Winter 2012
Video: Twin Vista Ranch donated to WSU
Twin Vista Ranch near Port Townsend was donated to WSU, to be kept in sustainable, organic production for the community and educational purposes.
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Winter 2012
A Summer of Science
If the world of cutting-edge research has a glamorous side, it was lost on Laurel Graves this summer as she found herself digging trenches for soil probes on the Cook Agronomy Farm north of Pullman. In the high summer heat, Graves dug for two hours. Palouse soil covered her arms.
It was a hard-earned insight into the nature of science.
“You mean I’m not doing complex equations constantly?” she wondered. “Oh wait, I’ve got to be a farmer for a while.”
She was not alone in the grunt work department. Jeronda Hunt wrangled scores of petri dishes harboring white, smelly bacteria. Naeh Klages-Mundt spent three … » More …
Winter 2012
Onions
Think of all the recipes that begin with this simple instruction: Cook (saute, melt, etc.) onions. In spite of that ubiquitous beginning, however, the literature of food, which can wax poetically and extensively about salt or beans or wine, gives the onion, which provides the savory structure for thousands of dishes, short shrift.
Maybe it is just that onions are so fundamental that we take them for granted, chopping and ingesting them as casually as we breathe air or drink water. Perhaps it is that the onion is a basic and ancient staple, like rice, corn, garlic, its wild ancestors an inherent part of our … » More …
Winter 2012
A place of taste
Chimacum Corner is more than just the busiest intersection in Jefferson County. It’s a yellow-walled farmstand where tomatillos from Finnriver Farm meet Roma tomatoes from SpringRain and where bread from Pane D’Amore bakery can find Cape Cleare tuna or cheese from Mt. Townsend Creamery. And it’s where locals can find the ever-growing bounty of the local farms and fisheries.
The market is just two years old. And with the motto “Eat your food from here” it grew out of a need for the small-scale producers in the region to reach customers outside the farmers’ markets. Rather than one day a week at the farmers’ market … » More …
Fall 2012
The dangers of a major Cascadia earthquake
What happens when a major earthquake strikes the Pacific Northwest? A group has assessed the ability of Washington state to recover, and presented their findings in a report in February 2012.
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Fall 2012
Cherries in two dimensions
Two-year-old trees in the WSU Roza Experimental Orchards near Prosser are the first step in transforming a 100-year-old production system for sweet cherries. The trees’ unique branches, called upright fruiting offshoots (UFOs), form the core of a novel architecture suited for mechanized harvesters in sweet cherry orchards of the future.
Planted at an angle, young trees are trained to grow on a two-dimensional plane, putting more of their effort into developing a fruiting wall instead of the nonproductive wood in a traditional, three-dimensional canopy.
The UFO tree architecture is taking off around the world, says Matthew Whiting ’01 PhD, associate professor of horticulture at the … » More …
Fall 2012
Summer Blues
In 1944, when Glenn Aldrich was 12, he helped his father carry blueberry plants into an old sheep pasture next to their home. The family then planted the first commercial blueberries in Lewis County and some of the first in the state.
Maybe it was fate, says Aldrich ’58, ’62, but somehow his father had found the perfect crop for the soft acid soils along the Cowlitz River. The berries flourished there in Mossyrock, a pretty pocket of the valley.
Sixty-eight years later those berry bushes tower over Aldrich. In the intervening years, he has added some 20 more acres, spent time in the Air … » More …
Summer 2012
Recipes: Raspberries
Raspberries can add a tartness and zing to any number of dishes. Try out these recipes from the Washington Red Raspberry Commission, and visit their website for more recipes, health and nutrition information, and storage and cooking tips.
Read about raspberries in the Summer 2012 In Season.
Raspberry Frozen Custard
Makes about 1 quart or 8 to 10 servings
Call it frozen custard, call it gelato—by any name this smooth and intensely flavored frozen dessert is fantastic. You can freeze the custard in an old-fashioned ice cream maker using ice and salt, but it’s … » More …
Summer 2012
Dan Newhouse ’77—Farm to director’s office
In 2009, Dan Newhouse ’77 was walking through the wings of the state House of Representatives when the governor’s chief of staff approached him with a surprising offer.
Newhouse was a four-term Republican representative from Sunnyside and floor leader for his caucus, so he didn’t expect to be asked to be director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture by a Democratic governor. “At the time, everyone knew there was a vacancy, but being from a different political party I didn’t think I would be considered for that position,” he says.
Soon after, Newhouse visited with Gov. Chris Gregoire about agriculture once. Then he … » More …
Summer 2012
Raspberries
The cultivation of raspberries is, compared to that of other fruits, a relatively recent endeavor. Rubus idaeus, “the bramble bush of Ida,” purportedly grew on the slopes of Mount Ida and was enjoyed by the residents of the city of Troy. Ida, the nursemaid to the infant Zeus, pricked her finger while picking the originally snow-white berries, staining them red from that time forth. But it was not until the last four or five hundred years, writes D.L. Jennings in his Raspberries and Blackberries, that raspberries have been domesticated.
Today, nearly 60 percent of U.S. red raspberries are produced in Washington. Almost all of the … » More …