Consumers are more educated than ever about where their food comes from, and farmers markets provide a convenient way to get homegrown produce from the field to the dinner table. The state Department of Agriculture does not separately record sales figures of locally grown produce sold at farmers markets. When fruit, such as strawberries and apples, isn't in season locally, Kraynock goes elsewhere to stock his farm stand. The only outside produce Malench sells are potatoes and onions, which...

The increase reflected more planting rather than better yields as cool weather in December affected vine flowering and grape production in some regions, he said. Grape production from Marlborough, which contributes 60 percent of the national total, rose just 7 percent even with a significantly larger producing area, Gregan said. May 30 (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand's grape harvest rose 11 percent to a record in 2007, lagging behind growth in exports which may create shortages, according to an...

Losses of this size could be devastating to the livelihood of many growers and the jobs their farms support, Commissioner Farmer wrote to the Governor. Producers also reported significant losses to the states winter wheat crop and the first alfalfa cutting of the season in addition to apples, peaches and other fruits. Kentuckys grape and wine industry has grown into a $24 million business that more than doubled wine production from 2003 to 2006. Kentuckys crops of apples and peaches...

Enriching wine with sugar costs about a third as much as using concentrated grape "musts" and this helps explain why many producers are opposed to any move to outlaw the use of sugar in the fermentation process. In the cooler parts of Europe, winemakers use sucrose from beet or sugar cane to bring up the alcohol levels in their products. Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's agriculture commissioner wants to outlaw this practice and oblige winemakers to use unfermented grape juice instead....

In case you'd like to stop the worm's depredations, consider some of the more promising, new controls available to home orchardists: The wormholes I'm talking about were typically a twosome -- one opening in the shoulder, the other at the calyx, or blossom end, of the fruit. Commercial orchardists use sprays and other controls to ensure that supermarket apples don't have "eat around" holes. If you were a kid who swiped apples from neighbors' unsprayed trees, you probably ate around a lot...