Honeycrisp apples are a hit around the world, thanks to the efforts of two Minnesota breeders and one very persistent grower. At farmers markets, apple orchards and supermarkets across the country, people await their arrival, hoard them, enjoy them, and pack them in boxes to send to their kids at college. What are they looking for? From a sensory perspective, flavor, crispness, and juiciness are important, as is the apple's ability to retain these qualities in cold storage. The apple,...

First, the big bins filled with 850 pounds of McIntosh apples not big or pretty enough to make the grade are slowly dropped into a lightly chlorinated tub of water. Inside a four-person crew is hurrying in an effort to keep up with the press that mashes nearly 1,600 pounds of apples an hour. On the other end, Charlie's wife, Julie, and her good friend, Jane Alford, are nimbly setting half-gallon jugs under three spigots that distribute the sweet cider, and then screwing caps on each one....

red delicious apples, Texas pink grapefruit, navel oranges, and winter pears can be purchased from any music dept. Annual fruit sale is under way. Billingsgazette.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Funds will go for tours, music, instruments and equipment. The Billings Senior High Music Deptartment is conducting its annual fruit sale. Orders must...

The price and quality of the sweet fruit are up, and the farmers are happy that a new storage facility has extended their selling season. The advances in the pomegranate trade are a sliver of good news from a region of Afghanistan known more for Taliban attacks and a thriving opium trade. Ubaidullah Jan, a 50-year-old farmer from the Arghandab area just north of Kandahar, said the price his pomegranates command has doubled this year to about 54 cents a pound, due to the new cold storage...

As long as applicants have good outlines for production and trading projects, they stand a good chance of receiving funds that may even exceed regulated loan caps to help new businesses such as breeding farms. Struggling to survive, they had to use all their savings to plant cassava, corn and beans to barely keep themselves fed. Khanh says he can even set aside some money to put back into the fund in order to help other poor households escape from poverty. Khanh says he now grows different...