Posts Tagged: specialty crop
When Life Gives You Valencias, Make Lipstick?
This is a post from BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40946159
From fashion to energy - the rind and seeds of Sicily's most famous citrus fruit, the humble orange, are being used in a range of greener, healthier business initiatives.
In 2011, Adriana Santonocito was a design student in Milan when she first had the idea of making sustainable textiles from what was naturally abundant, and widely wasted, in her native Sicilian city of Catania.
Her challenge was to find a way for the rinds of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oranges to be put to good use.
Now, thanks to her creative thinking, it is possible to make whole items of clothing using fibre that originated from the fruit.
Chemical process
Ms Santonocito's concept was inspired by a question posed in her university dissertation. Could a luxurious silk foulard be made from citrus by-products, that would otherwise be thrown away or fed to cattle? Fiber uses chemical reagents to separate the cellulose from the orange remains
The question was particularly relevant in Sicily, where many thousands of tonnes of citrus fruit are juiced every year, leaving massive amounts of waste.
The 39-year-old found her answer in the university's labs, and it earned her a patent.
It was already known that cellulose could be extracted from orange rinds. But Ms Santonocito discovered that, using chemical reagents, it could then be turned into yarn, which could be dyed and blended with other textiles, such as cotton or polyester.
Together with her university colleague Enrica Arena, she founded Orange Fiber in 2014, and set about selling the silk-like material to clothes-makers. head up a 12-strong team
This year, the famous Italian fashion label Salvatore Ferragamo used it in its spring-summer collection. The aim was to make its high-end shirts, dresses and foulards more sustainable.
Orange Fiber, which now has a team of 12 people, operates from a local juice-processing plant, where it gets its waste material for free.
The business is partially seasonal, operating during the months of the year when the juice-maker works. But once the orange rind has been transformed into cellulose, it can be put in storage for use later.
Antonio Perdichizzi, an early investor in Orange Fiber, says the firm stood out to him because, unlike most innovative start-ups in Italy, it isn't digital.
Fiber uses the rinds of juiced oranges
"Italy doesn't invest much in innovation, but brilliant ideas and skills win despite a lack of resources," he adds.
Rosario Faraci, a professor of business, economics and management at the University of Catania, says the firm is an example of how "creativity and entrepreneurial spirit" is creating new jobs and businesses in the region.
Fibre - not fat
Oranges could also make baked goods healthier, and stay fresher, thanks to a new procedure which transforms them into an innovative fat-free flour.
The new technique is currently being tested at the University of Catania and results are encouraging.
At the moment, almost all bakers use fat, such as butter or margarine in their cooking.
But according to the research, half of this fat could be replaced by using flour obtained from orange rinds, seeds, and part of the pulp not used in juice-making. near Catania, liked the new flour
Like Orange Fiber, the researchers obtain the raw materials they need from local juice makers. They wash the rinds to remove the bitter flavour, then dry, process and whiten what remains.
Salvatore Barbagallo, a professor of agriculture at the University of Catania, says the flour is "perfectly sustainable" and costs almost nothing to produce. It also has "no impact" on the taste and fragrance of food that contains it.
His researchers made 300kg of the flour and got local bakers in Acireale, near Catania, to try it out.
The cooks, known for being conservative about new ingredients, were all happy with the results and could taste no difference in their pastries. The new flour is soluble
The researchers say they have found other uses for the flour, too.
It is soluble and can be added to drinks to provide health benefits. It could also be used by nutritionists and in medicine.
Natural fuel
Sicilian farmers have always used orange rinds as animal feed or fertiliser. But oranges can be a precious source of energy as well.
In Mussomeli, an ancient town near Caltanissetta in the middle of Sicily, orange waste products are used to make biogas which is turned into electricity.
The farm Nuova Scala used about 16,430 tonnes of rinds last year to produce 24,000 kWh of electricity.
Output varies depending on the amount of oranges produced, and the firm expects to get through 22,000 tonnes of orange waste in 2017.Disposing of oranges after they have been juiced can be expensive
Of course, all of these projects depend on local fruit companies, which produce many thousands of tonnes of citrus by-products annually.
Salvatore Imbesi, who owns the producer AgrumiGel, says the rinds, seeds and other non-edible parts of the fruit are called "pastazzo", and he produces about 40,000 tonnes of it a year.
