California Fruit and Vegetable

Tag: ARS

  • ARS Citrus Rootstocks: A Success Story

    Remember that old commercial that declared, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine”? Thanks to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), consumers can enjoy “citrus sunshine” whenever they like. Begun by USDA more than a century ago, the citrus research program has helped to ensure a bounty of not only oranges, but also grapefruits, mandarins, lemons, and more.

    But that bounty was severely threatened in 2005 with the appearance of a new and destructive disease. Citrus greening, or huanglongbing (HLB), has caused Florida citrus production to plummet around 70 percent in the 15 years since the disease hit U.S. citrus groves. HLB, which causes low yields, yellowed leaves, and bitter-tasting fruit, is caused by a bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. So far, there is no cure.

    Like other crops, citrus crops are susceptible to a variety of diseases and pests. One reliable way to fend off those threats is to graft the fruit-producing part of a tree (the scion) to the lower trunk and root system (the rootstock) of a different tree that has been bred to resist the disease or pest. Rootstocks are also used to obtain specific tree sizes, yields, and fruit quality, among other goals.

    A 6-year-old Owari Satsuma Mandarin tree on US-942 rootstock developed by ARS. In this trial, US-942 was the highest yielding rootstock, averaging more than 300 pounds of fruit per tree (Photo by Jake Price, University of Georgia).

    With ARS’s long history of helping growers keep their groves healthy and productive, the agency had the expertise required when HLB appeared. To quickly address the problem, the ARS citrus breeding project was refocused in 2005 partly to develop new, HLB-tolerant, highly productive citrus rootstocks.

    Led by Kim Bowman, a plant geneticist in the ARS Subtropical Insects and Horticulture Research Unit in Fort Pierce, FL, the team released 12 new HLB-tolerant citrus rootstocks between 2007 and 2018. Before and after the releases, Bowman conducted dozens of field trials to evaluate and validate the rootstocks’ performance, providing the scientific data needed to demonstrate their potential and gain industry acceptance. These rootstocks, all with the prefix “US,” have since become a key component in the survival of the Florida citrus industry.

    ARS plant geneticist Kim Bowman in front of 5-year-old Valencia orange trees on HLB-tolerant rootstocks he and his colleagues developed (Photo by Diane Helseth).

    Not surprisingly, demand for the rootstocks was extremely high, and growers also needed assurances that they’d be getting the real deal. Bowman arranged for the plant material to be certified disease-free by the Florida Department of Agriculture, paving the way for the rootstocks to be commercially propagated on a large scale.

    Bowman and his colleagues have also done a great deal of research on rootstock propagation. Even though most common citrus rootstocks can be grown uniformly from seeds, it takes several years for a young tree to produce a lot of seeds, and the seeds of many new rootstocks don’t grow into true-to-type plants. The scientists have shown that using plant cuttings or tissue culture is an acceptable alternative to starting new rootstock trees from seed, and it’s a much faster way to create hundreds of thousands of plants.

    The use of these alternative methods has dramatically increased propagation for some of the new rootstocks, so that nurseries are not limited by seed supply.

    From 2018 to 2020, the HLB-tolerant “US” rootstocks were used to produce nearly 3 million new citrus trees, or about 37 percent of all trees propagated in Florida. These rootstocks have also proven effective in areas affected by other diseases besides HLB. The rootstock “US-942” demonstrated the most consistent outstanding performance in field plantings and was the most popular rootstock in Florida from 2018 to 2020, with about 1.8 million trees propagated during that 2-year period, or about 22 percent of all propagations.

    For more information, visit Citrus Rootstocks.—By Sue Kendall, USDA-ARS Office of Communications.

  • Water & Small Fruit Scientists Named to ARS Hall of Fame

    Two scientists have earned a place in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Science Hall of Fame for their pioneering and impactful research in small-fruits breeding and remote sensing for improved irrigation water scheduling.

