AgNet DEMO

Category: Fruit

  • Fruits and Vegetables Next Stop on AFF’s Virtual Field Trip

    By Clint Thompson

    Children quarantined at home because of the coronavirus pandemic have a unique opportunity to learn about fruits and vegetables via social media. Alabama farmers, including Allie Logan and sister Cassie Young, will teach about fruits and vegetables as part of an ongoing virtual field trip offered through the Alabama Farmers Federation Facebook page, on Friday, April 10.

    The sisters are part of Backyard Orchards, an Agritourism attraction in Barbour County, Alabama. They’ll be discussing strawberries, which is part of their U-pick business.

    The Alabama Farmers Federation wants to take children on virtual field trips to help them learn about the different agricultural sectors that comprise the state. It will be offered every Friday morning at 10 (CT) through May 22.

    Last Friday, Jonathan Sanders, a farmer in Coffee County, talked about peanuts and other row crops that are produced in the Wiregrass. The show attracted more than 5.2 thousand views.

    Mary Wilson Johns, Alabama Farmers Federation Director of News Services, said the program offers parents and caretakers a chance to allow farmers to educate children about all things agriculture.

    “I know that this is just uncharted territory for a lot of parents, a lot of students. By Fridays at 10 in the morning, you might be at the end of your rope trying to figure out what you are going to do today to keep the kids engaged,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, these farm tours will fill that need and these links to those other resources will continue that education so that students will learn a whole lot more about where their food, fiber and timber products come from.”

  • Produce Market Sours on Florida, Georgia Farmers

    covid
    Vegetables on sale at a market.

    By Clint Thompson

    One of the largest produce farmers in Georgia is nervous about the impact the coronavirus impact is having on produce farmers in the Southeast.

    Bill Brim, part owner of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, Georgia, is in the middle of harvesting some of his fruits and vegetables and has already seen a decrease in demand, amid the virus leading to closures of restaurants nationwide.

    “Our greens and broccoli season, it’s way down. We’ve lost thousands of boxes of orders because of this coronavirus,” Brim said. “We’re not harvesting right now unless we have an order on greens, (otherwise) we’d just have to dump it. We’re just not able to sell it. Food service has just dropped down where, we were doing two or three loads per week for food service, just on kale, and it’s gone to nothing.

    “It’s way down from what it normally is.”

    Brim said his produce is divided 60% food service to 40% retail. Like his brethren in Florida, Brim has been impacted by the orders of self-quarantine.

    “When it first started with the coronavirus down in Florida, prices were real high. Cucumbers went from $42 per box to $10 per box and then to no sales at all down in Florida,” Brim said. “They’re harrowing up cucumber fields and squash fields. Anything that’s on bare ground they’re harrowing it up and getting rid of snap beans and sweet corn. It’s not good.”

    Lewis Taylor Farms grows more than 6,500 acres of produce each year. Brim produces strawberries, turnips, mustard, kale, collards and broccoli as part of his farming operation. A once hopeful outlook for the 2020 season has soured quickly.

    “Crop’s coming on, looks good, I just hope we’ll have a market to send it,” Brim said.

    Brim established himself as an industry leader when he, along with Ed Walker, purchased Lewis Taylor Farms in 1985. Over the next five years, Brim helped transform Lewis Taylor Farms into a diversified transplant and vegetable production farm operation.

    When Brim became a co-owner of Lewis Taylor Farms, it had only 87,000 square feet of greenhouse production space. The farm now boasts 81 greenhouses with more than 649,000 square feet of production space.