Anyone who’s ever bitten into a deep red flavorful New Jersey tomato knows the dramatic difference between a freshly picked local tomato and the sad specimens shipped in from afar and sold at your local supermarket. Well, the difference is almost as dramatic when it comes to strawberries… And this year, researchers at Rutgers’ New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station are releasing a new berry, dubbed the “Rutgers Scarlet” designed to be even more bountiful and delicious when grown on Garden State farms… Bill Hlubik, of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension, said researchers worked to develop a berry that had “exceptional flavor” that would draw more customers to local farms.
Archives for May 2015
New Rutgers Scarlet Strawberry Available Soon
The Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station has cracked the code to growing a better-tasting strawberry in New Jersey… For years, many New Jersey farmers have been growing strawberry plants bred for conditions in California. The plants produced fruit that could withstand being shipped across the country but were not well suited for cold Northeast winters. Another drawback was their taste… “In developing something that will ship well, sometimes you have a little loss of flavor,” said Bill Hlubik, professor and agricultural agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension.
Eliana Geretz ’15: Moss, the Whimsical and Overlooked Flora
“The mosses were just labelled Moss 1, Moss 2, that it just struck me how much mosses are overlooked,” says Eliana Geretz, ecology, evolution and natural resources major. At the time, she was helping conduct research in Hutcheson Memorial Forest in nearby Somerset County. One of the last uncut forests in the Mid-Atlantic States, the […]
A Stable Bond: Graduating Identical Twins Share their SEBS Experience
For identical twins Caroline and Julianne Davis, after spending their pre-college years tethered by their unique bond, attending college was a chance to venture out on their own separate paths. Coincidentally, though, their paths ended up leading to the same place: Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS). Now as graduating seniors in the […]
‘Worrisome’ Dry Spell in Monmouth, Northern Ocean
The largely gorgeous weather in recent weeks has led to a growing dry spell that now covers about half the Garden State. That could spell trouble later. The dry spell encompasses North and Central Jersey, including nearly all of Monmouth County and part of northern Ocean County, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor… “It’s particularly worrisome when you see this in the middle of May because last year, like it or not, we had a flood on the first of May from very heavy rain on the 30th of April,” said David A. Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist based at Rutgers University… Robinson said nearly everywhere in the state has received less than a third of an inch of rain since a storm on April 20 and 21. That’s about 10 percent of the norm of about 3 inches. It’s also been largely warmer than normal with low humidity, he said.
Effort to Resume Oyster Research On Way to Senate
A state ban on the cultivation of oyster beds in the Keyport Harbor would be lifted under a bill working its way through the state Legislature. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Passaic/Bergen), would permit the NY/NJ Baykeeper’s Eastern Oyster Reintroduction Feasibility Study to return to Keyport Harbor. The project was halted in 2010 when the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) banned the cultivation of commercial shellfish in contaminated waters… According to Dr. Beth Ravit, co-director of Rutgers University’s Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability and a researcher working on the oyster study, the goal of the project is to better understand the conditions in which oysters could flourish and then promote population growth in areas exhibiting those conditions. Ravit said the Eastern oyster provides several ecological benefits, including the ability to individually filter up to 50 gallons of water per day, as well as their propensity to fuse their shells together to create an “oyster reef.”
Sexuality Workshops for Parents of Children With Special Needs Increase in Demand
Discussing sexual development, behaviors, personal space boundaries or hygiene and self-care during puberty with a child is difficult enough for any parent, but possibly even more perplexing for a parent of a child with developmental disabilities on the autism spectrum. A new sexuality workshop for parents of special needs children, created and presented by Michelle Brill, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Health Sciences at Rutgers University Cooperative Extension was recently held for parents at Deron School in Union, NJ to assist them in handling these sensitive issues… “When you’re dealing with a child where repetition and routine mean everything, it’s important you teach appropriate adult boundaries and specific behaviors early in life in order to avoid the difficulties of having to re-teach or substitute new behaviors later on,” said Ms. Brill, “This can be as simple as setting rules about closing a bathroom door to not allowing the child to hug or touch people they meet.”
The Other Audubon: The One That Allows Golf Courses to Kill Birds
The long, emerald-green fairways of the Dairy Creek Golf Course double as a serene nature haven where birds are celebrated and protected. The course, in the California coastal town of San Luis Obispo, even has the credentials to prove it: Audubon International has certified it as a sanctuary… Data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that Dairy Creek Golf Course has intentionally killed more than 1,000 of the small, black duck-like birds over the past three years, making it one of the most deadly golf courses for birds in the country… “You’re not reducing the population. You’re just moving them temporarily,” said Brooke Maslo, a wildlife specialist at Rutgers University’s Cooperative Extension program.
Rutgers Scarlet Strawberry Has More Flavor Than Its Counterparts [VIDEO]
It’s opening day at Specca Farms Pick Your Own strawberry patch and customers aren’t wasting any time filling up their baskets… “Because direct marketing is so important in New Jersey what we found the need to develop a product that has more flavor and will produce better under our environmental conditions,” said Bill Hlubik of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension… The Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station began the project about 10 years ago. It was developed through a traditional cross breeding program… Thirteen farms throughout the state are growing the Scarlet Strawberry and at Specca Farms the fruit is just beginning to ripen so customers will be able to start picking by next week just in time to eat.
Heavy Traffic Expected for Rutgers Commencement May 17
Heavy traffic is expected for Rutgers’ 249th commencement, which will begin, rain or shine, at 12:30 p.m. May 17 at High Point Solutions Stadium on the Busch Campus in Piscataway… The Rutgers University-New Brunswick ceremony is expected to conclude …