    Chad E. Finn (posthumously) and William P. Kustas will be inducted in a virtual ceremony today rather than a physical event due to ongoing COVID-19 safety precautions. ARS established the Science Hall of Fame in 1986 to honor senior agency researchers for outstanding, lifelong achievements in agricultural science and technology.

    “Our two inductees exemplify the scientific excellence that has made ARS a premier research agency and world leader in addressing important issues facing agriculture today,” said Acting ARS Administrator Simon Liu.

    A plant geneticist at the ARS Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, Finn, who died December 17, 2019, is being posthumously honored for his outstanding and sustained contributions to the advancement of small-fruits crop research. His accomplishments include the development and release or co-release of more than 57 blackberry, raspberry, blueberry and strawberry varieties, some of which have become industry standards generating more than $450 million in fruit and plant sales over the past 10 years.

    Finn’s research endeavors have led to a small-fruits germplasm program that’s considered among the world’s most diverse and extensive, spanning several genera of plants including Rubus, Fragaria, Vaccinium and Actinidia. His discoveries provide a greater understanding and characterization of wild species in these genera as well as their importance as novel sources of genetic variability and useful traits such as aphid resistance and fruit processing quality.

    Finn also led an international black raspberry research project that developed a draft black raspberry genome—the first in the genus Rubus. Similar genomic efforts are underway in other berry crops. Throughout, he was a mentor to graduate students, avid presenter and participant on numerous committees and associations.

    Kustas, a hydrologist at the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, is being honored for scientific accomplishments that include using satellite data with computer models for mapping evapotranspiration (ET)—the process of plant water use through transpiration and water loss or evaporation from the soil.

    In addition to monitoring ET, plant stress and drought, other applications of the models arising from Kustas and colleagues’ pioneering research include precise targeting of irrigation water to crops, including the vineyards of E&J Gallo Winery in California’s Central Valley. There, as part of the Grape Remote-sensing Atmospheric Profile and Evapotranspiration eXperiment (GRAPEX), Kustas and collaborators from NASA, Utah State University, University of California-Davis and Gallo are helping the winery better track soil and vine moisture levels with a view to reducing irrigation water use by up to 25 percent. Potentially, this reduction could translate to significant economic savings as well as contributing to sustainable groundwater management—a benefit the GRAPEX team expects could apply to other Central Valley vineyards as well as California’s nut orchard industry, which spans 1.5 million acres. “ET Toolkits” resulting from the project are also being readied for use in other water-limited western states.

  • Water & Small Fruit Scientists Named to ARS Hall of Fame

    Two scientists have earned a place in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Science Hall of Fame for their pioneering and impactful research in small-fruits breeding and remote sensing for improved irrigation water scheduling.

    Chad E. Finn (posthumously) and William P. Kustas will be inducted in a virtual ceremony today rather than a physical event due to ongoing COVID-19 safety precautions. ARS established the Science Hall of Fame in 1986 to honor senior agency researchers for outstanding, lifelong achievements in agricultural science and technology.

    “Our two inductees exemplify the scientific excellence that has made ARS a premier research agency and world leader in addressing important issues facing agriculture today,” said Acting ARS Administrator Simon Liu.

    A plant geneticist at the ARS Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, Finn, who died December 17, 2019, is being posthumously honored for his outstanding and sustained contributions to the advancement of small-fruits crop research. His accomplishments include the development and release or co-release of more than 57 blackberry, raspberry, blueberry and strawberry varieties, some of which have become industry standards generating more than $450 million in fruit and plant sales over the past 10 years.

    Finn’s research endeavors have led to a small-fruits germplasm program that’s considered among the world’s most diverse and extensive, spanning several genera of plants including Rubus, Fragaria, Vaccinium and Actinidia. His discoveries provide a greater understanding and characterization of wild species in these genera as well as their importance as novel sources of genetic variability and useful traits such as aphid resistance and fruit processing quality.

