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How are you handling all the new food safety and traceability expectations?
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A New Apple Debuts |
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Six apples neatly packed in a box arrived on my desk last week. So, we pulled folks together in the office kitchen and, using the corer/slicer that came in the box, conducted a tasting.
The apples were bright red, very pretty, very crunchy, very juicy, more tart than sweet. Publisher Matt McCallum correctly guessed the parents – Jonathan and Golden Delicious – the same parents as Jonagold but a different apple.
A letter also came in the box.
It announced the North American debut of the Red Prince apple, discovered on the German/Holland border in 1994, rolled out in Europe with much fanfare two years ago and now coming to the United States by way of a grower in Canada. Marius Botden, an orchardist near Thornbury, Ontario, purchased the right to grow the apple and is now the only producer in North America.
Botden and Don Armock, president and partner at Riveridge Produce Marketing in Sparta, Mich., struck a deal for Riveridge to pack and sell the apples. They were launched in late February and sold exclusively through Meijer’s 185 stores in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, and King Soopers/City Market in Colorado.
During the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Hershey, Pa., earlier in February, one session addressed the concern of small growers and farm marketers that club apples won’t be available to them. But with so many potentially great apples having their debuts these days, the concern seemed more muted than in previous years. Farm marketers seem able to find and market niche apples more effectively now that consumers are looking for more niche apples.
The Red Prince, of course, doesn’t fit into the farm market season. But it is the latest in a parade of apples being marketed in an organized way by a single marketer – like SweeTango from Next Big Thing and Pinata from Stemilt Growers.
I’m staying tuned. Anybody else want to send me a box of apples?
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Galen Dively
Research Entomologist, University of Maryland
In preparing an article about insecticides that can be used by organic growers of fruits and vegetables, we got a chance to ask some related questions of Galen Dively, a research entomologist at the University of Maryland, who’s been focusing some attention on the subject for the last eight years.
Q. Should conventional growers take a look at any of these organic insecticides for use in their spray programs?
A. Some insecticides approved for organic use work pretty well, but few conventional growers would make them their first choice. They are usually more expensive, sometimes five times more expensive. In many cases, conventional versions of organic insecticides are available, and usually cheaper.
Q. What are some of those?
A. Entrust, for example, is a very powerful and versatile insecticide. It’s the organic version of SpinTor, so conventional growers already have that, and the organic version is much more expensive. Bts are effective, and both conventional and organic growers use them. Pyrethrum is a potent insecticide, but the synthetic version is much less expensive than the plant extract version organic growers use. Of course, both conventional and organic growers can use products like copper and sulfur for both insect and disease control.
Q. Why are you investigating organic materials?
A. Organic growers long complained that they didn’t get the research attention conventional growers did. When USDA began funding that kind of work, I began looking at it. I wanted to advise growers and I wanted funding for my students to do research. I don’t think there’s much scientific evidence for the “healthier food” claims some organic advocates make, but it’s certainly worth the effort to evaluate organic farming methods.
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