Strawberries and Caneberries

I am currently doing a spray trial in a field ostensibly populated with both Lewis mite, Eotetranychus lewisii and twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae. To boot, there's Phytoseiulus persimilis predatory mite mixed in, which people say doesn't eat much of Lewis mite.

With some of the time that the occasional rainy days have been affording me, I've been catching up with my professional reading. In particular, an article the November 2017 edition of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau newsletter - like I said I was catching up - caught my eye.

Growing berries on the Central Coast, and in California for that matter, uses a lot of plastic. A lot of it used to be just thrown away, now some of its recycled, but still not a lot and so it just goes into the landfill or worse like having pieces left in the field or ending up in the ocean.

It's almost become part of the season to post pictures of the many ways Japanese people use strawberry in food processing. And yes, it's all quite tasty. Believe me.

This year's UCCE Annual Strawberry Production Research meeting will take place on February 5 and will be held at the Salinas Sports Complex (also known as the Rodeo Grounds) on Main Street.