    Finn also led an international black raspberry research project that developed a draft black raspberry genome—the first in the genus Rubus. Similar genomic efforts are underway in other berry crops. Throughout, he was a mentor to graduate students, avid presenter and participant on numerous committees and associations.

    Kustas, a hydrologist at the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, is being honored for scientific accomplishments that include using satellite data with computer models for mapping evapotranspiration (ET)—the process of plant water use through transpiration and water loss or evaporation from the soil.

    In addition to monitoring ET, plant stress and drought, other applications of the models arising from Kustas and colleagues’ pioneering research include precise targeting of irrigation water to crops, including the vineyards of E&J Gallo Winery in California’s Central Valley. There, as part of the Grape Remote-sensing Atmospheric Profile and Evapotranspiration eXperiment (GRAPEX), Kustas and collaborators from NASA, Utah State University, University of California-Davis and Gallo are helping the winery better track soil and vine moisture levels with a view to reducing irrigation water use by up to 25 percent. Potentially, this reduction could translate to significant economic savings as well as contributing to sustainable groundwater management—a benefit the GRAPEX team expects could apply to other Central Valley vineyards as well as California’s nut orchard industry, which spans 1.5 million acres. “ET Toolkits” resulting from the project are also being readied for use in other water-limited western states.

  • CA Prune Board Addresses Non-Tariff Barriers for Nuts & Dried Fruit

    As the world leader in prune exports, the California Prune Board is preemptively addressing issues that affect the trade of dried fruits and nuts with a three-year project focused on preserving the use of sulfuryl fluoride. With the support of the Foreign Agriculture Services arm of USDA, the California Prune Board (CPB) has secured funding to lead a Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) program titled “Preserving sulfuryl fluoride for dried fruit exports to the European Union.”

    “This project hits on all the major non-tariff barriers,” says Gary Obenauf, CPB Production Research Coordinator and lead on the TASC project. “Exports of nuts and dried fruits require reliable measures that ensure consumers around the world are receiving a safe product and this project is paramount in gathering the information needed, enabling California Prunes and other commodities to retain and expand export markets.”

    While the project specifically investigates the voids in residue data associated with the use of sulfuryl fluoride for treating U.S. dried fruit and tree nuts, the research ultimately addresses the stringent criteria to limit emissions for continued and optimal sulfuryl fluoride use in all export markets for a variety of commodities. The study is being conducted by top experts in their fields from Stanford, Yale, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), University of California, and DFA of California.

    “Global trade interest in eliminating greenhouse gas emissions is growing, and we’re getting asked about sulfuryl fluoride use in several markets,” stated Spencer Walse, a research chemist for ARS. “This project provides an opportunity to continue sulfuryl fluoride use globally and preserves the quality of products while maintaining food safety and security. If we don’t protect the use of sulfuryl fluoride, the ability to export to various countries, including the EU, diminishes.”

    With new use patterns that need to be reflected globally, efficacy data is generated for market access into new export opportunities. Many countries, including India and Australia, require residue data to accompany the efficacy data to ensure consumer safety.

    “We studied methyl bromide decades ago and found the use patterns didn’t apply, so we had to adapt for sulfuryl fluoride,” added Obenauf. “This project allows us to update regulatory use patterns which have evolved since we started this work.”

    Phytosanitary techniques are vital to the export industry. The benefits of updating regulatory information through this research and gaining data on sulfuryl fluoride scrubbing extend far past the dried fruit and nut industries and will allow continued use of the gas globally.

    California is the world’s largest producer of prunes providing approximately 40 percent of the world’s supply and over 90 percent of the U.S. supply. Today, there are more than 40,000 bearing acres of California Prune orchards concentrated in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.

  • Drink Your Peas, Please!

    USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist and director of the Western Regional Research Center (Albany, CA), Tara McHugh and her team in the Healthy Processed Foods Research Unit are experts at solving food-manufacturing problems. Using cutting-edge processing technologies, they have helped numerous small businesses, such as Ripple Foods, turn ideas into products for the consumer.

