Featured Fruit — Gooseberry

GOOSEBERRY  Ribes spp.  Saxifragaceae   Gooseberries are shrubs which grow best in cool climates with cold winters.  American gooseberries have weeping stems and will root themselves where they touch the ground.  The leaves are glossy and dark green, deeply lobed, and grow alternately along the stem.  The stems are woody and carry thorns at each…

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Recipes – Spring 2002

Homemade Fruit Juice from Jackson Gardens   Pick berries when ripe and freeze.  Later, thaw berries in a strainer to remove juice naturally, without killing the healthy enzymes in them.  Once the berries are thawed and strained, you can use a juicer or steamer to get the last of the juice out.  Freeze the juice…

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The Benefits to Plants and Soil

Reprinted with permission from Soil Foodweb Inc. By  DR. ELAINE INGHAM President, Soil Foodweb Incorporated, www.soilfoodweb.com   What benefits are possible that make it worth paying attention to the biological side of soils in addition to the chemistry and mineral fertility? Are there any economic benefits that can make a real difference to net farm…

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Beneficial Insects – The Best Pesticide

By ROCCO MOSCHETTI IPM of Alaska   “When you kill off the natural enemies of the pests, you inherit their work” –C. Huffacker   Insects are a vast group of creatures: there are more species of beetles alone than there are of all other animals put together. Although over 750,000 species of insects are known,…

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Books Review – Spring 2002

By TAMI SCHLIES   Tall and Tasty Fruit Trees by Merideth Sayles Hughes  80 pages   This book is actually a children’s book I found while at the library with my kids.  Being the fruit fiend I am, I picked it up to flip through and ended up checking it out!  It has sections on…

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Dan’s Apple Comments

By DAN ELLIOT   This past season was good for South Central apples.  Although dry, spring was early, fairly sunny, and warm.  Blossom peak was about June 4th – many years it is around the 10th.  We were almost a week earlier than Fairbanks.  Although July was cloudy, the ground had already warmed and the…

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