The Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Association

Apple News

Celebrating 151 years of being original.

Volume 19, Issue 2| March 2014 (p) 902.678.1093 |(f) 902.678.1567|(w) www.nsapples.com | (e) mbelknap@nsapples.com | 32 Main Street, Blair House, Kentville, NS B4N 1J5

March 11 Pruning Tour

The first stop will be at Noggins Corner farm in Greeenwich with discussion getting under way at 8:30 am. Meet in the parking lot of the United Church which is on the south side of Highway 1 and adjacent to the approach road to the 101. The sec-ond stop is scheduled for 10:30 am and will be at Kelly Penner’s in Aylesford. The orchard is located on Brooklynn Street approximately 1 km west of New Road. If you need further information contact Bill Craig, Perennia, 902.678.7722 Ext 224, Cell 902.670.5550 E-mail bcraig@perennia.ca

March 11 Farm Safety Starts with Communication 9am Registration, Old Orchard Inn, Greenwich, NS 9:30 Internal Responsibility System & Rights and Re-sponsibilities” 12 Lunch 1pm “Seasonal Agricultural Workers—The Importance of Communication” RSVP at infor@farmsafetyns.ca, 902-893-2293

March is education month

March 18 Truro Agromart Lid. Grower Infor-mation Sessions Double sessions starting at 10am at the Best Western Glengarry. 4 Pesti-cide Recertification Points credit for attend-ance. To get details and Pre-register to guar-antee a meal call Lynn at 895-2857 or email: lcox@truroagromart.ca by March 11.

March 13 Discussion on Resistance Management for Apple Scab & Powdery Mildew

Perennia is holding a 1-1.5 hour presentation/discussion on Managing Fungicide Resistance in Ap-ple Diseases at the Kentville Agriculture Centre. The session will begin at 9:00 am in the Cornwallis Room. The event has received 1.0 PCRP credits. If you would like to attend this session please call or email Gail

Homegrown Success Program—Notification of Information Sessions

The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture is changing its approach to delivering federal-provincial programs under Growing Forward 2. Information sessions will be held around the province in late March. You are invited to at-tend a session near you to learn more about how to access programs under Growing For-ward 2 to support growth in your business. Pro-gram applications will be accepted beginning April 1, 2014.

The first session is in Wolfville March 18, 7-9pm at the Old Orchard Inn. For other session dates see the Homegrown Success Program link on our web site: www.nsapples.com or call:

For more information, please contact Mike Burry at

893-6510 or 1-866-844-4276

March 15 Difficult Discussions/Conflict Management Workshop for Young Farmers This workshop is starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Annapolis Boardroom, Perennia In-novation Park, Bible Hill and it will be facilitated by Debbie Lawrence. Following the workshop, we will get together for lunch and then we will tour Stokdijk Greenhouses in Beaver Brook. You can register by call-ing 893-2293 or info@nsyoungfarmers.ca

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The NSFGA Apple News

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS CONTINUED

April 1 Retirement Gathering for Bill Craig

A retirement gathering will be held on April 1st in the Cornwallis Room at the Kentville Re-search Station. This is an informal drop in from 2:00pm – 4:00pm.

March 20 “The Connected Farmer” 9am-3pm in the AFHRC Cornwallis Room. Horticul-ture NS and AAFC are partnering to present a workshop concerning the social media and farming. Watch for more details arriving in your email box or call Horticulture NS at 678-9335.

Maribicon Inc. Proposed Spring PRCP Courses

One-day workshops - PRCP points and/or exam prep

Mar 19 - North Sydney - Exhibition Grounds; Regent St.

Mar 20 - Skye Glen Hall (Hwy 252 from Whycocomagh en-route to Mabou)

Mar 21 - Stellarton - NS Museum of Industry

Mar 31 - Collingwood - Community hall (west of Hwy 104 Exit 8 / Oxford)

Apr 4 - New Germany - St John's Anglican Hall (on Hwy 10)

Apr 7 - Berwick - Berwick Volunteer Fire Dept (just off Hwy 101 Exit 15)

Apr 8 - Shubenacadie - St Bridget's Church Hall (Mill Vil-lage Road west of town)

Apr 11 - Little Brook - Little Brook Fire Hall, 361 Little Brook Rd., Clare)

Two-day certification course with exam in the afternoon of the sec-ond day.

Apr 1-2 - Berwick Fire Hall (just off Hwy 101 Exit 15)

Apr 9-10 - Burnside, HRM (44-201 Brownlow Ave) *

* Burnside still needs approval from NS Environment. If the exam is not available, it will be a full two-day course, and the exam will have to be written at your own time. I will update you as soon as we have definitive information.

Jim Jotcham, Marbicon Inc.