    ARS is helping Ripple Foods optimize its current pea protein drying process to make it more efficient and to further improve its products. The company manufactures its own pea protein by processing yellow split peas into a liquid form and then isolating, purifying, and drying the protein. The pea protein is then made into non-dairy milks, protein shakes, half and half, ice cream, and other products.

    The drying step is necessary because producing this clean-tasting plant protein in a wet state comes with challenges: It’s difficult to transport, has a greater risk for microbial spoilage, and has handling issues, McHugh said.

    “It’s also expensive to ship all over the country, so we are working to optimize the drying process—looking at a way to dehydrate it so it can be rehydrated to save expenses,” she said. “The drying process also may even improve the quality and flavor of the final product.”

    Ripple Foods has a cooperative research and development agreement with ARS, which assists the company in data gathering and analysis on different aspects of its pea beverage. “Ripple’s mission is to make plant-based foods delicious,” said Aminah Johnston, a process engineer with the company. “We are always looking for ways to make our protein and products better. Our collaboration with ARS has been extremely helpful.”

    This kind of research not only supports small businesses and U.S. growers, but also reduces waste and increases consumption of healthy foods.—By Sandra Avant, formerly with USDA-ARS Office of Communications.

  • Using Satellites to Improve Sustainability, Yield

    Two of the nation’s great agricultural regions are the focus of new research that aims to head off emerging threats and improve sustainability.

    Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are joining colleagues to create and use artificial intelligence to help farmers in the Colorado River Basin and Salinas Valley, CA, improve their management of irrigation, fertilization, and pests. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded the University of California, Riverside-led project with a 5-year, $10 million grant.

    “This project will integrate multiple satellite and meteorological data sets to help farmers in the Southwestern United States,” said Ray Anderson, a research soil scientist with the ARS Agricultural Water Efficiency and Salinity Research Unit in Riverside. Anderson leads the ARS portion of the study, working with ARS scientists Todd Skaggs and Andrew French.

    ARS has three primary roles in the project: To calculate project area crop water use and anomalies with crop water use across the entire region; develop tools that help growers avoid salinity damage while minimizing the leaching of fertilizer; and to gather field data to validate satellite algorithms.

    Researchers will take advantage of advanced satellite technology to provide more frequent, detailed information to farmers than ever before. The plan is to integrate high-resolution commercial satellite data with established government satellite platforms and meteorological data.

    A major advance with this work will be the use of daily, high-resolution (12-foot) satellite imagery, Anderson said. Previously, data have only been available every 1-2 weeks at 60- to 100-foot resolution and were too infrequent or coarse to provide timely and actionable information to farmers.

    “By combining the new satellite data with artificial intelligence, we will be able to discover and create tools that will help farmers pinpoint areas that need better irrigation, nutrient, and pest management,” Anderson said.

    “One of the major advantages to this project is that the outputs – recommendations and highlights on a smartphone app – will be accessible to all farmers,” he said. “Previously, farmers had to pay for aircraft and specialized processing to get this level of imagery and detail. Soon, high resolution satellite imagery, machine learning, and cloud processing will be available to smaller producers in one easy-to-use tool. These algorithms will help farmers with their field scouting so that they can catch problems early, before significant yield reductions occur.”

    Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin and Salinas Valley employs more than 500,000 people and generates roughly $12 billion annually in revenue. Farmers in the regions grow fruits and vegetables that are shipped around the country all year round, particularly in winter.

    Water availability and use top the researchers’ priority list because prolonged drought has reduced agricultural water availability in the southwestern United States.

    “These valleys consume large amounts of irrigation water, but the amount and quality of irrigation water is decreasing,” Anderson said. “It is important to use existing supplies more efficiently and to protect water sources from nutrient and salinity contamination that can come from poor irrigation management.” — By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications.

