Fruit and Vegetable News

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety Kick off 2025 with a series of training opportunities to learn practical strategies to improve both the food safety and product quality of your fruits and vegetables. If you attended a farm food safety training in the past but want to sharpen your skills and learn more about specific topics, or want a refresher, these  webinars  are for you.  These  webinars  are led by UMN Extension educators, industry experts and experienced farmers.  Cost:   Webinars  are free and open for all to attend.  Register:   https://z.umn.edu/ FoodSafetyDeepDives2025 .  Registration is required. After registering, you will receive the  webinar  link. All sessions will be recorded and the links sent to registered participants.  All sessions are 9:00am - 10:15am and held via Zoom. Choose to attend some or all. Audiences: Fruit and vegetable farmers interested in expanding their sales into wh...

Marissa Schuh, IPM Extension Educator  If you have a commercial (applying pesticides for hire), noncommercial (using RUPs on property owned or controlled by your employer), or private pesticide applicator license  (apply RUPs to land or sites you own, rent, or manage for the production of an ag commodity), UMN Extension is offering an online recertification training on February 19th focused on fruit and vegetable pest updates and pesticide information. Photo by Pixabay When: February 19; 7:45-11:45 (private applicators) or 7:45-3:35 (Commercial/Noncommercial applicators) Where: Zoom (will need working microphone, camera, and sound on a laptop, desktop, or tablet) Workshop fee:  $100 for private, $145 for CNC  What:  Agenda here Registration deadline: February 12th CNC registration Private applicator registration For information on this and other recertification courses, as well as registration information, see the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Educatio...

Extension recently published a Farm to School pricing report analyzing sales to schools participating in grant programs for purchasing local foods in 2023. The report breaks down the most common crops that schools purchased, as well as average, minimum, and maximum prices for each crop. Our intention is for farmers to use this data to set prices for their products when selling to schools, and, likewise, assist school buyers to find a reasonable price to pay. Farmers can use the prices in a simple breakeven analysis or enterprise budget to make sure that their enterprise is profitable. Check out the report here.    

Extension's Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships' deep winter greenhouse team has released a new farm scale deep winter greenhouse design, available for free download. The intention with this design was to create a greenhouse that limits external heat requirements and is sized and priced to allow small and medium sized farms to build and operate profitably.  The ultimate goals of the deep winter greenhouse project are to eliminate seasonality in cold climate local food systems, increase the economic viability of the farmers that grow local foods, and to increase the availability of good quality produce year-round. To access your construction documents, follow this link. You'll be asked to provide some basic contact information so we can provide you with any updates to the design as they become available, and possibly to ask you to fill out one or two surveys over the next few years. Questions? Reach out to Greg Schweser at schwe233@umn.edu .

A new round of weather resilience grants is available to specialty crop growers in Minnesota to help cover the costs of things like water tanks and wells, irrigation equipment, fans, shade systems, windbreaks, and more. Extension is available to support growers in brainstorming climate / weather resilience practices for your farms. Applications are due February 12, 2025. Looking for ideas? Check out our new page about climate resilience strategies for specialty crop growers .  If you are interested in brainstorming ideas or looking for support with your application, please do not hesitate to reach out to Natalie Hoidal at hoida016@umn.edu.  Image: tensiometer for measuring soil moisture and fine-tuning irrigation practices The full press release from MDA is copied below: Recognizing the risks posed by extreme weather, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is offering a grant opportunity to help eligible producers make their operations more resilient to drought, floodin...

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety There is a new program from the United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency through which any farmer growing specialty crops in 2025 is eligible for funding to help get these crops to market. The application period closes by the end of day on January 8, 2025.   The new program is called Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC)  and  provides financial assistance to specialty crop producers. It is important to know that while this program is called the marketing assistance program, it does not require growers to use the funds for marketing purposes. It is in essence unrestricted funds available to specialty crop growers that they can use as they see fit. It is not a competitive grant program. The amount awarded to each producer will vary based on how many growers apply.    Who Is Eligible MASC covers producers who grow the following commercially marketed specialty crops grown in the US: F...

Dormant pruning of various fruit crops is often done after the coldest parts of winter have passed, and before bud break begins, allowing enough time to finish the total acreage. However, from now until the time you start pruning, it can be a good time to take inventory of your current pruning tools to take note of what tools you have and their condition.  In this article, we’ll discuss various tools that can be used for pruning dormant perennial fruit crops, how to best care for them, and what to do if serious corrosion happens.  Pruning tools  Hand shears and loppers: Hand shears/pruners : Also referred to as secateurs in some parts of the world, this tool can be used to cut smaller diameter branches up to 3/4-1 inch. For shrubs and vines, hand shears can be the primary tool used in pruning. Hand shears come in a variety of options: manual, ratcheting, electric, and pneumatic.  Loppers : Loppers look similar to hand shears, but they have very long handles with a bl...