Thursday, May 23, 2013
YAKIMA, Wash. -- While cherry growers don't like to see rain, a researcher helping them does. Ines Hanrahan, project manager and physiologist in Yakima with the Wenatchee-based Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, is in her sixth season evaluating sprays that reduce rain absorption by ...
Thursday, May 23, 2013 9:22 AM
Linfield College has announced it is offering a year-long program to prepare students for careers in the Oregon wine Industry. With the help of a $48,000 grant from the Chicago-based James S. Kemper Foundation, the McMinnville, Ore., college is establishing the Oregon Wine Industry Experience. T ...
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 1:20 PM
The hazelnut packing division of Blue Diamond Growers is shutting down operations in Oregon after more than three decades in the industry. The California-based farmers cooperative is primarily devoted to almonds and decided to discontinue the hazelnut sideline, just as it previously ended its inv ...
Friday, May 17, 2013 9:57 AM
A San Francisco private equity firm announced May 15 it has made a significant investment of growth capital in the Washington winery DeLille Cellars and purchased the Oregon winery Panther Creek Cellars. Bacchus Capital Management also announced it has appointed winemaker Tony Rynders as Panther's ...
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 10:44 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- Lorie Ponce is a part-time China Express cook in the deli at the Safeway grocery store in East Wenatchee. Last summer, she netted and extra $2,500 sorting cherries for Stemilt Growers Inc., the world's largest packer and shipper of sweet cherries. "It's easy money and it's har ...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 10:31 AM
PULLMAN, Wash. -- The Northwest Nursery Improvement Institute and two other entities have applied to the Washington State University Research Foundation to manage the university's new WA 38 apple variety. They are the same three that submitted letters of intent earlier and the foundation still ho ...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3:42 PM
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The frosty nights of the first week of May have turned into "perfect strawberry weather," Olympia grower Tim Spooner says. He predicted a harvest date of about June 6 or 7, a week to 10 days earlier than usual. That's a far cry from last year, when an "awfully wet" May and ...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:52 PM
WATSONVILLE, Calif. -- A commodity group here is celebrating National Strawberry Month by touting the nutritional benefits and growing popularity of the red fruit. The California Strawberry Commission is calling attention to current and ongoing research suggesting that making the berries a daily ...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 9:40 AM
PESHASTIN, Wash. -- Driving up Wenatchee Valley you pass thousands of pear trees in bright new green leaves, like kids in fresh clothes. But turning south at the Big Y on Highway 97 toward Blewett Pass, sunlight on gorgeous white pear blossoms catches your eye. The trees here were still blooming ...
Wednesday, May 08, 2013 9:56 AM
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- A weed scientist is on his way to Scotland to help Pacific Northwest growers produce raspberries that are more healthful. Tim Miller has conducted trial projects at Washington State University's Northwestern Washington Extension and Research Center to explore how weeds and ...
Wednesday, May 08, 2013 11:37 AM
EPHRATA, Wash. -- As field work goes, it's relatively easy. It involves grabbing handfuls of 5-foot-long, quarter-inch-thick steel rods from the back of a cart and pushing them into the dirt next to each budded rootstock, planted to become an apple tree. A crew of 22 men made quick work of it at ...
Tuesday, May 07, 2013 10:45 AM
SALEM -- A bill regulating winery activity on farm ground has been assigned to the House Land Use Committee after clearing the Senate by unanimous vote April 25. Senate Bill 841 scales back the number of events wineries in exclusive farm use zones can conduct from the existing 25 days to 18. ...
Tuesday, May 07, 2013 12:35 PM
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- U.S. cranberry farmers who spent millions of dollars to replant and expand bogs face a financial crisis after a huge harvest in Canada flooded the market and sent prices plummeting. Farmers in Wisconsin, the leading cranberry producer, have been working for years to expa ...
Tuesday, May 07, 2013 8:35 AM
AUBURNDALE, Fla. (AP) -- The Coca-Cola Co. says it is spending $2 billion to support the planting of 25,000 acres of new orange groves in Florida, a move officials are lauding as a major investment in the Sunshine State's citrus industry. The announcement is being made at a late-morning news co ...
Tuesday, May 07, 2013 8:25 AM
A new report analyzing rising losses of bee colonies outlines a host of explanations, emphasizing the parasitic Varroa mite as the major factor. According to the report, released May 2 by USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, mites have developed widespread resistance to the chemical ...
Monday, May 06, 2013 10:03 AM
A new report analyzing honeybee losses outlines a host of factors behind the problem, but singles out the parasitic Varroa mite as the major culprit. According to a USDA report released May 2, mites have developed widespread resistance to the chemicals beekeepers use to control them within hives, ...
Thursday, May 02, 2013 4:22 PM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- Bob Mast has been appointed president of Columbia Marketing International, a major tree fruit marketer in Wenatchee. Mast, 46, joined the company 10 years ago as director of marketing and became vice president of marketing six years ago. He succeeds Glady Bellamy as president. ...
Thursday, May 02, 2013 10:30 AM
The U.S. Department of Labor will host seminars in Eastern Washington to explain labor laws to growers and farmworkers. Employer sessions will cover the H-2A foreign guestworker program, the Migrant and Seasonal Worker Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Topics include recordkeeping, ...
Wednesday, May 01, 2013 4:29 PM
CALDWELL, Idaho -- Ron Bitner, an Idaho native and internationally known bee biologist, purchased sagebrush-covered property near Caldwell 32 years ago for the view. "It turns out it's a great spot on this earth to grow winegrapes," Bitner said. While Bitner considers himself a bee biologist fir ...
Monday, April 29, 2013 12:00 AM
WATSONVILLE, Calif. - A farmers' advocacy group is claiming success in stifling media coverage of an environmental organization's "Dirty Dozen" list of conventionally grown produce. The Alliance for Food and Farming derides as "misleading" the Environmental Working Group's annual list of what it ...
Monday, April 29, 2013 11:05 AM
Preliminary assessments show normal cherry and pear crops in California this year while it's too early for a read on apples. Cherry harvest started near Arvin and Bakersfield on April 26. The crop should total 8.1 million boxes by the time picking wraps up in Northern California in late June, ...
Friday, April 26, 2013 8:43 AM
SALEM -- A bill regulating winery activity on farm ground is now in the Oregon House after clearing the Senate by unanimous vote April 25. Senate Bill 841 scales back the number of events wineries in exclusive farm use zones can conduct from the existing 25 days to 18. The bill allows winerie ...
Thursday, April 25, 2013 2:53 PM
A bad fire blight year after 2014 could devastate some Northwest organic apple and pear growers, who have relied on oxytetracycline to control the disease, a researcher says. When the National Organic Standards Board voted April 11 not to extend the sunset for use of the antibiotic, orchardists f ...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 10:01 AM
YAKIMA, Wash. -- Tree fruit growers from Hood River, Ore., to Wenatchee, Wash., have been battling freezing early morning temperatures, and early cherries are taking a hit. "Early cherry districts are cut down some and in some cases a lot. There's definitely a reduction in the early cherry deal b ...
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 1:40 PM
A California cherry marketer got a two-week jump on the season this year by selling cherries grown in greenhouses. The same thing is being done in Spain and several other countries. Grower Direct Marketing and OG Packing, both of Stockton, Calif., announced April 22 that they were in their seco ...
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 11:21 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- Stemilt Growers Inc., the state's largest tree fruit company, will hold its annual job fair May 13 as the industry prepares for cherry season. Labor remains tight, industry sources say. As is its custom, Stemilt plans to hire about 900 people at the ninth annual fair -- 1 to ...
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