape andmedium-orange, lightlyflecked color giveCrunchkin a classic,customer-pleasing ap-pearance. Best of all, thehard shell allows for ex-tended storage andThanksgiving sales.

Mirai 315 BC F1 andMirai 160 Y F1 SweetCorn are the latest inthe impressive Mirai su-

persweet series. Miraivarieties offer truly su-perb eating quality,with melt-in-your-mouth tenderness andexceptional sweetness.These introductions areboth 74 day varietiesthat produce refined,cylindrical 8-inch earsof delicious kernels onsturdy, clean plants.Strong tip fill, attractivedark green husks, andlong flags make the earslook as classy as theytaste. Mirai 315 BC is a

bicolor with nicely-con-trasted yellow and whitekernels, while 160 Yadds a midseason vari-ety to Harris Seeds' lineof full-flavored Miraiyellow corn.

Summer Sweet® SSW2001 MR F1 SweetCorn combines excep-tional supersweet flavorwith advanced seed tech-nology and powerful dis-ease protection. SSW va-rieties are bred for fuller,less wrinkled seed thanother supersweet vari-

eties, which offers moreenergy to the seedlingduring germination andallows better seed flowwhile planting. To makegrowing as smooth asplanting, SSW 2001 MRoffers resistance to thenew strains of rust(Rp1G, Rp1I) and inter-mediate resistance toNCLB and SCLB.

Solstice F1 Melon isBIG in every respect:size, flavor, and diseaseprotection. With deepsutures, heavy netting,and luscious flavor,these huge 7-9 lb melonshave the look and eatingquality of traditional“Eastern” type melons.However, they also offerthe full disease packageof newer hybrids, includ-ing resistance to Fusari-um wilt (0,1,2) and Pow-dery Mildew (1,2).

Red Bounty F1 Toma-to offers extra-large, de-licious, deep red fruit,plus resistance to Toma-to Spotted Wilt Virus.While previous tomatovarieties offered only in-termediate resistance tothis devastating disease,Red Bounty offers moreprotection, for a harvestthat lives up to the vari-ety's name.

Harris Seeds' extensiveline of untreated and or-ganic seeds includes 265vegetable varieties thisseason. Of special noteare Manny F1 OrganicCucumber and TaurusF1 Cucumber, which of-fer gourmet quality fruitin both greenhouse andfield culture.

To request a HarrisSeeds ProfessionalVegetable Growers'Catalog, call 800-544-7938 or visit www.har-risseeds.com.

Harris Seeds’ 2012 introductions perform from field to table

Mirai 315 BC F1 SweetCorn

Little Giant F1 Pumpkin

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SACRAMENTO, CA —Nearly 150 farm-to-con-sumer marketing proj-ects across the countryhave received fundingunder the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture’sFarmers Market Promo-tion Program (FMPP), in-cluding 19 projects inCalifornia drawing totalfunding of more than $1million. CDFA SecretaryKaren Ross is applaud-ing the diversity of thisyear’s awardees and arise in urban projects.

“The diversity of fund-ed programs is criticalfor the benefit of asmany Californians aspossible,” said Ross.“This ensures that fund-ing coming into our stateis money well spent andhelps us achieve accessto healthy, safe Califor-nia-grown food for allCalifornians. That’s agoal of Ag Vision, ourbroad stakeholder part-nership to plan for thefuture of agriculture.”

Nationally, over 40percent of projects fund-ed by FMPP this yearserve one or more fooddeserts, denoted by alack of access to healthyfoods in low-incomearea, and another 20percent will be imple-mented in communitieswith a poverty rate of 20percent or higher. Addi-tionally, the funding in-cludes an emphasis onElectronic BenefitsTransfer (EBT) projects,and improvements intransportation and de-livery methods, pur-chase of refrigerationequipment and improve-ments to packaging andstorage that facilitatefood access.

Among the Californiaprojects selected thisyear are:

• Round Valley IndianHealth Inc., which willdevelop a program toprovide locally-raisedproducts to schools inCovelo, CA, through aCSA.

• The Pacific CoastFarmers Market Associ-ation, Concord, CA, tostart new and existingEBT projects at two newfarmers markets in EastSan Jose, CA.

• Thai Community De-velopment Center, LosAngeles, CA, to establishthe East HollywoodFarmers Market, whichwill promote healthy di-ets, create jobs, and ex-pand access to fruitsand vegetables for low-income individuals.

• The Boys Republic,Chino Hills, CA, to: helpurban consumers andlow-income families gainaccess to healthy food byaccepting EBT benefits;train youths; create new

farmer/vendor jobs; andpromote consumption oflocally grown fruit andvegetables at Chino HillsFarmers Market and afarm/school roadsidestand.

• The Ecological Farm-ing Association, Soquel,CA, to: organize and fa-cilitate 10 direct market-ing workshops at the2012 EcoFarm Confer-ence, to include startingCSA’s and marketing tolow-income families;provide 50 scholarshipsfor beginning and social-ly disadvantaged farm-ers to participate in theconference; and conductoutreach and consumertraining to school groupson farming, nutrition,and healthy eating.

California leads thenation with more than750 certified farmersmarkets – sales venuesfor certified agriculturalproducers selling

healthy and high-qualityproduce directly to con-sumers. These marketsare now part of the fab-ric of many communitiesthroughout the state.Furthermore, farmersmarkets are an impor-tant source of fresh pro-duce to many seniorsand low-income familieswho can purchase fruitsand vegetables throughthe Senior Farmers Mar-ket Nutrition Program;the Women, Infants andChildren’s (WIC) Supple-mental Nutrition Pro-gram; and the CalFreshprogram.

Since its inception in2006, the Farmers Mar-ket Promotion Programhas awarded more than$23 million across thecountry to support di-rect producer-to-con-sumer marketing and lo-cal food projects. Pro-jects are expected to becompleted within 24

months of initiation. Thefull list of awards grant-

ed for fiscal year 2011 isavailable at

www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/FMPP .

Growing Systems, Inc.2950 N. Weil St. Milwaukee, WI 53212

Ph (414) 263-3131 Fax (414) 263-2454

VandanaTubeless SeederSows entire tray at one dropTemplates easy to changeWill handle any tray size.

TravellingIrrigatorCustom-built to fit yourgreenhouse or crop shelterfrom the highest qualitycomponent parts.

Growing TraysAvailable in many sizes and styles tomatch a wide variety of needs.

Plug DislodgerDesigned to accommodateseveral sizes of plug trays,using a common frame.

See Us At TPIE

Jan. 18-20, 2012Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Booth # 1007

Seasonss Greetingss AndHappyy Neww Year!

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Secretary Ross applauds diversity of California projects

GR Northwest 12.11

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