- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension advisor Janine Hasey has helped revolutionize the way farmers prune their walnut trees, reported Tim Hearden in a lengthy feature story published in Capital Press.
Hasey, a plant pathologist by training, conducts research and works with farmers on a wide variety of crops, plant systems and cultural methods in Sutter and Yuba counties. She called the results of the walnut pruning research "a real paradigm shift."
Hasey and Bruce Lampinen, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Proven health benefits is increasing demand for walnuts, and farmers are reacting by planting more trees, according to an article in the Chico Enterprise-Record. The trend has created a backlog for new trees.
"All the nut crops are doing very well," said Joe Connell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Butte County. Markets for almonds, pistachios and walnuts have expanded, and prices are firm, he said.
In 2011, walnuts became the No. 1 crop in Butte County. If growers want to plant new walnut orchards, they must get on a waiting list to buy them in 2015.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The lead food story in the Fresno Bee this week focused on walnuts and their local availability. An important component of the story was the red walnut, a cultivar developed by University of California breeders a decade ago.
Most walnuts grown in California have a light tan seed coat. The "Robert Livermore" walnut has a red seed coat.
"It has a very interesting color and gives consumers and farmers another option," said Chuck Leslie, staff research associate in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis.
Leslie says the nut does not taste...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Nut harvests in California are winding down, and growers of almonds, walnuts and pistachios are mostly happy with their yields, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press.
- Almond growers expect to meet an early estimate of 1.95 billion pounds statewide, which would be a record
- Pistachio growers in the San Joaquin Valley are enjoying their second-largest crop ever after last year's record yield
- Walnut growers expect this year's yield to be 485,000 tons, slightly lower than last year's 503,000 tons
"The rumors I've heard is that guys are still complaining about the quality" of walnuts, said
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A meeting this week of the American Chemical Society turned two interesting UC research projects into headline news.
UC Davis nutrition professor Paul Davis reported that walnuts slowed prostate tumors by 30 percent to 40 percent in mice, according to a UPI article. The dose was equivalent to 2.5 ounces for a typical man. Not only was prostate cancer growth reduced, but the mice had lower blood levels of a protein that is strongly associated with prostate cancer.Completely unrelated research presented at the meeting, also from UC Davis, questioned an...