Strawberries entice shoppers. Their brilliant hue and inviting shapes promise tantalizing taste. Food processors, too, capitalize on the appetizing color and distinctive flavor imparted by strawberries for an array of products. Strawberry production, however, presents a host of challenges. Due to the favorable climates, California produces the majority of strawberries, with Florida providing the second-largest … Read more
Tending pistachio groves in Arizona is about as different from raising corn and soybeans in Iowa as farming can be. When fifth–generation farmer Jim Graham began operating Cochise Groves in the high desert of southeastern Arizona, some of the new issues he encountered were water restrictions, bud-time frosts and a crop with the tendency to … Read more
While development continues to gobble up much of Arizona’s farmland, one segment of agriculture is expanding. Six commercial farming operations exist on American Indian land in the state, and a continual focus is on efficient use of the West’s most precious resource: water. Fort McDowell Farm is located east of the McDowell Mountains just outside … Read more
The rise of an herbicide-resistant weed Pigweed, Amaranthus, is a broad-leaf annual that is fast becoming a major problem for vegetable and fruit growers. The plant is reproduced by seeds—in fact, thousands and thousands of seeds—and it appears in all zones of the United States. Identified as an erect annual herb, the weed is branched above, rough … Read more
An unmistakable sight of summer is the oval-shaped Athena melon with its yellow-orange flesh and coarse netting skin. Millions of the melons are successfully grown each year at Spring Hill Produce, a division of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, Georgia, and one of the largest privately owned vegetable and greenhouse operations in the Southeast. On … Read more