In this Issue:
VEGETABLE NEWS
GRAPE NEWS
Grape Flea Beetle, Grape Berry Moth, and Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle
STRAWBERRY NEWS
Those Delicious, Risky Strawberries
Strawberry Sampling Data from MDA and Grower Cooperators
APPLE NEWS
Apple Pest Profile: Obliqubanded Leafroller
| Vol 2 No.6 | June 13 , 2005 |
Those Delicious, Risky Strawberries
Ray Kirsch, Food Alliance
Walking through a friend’s garden this week, I stopped at strawberry plants in bloom. Though the rain’s been plenty, these plants were putting the recent sun and warmth to use. There was a good chance that a garden harvest of strawberries was at hand.
This said, there’s a difference between a garden harvest and a farm harvest. When producing these little packets of deliciousness is a business proposition, and when hundreds of hands are needed for picking, then there’s more risk involved. There are many ways to mitigate this risk – from growing practices to getting the pick-your-own crowd enthused and out on your farm.
One tool that takes a holistic risk management approach to growing and marketing strawberries (and other fruits) is Food Alliance certification. Food Alliance certification tells strawberry fans that your farm is environmentally and socially responsible and that it’s local. Getting folks enthused about how and why you produce strawberries is one key to getting them to your farm. And once they’re there, you can talk with them about the great qualities of your strawberries (if any talking’s needed; quite likely tasting will do).
Food Alliance ensures that your customers “get the message” and that marketing risks are minimized by providing a marketing umbrella for a wide variety of locally produced foods. Food Alliance creates marketing tools that producers can use to their best advantage. And Food Alliance partners with Minnesota Grown to bolster the marketing of local, Food Alliance certified foods.You can look at the new strawberry marketing brochure that Food Alliance producers are using in the Midwest at:www.foodalliance.org/strawberryFINAL.pdf.
Additionally, Food Alliance certified farms, because they go through a certification process that focuses on knowledge and application of IPM, are most likely to have good crops of strawberries. To be sure, Mother Nature is in command. But monitoring and responding to Mother Nature’s cues certainly improves our chances. Thus, Food Alliance certified farms will be scouting for bud weevils. They’ll be monitoring weather conditions for gray mold. And they’ll be using thresholds for any management decisions they make.
You can read more about Minnesota strawberries and Food Alliance certified producers in Mix: http://mwnaturalfoods.coop/mix/?id=137
Ray Kirsch is the Midwest Certification Coordinator for Food Alliance. For an application or more information about Food Alliance, contact Ray at 651-653-0618, ray@foodalliance.org.
You can also learn more (and download an application) at the Food Alliance website: www.foodalliance.org.
Editors note: This article and issue of the MN Fruit and Vegetable IPM News is sponsored, in part, by the Midwest Food Alliance, St. Paul, MN. As with all sponsors, reference to products or services mentioned in this publication is not intended to be an endorsement to the exclusion of others which may be similar.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Co-Editors: Bill Hutchison ( hutch002@umn.edu), Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, Jeanne Ciborowski, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Ag. Resources Management and Development Division, and Suzanne Wold-Burkness ( woldx018@umn.edu), Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota
The Newsletter is published weekly from May through August, cooperatively, by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the University of Minnesota (U of MN). Reports are posted on the U of MN and MDA web sites on Fridays. If you have suggestions and/or comments, please send your contributions by 4 p.m., Wednesday to Jeanne Ciborowski, 651-297-3217, jeanne.ciborowski@state.mn.us , MDA, 90 W. Plato Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55107-2094. You can access the Newsletter at the U of MN web site in htm format at: www.vegedge.umn.edu/MNFruit&VegNews/mnindex.htm and at the MDA web site in pdf format at: www.mda.state.mn.us/biocon/fruitreports/
Partial funding for this publication is provided through partnership agreements with the Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (MFVGA) and the United States Department of Agriculture – Risk Management Agency (RMA). These institutions are equal opportunity providers.
DISCLAIMER
Reference to products in this publication is not intended to be an endorsement to the exclusion of others which may have similar uses. Any person using products listed in this publication assumes full responsibility for their use in accordance with current manufacturer directions.
The University, including the Minnesota Extension Service, is an equal opportunity educator and employer. ©1999-2005 Minnesota Extension Service, University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. Contact copyright@extension.umn.edu for information on reproduction or use of this material.