Entries for 'MOFGApedia Editor'
Posted by
MOFGApedia Editor on February 25, 2012
In a country where french fries reign supreme, how does an organic grower find great-tasting potatoes that not only appeal to chefs but also thrive under organic conditions? With more than 60 percent of potatoes headed for processing plants, breeders have found the market slow to accept new varieties – even varieties best adapted to the Northeast, says Walter S. De Jong, professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University.
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Posted by
MOFGApedia Editor on September 01, 2010
Numbers don’t lie: 28 percent of American and other prisoners of the Japanese died in captivity during World War II, and 90 percent of the survivors needed to be hospitalized after they were repatriated. Only 4 percent of American, British or Canadian prisoners of the Germans died in captivity, and only about 10 percent of the survivors had to be hospitalized before they could return to their families or their bases. The single key factor in POW survival was neither the guards nor the climate: The German POW diet was based on potatoes, while the Japanese was based on rice.
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Yukon Gold potatoes have intermediate tolerance to this pest, while Red Norland and other red potatoes are very susceptible.
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In November 2006, the Maine Technology Institute awarded a Seed Grant to InterfaceFABRIC (formerly Guilford of Maine) to evaluate the feasibility of using Maine potatoes and other crops to meet the growing demand for polylactic acid (PLA) to produce bio-based plastic products.
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Two articles: New Potato Makes Organic Growing Easier; Common Weed Hosts Potato Blight
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Congratulations to Jim and Megan Gerritsen of WoodPrairie Farm, a MOFGA-certified organic vegetable farm in Bridgewater.
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Once upon a time Maine was covered by ice a mile high. Every school kid knows that. What most of them don’t know is that even on the fringes of North America’s ice sheet, and in the cold, high Andes of Peru, a nutritious root vegetable called the potato provided people with food. Belonging to the same group of plants as nightshade, its hardiness made it the equivalent of corn, the New World’s other starchy staple grown in warmer areas.
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Dr. Ron Morse of Virginia Tech has developed a system for growing no-till organic potatoes. In September, he makes raised beds, adds lime, phosphorus and potassium as needed, and sows winter rye.
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