- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Mandarins may look like little oranges, but scientists believe that their distinct attributes demand special treatment to maintain a fresh, juicy and tangy character.
“We think the flavor of mandarins declines much more rapidly than oranges,” said Sue Collin (right), a UC Riverside staff research associate who is based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier.
The way oranges are set out at the grocery store or on home counter tops could be trouble for the more delicate mandarin. And when mandarins make a six-week sea voyage to the Pacific Rim, will Asian consumers find the fruit...
- Author: Brenda Dawson
Unusual vegetables and fruits get me every time. Rainbow carrots? Watermelon radishes? Party cauliflower? Romanesco?
Bright colors, quirky shapes and even creative names can stop me in my tracks at any farmers market. If I can't identify it, I feel compelled to buy some to take home and share.
The small-scale farmers who are likely to be selling these tempting curiosities are counting on customers like me (and maybe you too?). They often cannot compete on low prices alone, but small-scale farmers can succeed by differentiating their products from more widely available commodities through taste, appearance, harvest time or other qualities. Planting a new specialty crop can help a small-scale framers carve out a profitable...
- Author: Penny Leff
We live in an orchard. It’s pretty much like the California dream that Sunkist and the railroads promised to people back East and to dust bowl refugees many years ago – an orange tree in your own backyard! For many of us in the Sacramento region, the dream came true.
Right now the citrus is ripe. Once you start looking, you see it everywhere – bright navel oranges, juicy grapefruit hanging in clusters, glistening lemons and sweet tangerines – some behind fences and some right out front by the street.
Often the trees are big and old, planted long ago. Much of this urban and suburban fruit doesn’t get harvested; people are too busy, the trees get too tall, or there’s just too much fruit to handle at one time. Meanwhile...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Last week (Jan. 31, 2011) the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its revised 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. They are “the federal government's evidence-based nutritional guidance to promote health, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity through improved nutrition and physical activity,” according to the press release.
I scanned the press release for news that cookies have been designated an essential food group. No luck. I confess, I didn’t read the entire 95-page pdf, but surely any such rocking revelations would have been reported in the press release.
Because more than one-third of children and more than...
- Author: Pamela M. Geisel
I was struck the other day, when hearing about the world-wide soaring cost of foods, that we are incredibly lucky to live in California where food is so readily available to us. I was listening to this news on the radio as I was returning from my weekly trek to the grocery store and farmers market loaded with wonderful local whole fruits and vegetables of really high quality. I felt so fortunate and thankful at that moment that I could buy everything I wanted or pick what I wanted from my winter garden or my fruit laden citrus trees.
You can increase your own food security by planting food in your own garden . . . and you can start by planting a fruit tree now. February is the time that you can plant what are known as...