While we re-design the Newsletter I was going to forgo sending any Newsletters out until the task was completed. Pressing news from the citrus growing areas has forced me to reconsider as I have received many requests to keep sending the latest information about this on-going story.
When you click on the article link it will take you to the Home page of www.agplus.net. Several produce articles, including the one mentioned in this Newsletter are posted under the Produce News section.
The Mercury News
By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News EXETER, Calif. - The orange that Dave Tomlinson pulled from the tree glowed in the cold morning sun, an apparent picture of perfect health. But when he squeezed it, it collapsed like a sponge.
``It's toast,'' said Tomlinson, frowning and tossing it into the mud. Manager of the vast Griffith Farms, he estimates that this entire corner of the grove -- holding 140 trees, each with 600 fruits -- was probably lost. A similar fate may await the 230,000 trees elsewhere on the property, he said. Four consecutive nights of sub-freezing temperatures have dealt a huge blow to crops in California's citrus belt, a band of rich soil stretching from Fresno to Kern counties west of the Sierra. While it is too early to put a price tag on total damages, several hundred million dollars' worth of the state's $1.3 billion annual citrus crop are thought to be frozen, said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, a trade association representing 2,000 growers.
