The next two days I will be in the field gathering ANR news, so will not be able to post to this increasingly popular ANR news blog. Tomorrow I'll attend the "Methods of Fruit & Vegetable Flavor Analysis Workshop" at UC Davis. The event is coordinated by UC Davis enology professor Sue Ebeler and UC Cooperative Extension specialist Diane Barrett. The resulting story, which I plan to post on May 1, will cover UC's role in researching and developing human and instrumental flavor perception for the fresh and processed fruit and vegetable industries.
On Wednesday, I'll be at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center, just south of Ukiah, to collect information on farm advisor Morgan Doran's research on non-chemical weed control in vineyards. He is trying to develop an aversion to the taste of grape leaves in sheep (by inducing a stomach ache with lithium chloride after they munch on grape leaves). Once these sheep have learned to avoid grape leaves, they could cleanup weeds without hurting the vines. If all goes as planned, this story will be posted on the ANR news Web site in mid-May with video and high-resolution photos.