  • Fire Blight in Pear: Getting to the Root of the Matter

    Pear producers are turning to science in order to take a bigger bite out of the fruit market. U.S. pear production is only about one-seventh that of apple production. Reasons for this shortfall include relatively limited areas with a favorable growing climate; the large size of pear trees; and susceptibility to storm damage, climate change, and disease – particularly fire blight. These conditions caused pear producers in Washington State to lose nearly 70,000 tons of their crop last year alone (not to mention the major losses in California as well).

    According to Nahla Bassil, plant geneticist, and Joseph Postman, pear curator, at the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in Corvallis, OR, developing superior new rootstocks is the number one research priority of the U.S. pear industry. Their research team includes postdoc Jason Zurn and crop manager Barbara Gilmore. Bassil’s research focuses on developing DNA markers that enable diagnosing host-plant resistance to the fire blight pathogen in breeding material, resulting in new cultivars that are resistant to the most devastating disease of pears worldwide.

    Overview of the interstem plot of young pear trees in 2019 (Photo by Joseph Postman)

    While there are numerous root systems, called rootstocks, available for apples that can produce trees ranging in size from super-dwarf to super-vigorous, very few rootstock options are available for pears, Bassil said. Currently, pear trees grown on vigorous rootstocks are large, must be planted far apart, and can take 5 years to come into production. In addition, large trees are more dangerous and time-consuming to prune and harvest, larger amounts of pesticides are needed to control pests, and pesticide coverage is less efficient compared to low-growing compact trees.

    Commercial apple producers primarily plant highly productive dwarf trees that are grafted onto specially designed rootstocks, developed by ARS scientists. Now, pear growers are looking to solve their production problems through genetic solutions.

    A few dwarfing rootstocks are available for pears, but they all have problems, ranging from susceptibility to disease to longer production times. That’s where the NCGR’s research comes in.

    “The USDA world pear collection in Corvallis contains many species and varieties that are potentially better rootstocks or have unique genetic characteristics that are not found in commonly grown varieties,” Bassil said. “Genetic solutions for production problems are economical and efficient in the long run, but there are challenges to identifying new genetic materials with the needed traits.”

    Postman’s search for a productive pear rootstock has taken him one step beyond the techniques used by his ARS colleagues who studied apples. Rather than grow a new pear tree by grafting the desired fruit tree atop a rootstock, as apple tree nurseries do, Postman uses a double-graft system.

    Interstem pear grafts in pots (Photo by Joseph Postman)

    “Pears do not root easily from cuttings,” he said. “We are using ‘interstems’ of potential rootstock varieties to overcome this difficulty.” An interstem is grafted onto a seedling rootstock, then a shoot of an edible cultivar is grafted onto the interstem. “We are hoping that an interstem piece will have the same dwarfing effect as commercial apple trees that are grafted onto dwarfing rootstocks.”

    As part of the RosBREED project, USDA scientists in Corvallis also identified natural resistance to fire blight that combined disease resistance with horticultural quality. “New genetic markers are being developed to identify and eliminate susceptible seedlings from a breeding program,” Bassil said. “These genetic markers can also select better parents, thus increasing the number of resistant seedlings in the next generation. This will save time, space, and dollars.” – by Scott Elliott, ARS Office of Communications.

  • Purple Sweetpotatoes for Thanksgiving, Christmas & More

    Bright-orange sweetpotatoes are a staple of many American Thanksgiving dinners and are often prepared with a traditional family recipe. But this year, why not start a new tradition with purple-fleshed sweetpotatoes?

    Both colors of sweetpotato are high in dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals, but the purple varieties are also rich in health-beneficial antioxidants called anthocyanins and phenolic acids. Anthocyanins are plant pigments that make blueberries blue and cherries cherry-red, and the antioxidant activities in purple sweetpotatoes can be at similar levels to these antioxidant-rich fruits. Various studies have indicated that anthocyanins and phenolics from purple‐fleshed sweetpotatoes may have potential health benefits.

