- Author: Diane Nelson
You know how it works: You stand in the grocery aisle, surreptitiously sniffing the cantaloupes, hoping your nose will lead you to a nice, ripe selection. But when you slice it open in your kitchen, it’s just not as ripe as you had hoped. Lucky for you (and me), Assistant Professor Florence Negre-Zakharov and her team might have found a way to make imperfectly ripe fruit a thing of the past. The method was published in the March 30 edition of the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).
"We are involved in a project geared towards developing rapid methods to evaluate ripeness and flavor of fruits," explained Negre-Zakharov, who...
- Author: Mary E. Reed
- Contributor: Roberta Cook
Early spring can be an invigorating time of year, with lengthening days, blooming daffodils and fruit trees (and ski season still in full force). One of the best perks of the season is the availability of luscious strawberries, and tasty artichokes and asparagus picked from nearby farms, with both flavor quality and price that reflects both in-season and local transportation benefits.
Depending on your location, local Farmers Markets and pick-your-own farms will begin offering their wares within the next month or two. There are over 700 Farmers Markets in California. A wide variety of produce, from the exotic to the humble every-day variety, is available to entice you with its fresh beauty. Roberta Cook, University of...
- Author: Mary Lu Arpaia
- Contributor: Adel A Kader
- Contributor: James F Thompson
- Contributor: Mary E. Reed
By Mary Lu Arpaia
My association with Gordon goes back nearly 35 years to some of the very earliest days as a new graduate student here in Davis. Sometimes the best things that happen to you are unplanned. That is how I first met Gordon. I had been accepted into graduate school in the Pomology Department but did not have the grades to be offered an assistantship; instead I was offered work study. I went to the work study office and found a job posting in the Pomology Department to work in postharvest. Now, I had planned to do something in the field, but needed a job to pay the bills. And I wanted a job in the department that I had been accepted to as a graduate student. That job was working for Gordon and that was...
- Author: Mary E. Reed
The UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center has the opportunity to develop a new condensed short course for 2012 that will look at "Emerging Postharvest Technologies for California Agriculture."
Please help us establish the course curriculum by taking a few minutes to let us know about your company's biggest postharvest handling challenges, and the technologies about which you would like to know more. You can use the linked survey to provide us with your feedback.
If you give us your contact information at the end of the survey, you will be entered in a...
- Author: Mary E. Reed
Four Postharvest Specialists from the UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center traveled to Sarajevo, October 24-28, to present a week-long Postharvest Technology training. Drs. Beth Mitcham, Marita Cantwell, Mary Lu Arpaia and Michael Reid presented 39 instructional sessions over a three-and-a-half day period. Zdenec Svec from the Czech Republic also presented a talk focusing on regional marketing and trade issues. The training session was followed by a 1-1/2 day field tour visiting a number of postharvest processing facilities. The training was the result of a herculean effort led by Filip Stoyanovic, Director of a USAID Regional Competitiveness Initiative, and supported by eleven USAID projects as well as funding from the governments...
