Shifting sands: Late blight populations changing quickly

The symptoms of late blight don’t vary much from strain to strain, but recent evidence suggests that these strains are changing more quickly than ever before, setting growers up for an even bigger control challenges. Rick Peters, a Charlottetown, P.E.I.-based research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), told growers at this winter’s Manitoba Potato

No to more fungicide in orange juice: FDA

Reuters / The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to change the levels it will accept of an illegal fungicide commonly used in the Brazilian orange juice industry, the agency said Feb. 16. The Brazilian and U.S. juice industry groups had asked the FDA to allow higher levels of the fungicide, carbendazim, until June 2013


New Vegetable-Processing Plant Putting Down Roots In Portage

Kelly Beaulieu is cultivating more than freshness these days the former agronomist is growing opportunities and sowing the seeds of success in her hometown of Portage la Prairie. The entrepreneur has spent the last year creating Prairie Garden Puree at the Manitoba Food Development Centre, a base ingredient for food production. This is something that

Apples Promote Good Health

That apple tree is amazing. Look at this apple! my 12-year-old daughter exclaimed as she held up a large, bright-red apple. She had just come inside after using our apple picker to pluck some of the brightest-red fruits high in the tree in our backyard. We can make lots of things with apples, can t


Healthy School-Day Snack Ideas

Snacks are an important part of children s nutritional needs because often they cannot eat enough at meals to satisfy all their needs. The word snack sometimes has a bad connotation, but well-chosen snacks can add variety to our diet and keep kids fuelled for school. Think of snacks as mini-meals that can fill nutrition

Making Fruit Leather

In early history, refrigerators and freezers were not readily available to help prevent food spoilage. Food dehydration became one of the earliest forms of food preservation. Dehydration allowed people to have portable, lightweight and safe food to enjoy during cold seasons. Dehydration probably was discovered by accident when early civilizations left food out in the


Harvesting Seeds

The practice of collecting seeds from the garden is as old as gardening itself. In decades past, gardeners did not purchase many seeds; most were gathered from the garden in the fall. Harvesting seeds is not as popular as it once was. One reason is that many of the plants we now grow in our

Start Fresh This Spring, Says Vegetable Expert

After last year’s late blight apocalypse, many home gardeners have spent a dreary winter opening tin cans instead of jars of their own delicious preserved tomatoes. Added to that disheartening experience, was the sinking feeling one gets when reaching into the potato bin and pulling out the odd stinky, mushy tuber. There are no guarantees


Home And Market Garden Losses From Blight Can’t Be Ignored

Most commercial potato farmers sprayed their way through last season and ended up with a normal- enough-looking crop. But 2010 was a heartbreaking year for home gardeners, as a nasty blight worked its way across Manitoba decimating all but the most remote or chemically treated tomatoes. First word of the blight appeared in a June

Produce Can Cause Foodborne Illness

When I teach food safety classes, I often ask my students which foods they associate with particular foodborne illnesses. They usually associate chicken or eggs with salmonella. But what about produce? Salmonella infections can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. For young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, the illness