Md. agriculture secretary blends in at S [ The Herald-Mail ] May 08, 2008  SMITHSBURG Wearing an untucked shirt and sporting a two-day beard, Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Roger L. Richardson was hard to distinguish from the farmers who gathered to meet him Thursday at Rinehart Orchards. Read More ...

Maryland ag officials to visit Washingto [ The Herald-Mail ] May 06, 2008  Maryland Agriculture Secretary Roger Richardson and Deputy Secretary Buddy Hance will visit Washington County Thursday. Read More ...

British Columbia freeze zaps orchards [ UPI ] May 07, 2008  VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 7 -- Vast swaths of fruit orchards in southwestern British Columbia's fertile Okanagan Valley have been devastated by an Arctic freeze, growers reported. Read More ...

A place for gardeners in no hurry [ Delaware Coast Press ] May 08, 2008  MILLSBORO -- East Coast Garden Center can be hard to find. And hard to leave. Read More ...

John Tory meets with growers affected by [ St. Catharines Standard ] May 08, 2008  Premier Dalton McGuinty has turned his back on local fruit growers by not doing more to save a St. Davids cannery, says provincial opposition leader John Tory. 'Mr. McGuinty and the government, they were asleep at the switch when the CanGro situation was bubbling,' Tory said. 'Then when [...] Read More ...

Bees, once a pest, are now a hot commodi [ St. Clair County Journal ] May 08, 2008  Udell Meyer is one of the countless beekeepers and farmers across the region worried that a mysterious problem in honeybees that threatened to hobble the nation's fruit industry last year is coming to Illinois. Read More ...

One Morning of Killer Cold Burns Farmers [ News10 Sacramento ] May 08, 2008  Freezing temperatures on the morning of April 20 destroyed approximately $58 million worth of crops in Sutter and Yuba counties. Read More ...

Fruit pickers [ TVNZ ] May 07, 2008  They are the saviours of our orchard industry brought here to fill the labour shortage, so why are Pacific Island workers forced to live in such shocking conditions. Read More ...

Deep fruit freeze devastates Okanagan or [ The Globe and Mail ] May 07, 2008  Cherry and apricot blossoms hardest hit, some growers predicting 90 per cent of crop damaged or destroyed Read More ...

Fruit growers miffed at no-show MPPs [ St. Catharines Standard ] May 05, 2008  Nearly 200 people showed up at Kathryn and Joe Ferretti's Port Dalhousie orchard to take a final look at the couple's clingstone peach trees in bloom. But nowhere among the crowd were the MPPs the family had invited to attend its first and last blossom [...] Read More ...

Agriculture part of Oneidas' heritage [ The Observer-Dispatch ] May 08, 2008  The Oneida Indian Nation once had extensive fruit orchards as well as vegetable gardens where they cultivated the 'three sisters:' corn, beans and squash. They also harvested native grasses like sweet grass, which can still be found in the area, said Clint Hill, a Turtle Clan representative on the Oneida Nation Council. Read More ...

Food garden competition The entries so f [ Daily Telegraph ] May 09, 2008  Last week, we launched our competition to find the best food gardens in Britain and the entries are already flooding in. Here are the pick of the bunch so far. Read More ...

One final blossom; Peach growers host fi [  ] and last, 2008  They toured Nokara Farms peach orchard in a solemn procession, many with blossom-filled branches in hand, relishing the pink blooms of spring and lamenting the loss of Niagara's fruit-canning industry. About 80 people snaked their way through the Lakeshore Road farm in St. Catharines Sunday afternoon for [...] Read More ...

Strange case of the missing bees [ BBC News ] May 07, 2008  Bees are usually the hardest workers in Armagh's orchards - but this year fruit growers complain many bees have not turned up. Read More ...

Organic apple business grows in Upper Ad [ The Evening Sun ] May 05, 2008  Even in good years, apple growers have felt a crunch in their profits. Farmers like Bill Oyler of Biglerville have been trying to find a way to make farming more profitable, and ultimately to keep the farm in the family. Read More ...

Farm bill in Congress would aid Washingt [ Tacoma News Tribune ] May 09, 2008  thenewstribune.com WASHINGTON - Lawmakers unveiled a compromise farm bill Thursday providing roughly $1.3 billion to the nation's fruit and vegetable growers for grants, research and help in opening foreign markets to the apples, cherries, raspberries and other crops grown in Washington and elsewhere. Read More ...

New England-Made [ Maumelle Monitor ] May 9, 2008  - One's upbringing or hometown no doubt influence the person he or she becomes - accents, favorite pastimes and, of course, favorite homemade meals and recipes. Read More ...

Tory rips blasts provincial government o [ St. Catharines Standard ] May 08, 2008  Premier Dalton McGuinty has 'turned his back' on local fruit growers by not doing more to save a St. Davids cannery, Opposition Leader John Tory says. That's why, during a visit to a St. Catharines farm Thursday, Tory implored Queen's Park to help clingstone peach and pear growers [...] Read More ...