- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The annual Blueberry Open House at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center last month warranted lengthy coverage by Western Farm Press.
Freelance writer Dennis Pollock reported that Manuel Jimenez, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Tulare County, a small-scale farming expert, walked among the mature blueberry plants at Kearney, describing their good points and bad points.
"The perfect blueberry would be one that is big, firm, sweet, easy to harvest and grows in high pH (soil conditions)," he said.
At the event, Richard...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As blueberries have become more a popular plant for home gardening, variety choices have blossomed, wrote Laura Christman in the Redding Record Searchlight.
When it comes to flavor it's hard to go wrong with any variety of homegrown blueberry, said Manuel Jimenez, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor specializing in blueberries.
"All the varieties that ripen on the plant are good," said Jimenez, who is based in Tulare County.
Among the varieties Jimenez recommends are Misty, Reveille, Sharpblue, Star, Legacy, Emerald and Jewel.
The...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Persistent cool, wet weather has pushed California's blueberry ripening back 7 to 10 days, but farmers are expecting a bountiful harvest of the antioxident-rich fruit, reported the Fresno Bee today.
Typically, some varieties are ready at the end of April and "by the second week of May we're going," UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Manuel Jimenez told Bee food writer Joan Obra.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Riverside Press-Enterprise may have the last word on blueberries for the 2009 season. Reporter Sean Nealon wrote two stories for last Saturday's paper about the Inland Empire's fledging blueberry industry.
One story reported on a Temecula blueberry farm where most of the fruit is harvested by the consumers themselves. The other story suggested that blueberries can make nice landscape plants. Both stories proffer the antioxidant-rich fruit with less strain on the pocketbook.
In the U-pick article, the reporter...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Stories about blueberries are still trickling in. Today, the Visalia Time-Delta reported on the fact that 35 percent of California blueberries are produced in the newspaper's Tulare County circulation area.
For the story, reporter Hillary Meeks spoke to Steve "Doc" Blizzard, a local blueberry farm manager. He said the company started growing blueberries with encouragement from Manuel Jimenez, the UC Small Farm Program farm advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Tulare County.
Jimenez recently arranged for several Central Valley growers interested in the crop to take a tour of the Lagomarsino blueberry farm,...