P.O. Box 280 / 4287 Brooklyn St., Berwick NS B0P 1E0

Tel. (902) 538-7101, Cell (902) 679-9964, marbicon@eastlink.ca

Spanish First Aid Training St. John Ambulance offers Spanish first aid training both emergen-cy and standard. The cost of the course var-ies on location. Farm Safety NS is looking at coordinating a course in Truro, the Valley and other areas as required. A date will be de-termined once the minimum of 10 partici-pants are confirmed. Contact Farm Safety NS via infor@farmsafetyns.ca or 902-893-2293. www.farmsafetyns.ca

IFTA is excited to be headed to Northern Italy for the 2014 Study Tour! Space is limited - the Study Tour is capped at 100 people. In order to reserve your spot on the list, IFTA will begin accepting a $200 non-refundable deposit (per person) beginning at noon EDT on Monday, March 10. Reservations will be accept-ed through the IFTA web site. https://ifruittree.site-ym.com/

Details for the Study Tour are still being confirmed, but the tentative agenda has participants convening the evening of Saturday, November 15 near Venice. Visits to Venice, Verona, South Tyrol and Trento di Non Val-ley are being scheduled with time allotted to visit Interpoma. The tour is scheduled to conclude on Saturday, November 22 , 2014.

NOTE: The 2015 IFTA Annual Conference (last week in February) will be held right here in Nova Scotia!

IFTA Study Tour to Northern Italy November 15-22, 2014

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The NSFGA Apple News

AAFC InforHort Report March 1, 2014 Canadian Apple Storage by Type of Storage and Province

(Thousands of pounds)

March 1, 2014 NS Data collected by the NFGA Reported in Bins March 1, 2013

Report in Bins

VARIETY FRESH PEELER JUICE TOTAL

CA Cold CA Cold Cold

Ambrosia 556 0 0 0 0 556

Cortland 1369 2 0 2 0 1373

Empire 213 29 0 0 0 242

Gala 484 60 0 0 1 545

Golden Del. 673 85 6 0 0 764

G. Russet 55 0 0 0 0 55

Honeycrisp 2102 1 0 0 0 2103

Idared 891 1 4156 0 0 5048

Jonagold 2099 0 183 0 1 2283

McIntosh 6467 75 0 0 0 6542

Red Del. 1335 0 0 0 0 1335

Spartan 45 0 0 0 0 45

Spy 0 14 9747 0 0 9761

Others 43 240 0 0 0 283

TOTAL 15776 507 14092 2 2 30935

Report in Bins

VARIETY FRESH PEELER TOTAL

CA Cold CA Cold

Ambrosia 423 0 0 0 423

Cortland 2894 0 0 2 2896

Empire 242 0 0 0 242

Gala 119 0 0 0 119

Golden Del. 892 0 0 0 892

G. Russet 0 0 0 0 0

Honeycrisp 40 1 0 0 41

Idared 837 0 3622 113 4572

Jonagold 1839 0 60 0 1899

McIntosh 4468 0 0 0 4468

Red Del. 1113 0 0 0 1113

Spartan 182 0 0 0 182

Spy 50 15 10430 0 10495

Others 80 182 0 0 262

TOTAL 12756 198 14112 115 27604

Region/Province

2013-2014 2012-2013 % Change C.A. Cold Common Total C.A. Cold Common Total

Total Mari-times

23,001 386 0 23,387 20,632 237 0 20,869 12.07%

Quebec 74,814 3,620 0 78,434 60,392 9,618 0 70,010 12.03%

Ontario 106,159 4,112 0 110,271 9,828 1,643 0 11,471 (1) 861.30%

British 25,240 9,739 0 34,979 50,253 12,076 0 62,329 -43.88%

Total Canada

229,214 17,857 0 247,071 141,105 23,574 0 164,679 50.03%

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INDUSTRY NEWS

The NSFGA Apple News

Nova Scotia’s minimum wage is increasing by 10 cents an hour, to $10.40 an hour, starting April 1, 2014.

Fruit Pickers/Farm Labour FreshFruitPortal.com reports on March 6, 2014 in the article “ U.K.: “We seem to have somewhat of a work ethic problem in this country”

Capper’s comments follow last week’s message from the U.K. Farming Minister George Eustice, who told the National Farmers’ Union Conference there would definitely not be a replacement for the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) that was scrapped at the end of 2013.

Instead, the minister wants to get Great Britain’s unemployed off benefits and into low-paid jobs, like fruit picking, telling the conference the atti-tude of some jobless people was to shun the hard manual labor of agricultural work – something the government ‘should not tolerate’. Historically a migrant workforce has plugged the gaps in farm labor at harvest times under the SAWS legislation that allowed Eastern European workers to live and work in the U.K. for short periods of time.

Capper farms in partnership at Stocks Farm, Worcestershire with her husband and father-in-law, specializing in growing hops and apples on 82 hectares in the West Midlands, making her one of the largest hop, dessert apple and cider apple producers in the country. “The nature of this kind of farm work requires people to actually live on the farm and when you look at the dynamics of employment for people at the lower end of the pay scale, this really does not seem to be viable for the majority of British people.

“The National Farmers’ Union claimed that the government was engineering a social experiment with this issue of seasonal workers and I agree with that. It is becoming increasing difficult to fill our

vacancies even though we offer good working conditions and better rates of pay compared with the minimum wage. However, the work is very la-bor intensive of course.

