Fruit and Vegetable News

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety Not all produce needs to be washed at the farm, but some benefit from a rinse if there is visible soil. Things like fresh berries, tomatoes, zucchini, many herbs and some crops like peppers do not generally need washing until the consumer eats them. In fact, washing can significantly reduce the shelf life of many delicate crops and can lead to the produce rotting quickly.  Other crops, like salad greens, many onions and root crops almost always need to be rinsed or dunked to remove soil and remove field heat. One great option for many crops is spraying. Spraying works well because the water just washes the produce and falls away. In this way it is a "single pass", as opposed to recirculated water. Think of it as giving your produce a shower, not a bath, whenever you can.  Here are some options for spray tables that many farms have found work well. 1. Spray tables like this one from Webstaurantstore.com are sturdy, easy to...

  Article written by Madeline Wimmer, UMN Extension Education, Fruit Production Images: Different images of fire blight strikes found in a Minnesota orchard in early July.  When it comes to disease risk within an orchard, fungal disease like apple scab tend to be a top priority for Minnesota apple growers. During years with milder winters and warm spring temperatures however, one disease caused by a bacterial pathogen can become problematic—this disease being fire blight ( Erwinia amylovora ).  Fire blight can sometimes feel like an automatic death sentence for trees when growers who are new to learning about the disease. But growers and researchers who have witnessed fire blight in Minnesotan orchards often observe that it has a tendency to be less persistent than it is in warmer regions in the U.S.  Bacterial pathogens need easy ways to enter and infect a plant. Bacterial cells (i.e., inoculum) are often present in orchards, but it is the tree’s vulnerability that ...

Madeline Wimmer, Extension Educator and Soon Li Teh, Extension Specialist Grapes are a fruit crop with distinct, measurable ways to determine fruit ripeness. Harvested too early, and the fruit will be unbalanced with higher acidity and lower sugar levels. Using taste and visual cues can be informative for fresh grapes, but sweetness can often mask acidity and be deceptive.  With knowledge of the fruit development process and by using the right tools and methods to track berry ripening, a vineyard can be confident in its ability to harvest a quality crop.  Information in this article: Grape berry ripening phases How to sample berries Analyzing juice for sugar levels, pH, and titratable acidity Additional ripeness indicators  Grape berry ripening phases Grape berries generally go through three developmental stages for ripening: Stage I :  This is the earliest phase that happens right after fruit set. Cells within the berry begin to divide and multiply, which leads to a...