He says Sicily as a whole produces about 200,000 tonnes, although unofficial estimates suggest the real figure could be higher.
Producers have an incentive to re-use pastazzo, because disposal can be expensive. Mr Imbesi says that in Sicily the total cost of disposal can reach 16m euros every year, "six for the cost of the transport, and 10 for the disposal itself".
Some of Sicily's fruit is sold fresh, including its famous blood oranges, with the rest turned into juices.
In 2016, the amount juiced included some 140,000 tonnes of lemons, 100,000 tonnes of blonde oranges, 100,000 tonnes of blood oranges, 20,000 tonnes of green mandarins and 20,000 tonnes of matured mandarins.
Finally, thanks to the new crop of innovative solutions, the squeezed fruit are being turned from expensive waste into exciting products.
Valencia
Interest in Kearney tea plants mentioned in the local abc 30 news broadcast Jan 2nd, 2017.
On January 2nd, 2017, abc 30 news aired a story on the 50 year old tea plants at UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. When the 1967 20-yr long Lipton tea project ended, some of the top two cultivars were kept in the general landscaping. The Global Tea Initiative at UC Davis learned that the tea plants survived for fifty years without any special treatment. The initiative plans to do some studies on these plants.
Frank Zalom, Larry Godfrey Part of Huge Federal Grant Program on Specialty Crops
DAVIS--Two UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty members--integrated pest...
Brown marmorated stink bug (Credit UC IPM, http://ipm.ucanr.edu/pestalert/pabrownmarmorated.html)
Volunteer Training April 3rd!
We need your help in promoting locally produced food in Placer and Nevada Counties!
UCCE Placer/Nevada is working to promote specialty crops at the farmers markets by conducting tasting/sampling events and by distributing produce cards and vouchers to farmers’ market shoppers. These activities are supported by a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the CDFA.
In January and February of this year, we held 5 tasting events at the Auburn Farmers’ Market. During this time, we distributed 1350 samples, 800 produce cards, and over $4000 of produce vouchers to farmers’ market shoppers. By all accounts, these events were a rousing success, and have had a lasting impact on market sales.
In order to continue making an impact, we need your help! We need volunteers who are excited about local food to help us with these tastings, as each event requires several people in the farmers’ market booth to help prepare and hand out samples and information. We will be training volunteers for the upcoming year on Wednesday, April 3rd, from 6-9 PM at the UCCE office in Auburn. For more information and a detailed job description for volunteers, click here: http://ucanr.org/sites/placernevadasmallfarms/?calitem=184643&g=22527
*Artichokes from Mars* turning up at farmers markets
Los Angeles Times food writer David Karp dubbed the exotic fruit pitahaya "artichokes from Mars" in a story which drew inspiration from a UC Cooperative Extension field day held last month at the UC South Coast Research and Extension Center.
Karp described pitahaya - also known as dragon fruit - as flaming pink, spineless cactus fruits, with neon magenta flesh and a mild, sweet flavor. They have tiny, edible black seeds, similar to a kiwi's.
UC's resident pitahaya expert is Small Farm Program advisor Ramiro Lobo, based at the Cooperative Extension office in San Diego County. He has a test planting at the Research and Extension Center with 19 varieties. Because pitahaya, which grows on climbing cacti, requires less water than avocados, they may be an alternative crop for farmers faced with water shortages. The annual pitahaya field day this year was attended by 140 home gardeners and farmers who may be interested in cultivating the unusual fruit in California.
Much of the locally grown pitahaya is sold at farmers markets and some of the pitahaya found at grocery stores is imported. According to Karp's story, USDA permitted Vietnam farmers to export irradiated pitahaya fruit to the U.S. However, the fruit's short shelf life requires it be shipped by air, an expensive endeavor.
Mexico also presents competition for U.S. pitahaya growers. Currently farmers there grow 5,000 acres of pitahaya, and USDA permits exports from fruit-fly-free districts to the U.S.
"Most of the plantings (in Mexico) currently are not in such areas, but if that changes, the fruit may become as common as mangoes here," Karp wrote.
Artichokes from Mars (Photo: Wikipedia Commons.)