“One of the benefits of SAWS was that migrant workers were guaranteed a job, would live on the farm for a given period of time, earn as much money as possible, do a good job, then go home again. We find local people just don’t have the same kind of attitude.”

FreshFruitPortal.com Feb. 27, 2014 Golden, not yellow: Golden Opal ap-ples – a sweet,

crunchy variety of Czech origin – are on track to achieving year-round availability for consumers in European nations such as the U.K., Germany and Austria. Opal was developed from a cross between Golden Delicious and Topaz, but the apple stands apart from such varieties. The fruit remains crunchier than Golden Delicious and the fruit has been reported as sweeter, with a brix level of 15° and more from young orchards. Read the whole article at: http://www.freshfruitportal.com/2014/02/27/golden-not-yellow-a-new-category-for-opal-apples-in-europe/?country=canada

Read GoodFruit Grower: Consumers are

buying more apples and paying more for

them. Geraldine Warner // Mar 5, 2014

http://www.goodfruit.com/new-varieties-stabilize-

the-market/

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Apple-powered research Stephanie Rogers - February 14, 2014We all know that fruits and vegetables are part of a healthy diet. But Vasantha Rupasinghe, associate professor and Cana-da Research Chair in Fruit Bioactives & BioProducts at the Faculty of Agriculture, says their daily consumption can actually help prevent major diseases. “Phytochemicals such as flavonoids present in fruits have attracted a great deal of interest during the last two decades due to growing scientific evidence of their beneficial effects on human health,” he explains. One of the most exciting findings of Dr. Rupasinghe’s work is that flavonoids present in apple peels can not only act as strong dietary antioxidants but also exert a wide range of pharmacological activities. “We have developed a process to isolate a specific group of flavonoids from the peels of local apples which is currently waste material from apple pie man-ufacturing in Nova Scotia,” he says, speaking to a re-search collaboration with George Robertson of Dal’s Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology.

NSFGA IN THE NEWS

The study shows that flavonoids show remarka-ble neuroprotective qualities in mice when it comes to strokes and multiple sclerosis. “Our studies also show that apple flavonoids have the ability to reduce plasma and liver choles-terol levels and blood pressure in experimental animals fed with high fat diet,” he adds. Dr. Rupasinghe has several patent applications pending and is now in the process of identify-ing a nutraceutical company to commercialize this technology.

Supporting local industry His research program is also assisting local fruit producers and food processors to de-velop and diversify value-added food products for commercialization. This prod-uct development research includes func-tional foods and ingredients, nutraceuticals and natural health products. For example, in partnering with the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association, Rupa-singhe and his team have developed an apple-derived food antioxidant that can be used to stabilize omega-3 rich fish oil from oxidation. Working with Noggins Cor-ner Farm in Annapolis Valley, Rupasinghe’s team has developed a product prototype for non-fried, antioxidant impregnated ap-ple chips. His lab worked with Apple Valley Foods, one of the largest apple pie manufac-turers in North America, to develop a process to turn the company’s waste into a fiber-and antioxidant-rich bakery ingredient. And cur-rently, the lab is working with Mason and Liquid Beverage Inc, to commercialize a fermented fruit beverage product targeted for lowering blood cholesterol levels

The NSFGA Apple News

Dr. Vasantha Rupasinghe was featured in the Dal News—Dalhousie University on Feb. 14, 2014. See the article below or go to http://www.dal.ca/news/2014/02/14/apple-powered-research.html

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The NSFGA Apple News

Note: The NSFGA prefers to mail out as few hard copies of the newsletter as possi-ble but let us know if you prefer to receive it in hard copy. Also let us know if there is someone who did not receive a newsletter but wishes to. The newsletter may also be viewed on our web site: www.nsapples.com

Nova Scotia Fruit Grower’s Association 32 Main St., Blair House, AFHRC Kentville, NS B4N 1J5 Phone: 902-678-1093 Fax: 678-1567 mbelknap@nsapples.com trooney@nsapples.com

www.nsapples.com

NSFGA DATES TO REMEMBER:

Mar. 18 or 20 Executive Committee Meeting, 10am Blair House

Mar. 27 NSFGA Board of Directors’ Meeting 1:30pm, Cornwallis Room

Apple development on August, 2012

NSFGA NEWS

Anyone can read our Apple News Newsletters by going to our web site and clicking on “Newsletters” in the heading choices on the left www.nsapples.com.

Dr. Julian Gwyn has published the book, “Comfort me with apples: The Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Associa-tion, 1863-2013”. He describes the book not as a history of the apple industry. Rather it focuses, as much as the evidence allows, on the growers themselves and the organi-zation successive generations cre-ated. To purchase your copy go to

The NSFGA IFP Committee plans to host three 'on farm' meetings at calyx time, before apple maggot arrives and before harvest time to cover identification of pre harvest fruit damage. Dates and the PRCP credits available will be announced later.