    A team of scientists from the Agricultural Research Service’s Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit in Raleigh, NC, collaborated with researchers at North Carolina State University to find ways to preserve purple-fleshed sweetpotatoes’ anthocyanin levels during processing into products like juice or natural colorants. Typically, heat is used during processing, but heat changes the flavor and prevents isolation and use of sweetpotato starch and fiber. But if heat is not used, then the flesh quickly browns due to the same enzymes that turn sliced apples brown.

    The scientists wanted to figure out a heat-free way to extract the juice and pigments directly from the raw purple sweetpotato. After those are extracted, what’s left is raw starch and fiber (pomace), each with its own uses and benefits.

    The team successfully used water containing a small amount of citric acid, a substance naturally present in citrus fruits, to inactivate the browning enzymes and preserve an appealing reddish-purple color in the fresh juice and pomace. Preserving the high anthocyanin content makes these products desirable as functional ingredients in beverages and other food products. This research can pave the way for sweetpotato processors to produce new, value-added products. The team published the study in the Journal of Food Science in 2019.—By Sue Kendall, USDA ARS Office of Communications.

  • New Bean Defeats Both Leafhoppers & Drought

    Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Puerto Rico have developed a new pinto bean germplasm that may increase a farmer’s yield, reduce production expenses, and help the environment.

    The new bean, called TARS-LH1, is resistant to two types of leafhopper – Empoasca fabea, the potato leafhopper, which can reduce common bean yield by 20 percent in temperate areas, and the tropical leafhopper, E. kraemeri, which can reduce yield by almost 80 percent in tropical areas.

    Further, TARS-LH1 is resistant to the bean common mosaic virus and drought stress. It also yields well and has good seed size, said Tim Porch, research geneticist at the ARS Tropical Agriculture Research Station in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

    Beans are among the most important crops grown worldwide, Porch said. “They are a nutrient-dense food and an excellent source of protein and fiber,” he said. “Eating more beans can potentially reduce the chances of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.”

    In addition, the properties of the TARS-LH1 pinto bean offer economic benefits to farmers around the world by reducing pesticide input and increasing organic dry bean production. “Beans are primarily a crop of poor farmers worldwide, so reducing the amount of pesticide could increase farmer income and food security, and decrease the environmental impact of production.”

    Pinto beans are also a favorite of U.S. bean growers, accounting for about one-third of America’s bean crop.

    The new pinto bean variety has been released publicly in the form of germplasm, intended for use by plant breeders to incorporate traits of interest – in this case, leafhopper and drought resistance – into the varieties that farmers ultimately grow.

    The Porch research team tested the bean’s resistance to leafhopper in several locations, including the Michigan State University Crop and Soil Science Research Farm, in Haiti, and in Puerto Rico.

    It’s important to improve beans, Porch said, because pests and pathogens are constantly evolving and the climate is changing. “The next step will be to incorporate this resistance into other seed classes grown in the United States and into varieties grown by farmers around the world,” he said. Other potential improvements include heat tolerance and resistance to pathogens like rust and common bacterial blight. – By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • New Blackberries: Eclipse, Galaxy, and Twilight

    The best of eastern and western blackberry genetics have been melded to create Eclipse, Galaxy and Twilight, three new blackberry varieties released by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

    ARS’ Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, working in cooperation with the Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station, has blended the desirable traits of eastern erect-cane blackberries and western trailing blackberries into new varieties with thornless semi-erect canes to fill new niches in the fresh berry market.

    Eclipse was the first of the three varieties from these crosses to move from the test fields to final selection. Its name was changed from ORUS 2816-4 to Eclipse to commemorate the total solar eclipse visible in Corvallis in 2017.

    One of Eclipse’s parents, Triple Crown, known for highest marks in productivity, vigor and flavor, ripens in late summer. Eclipse inherited the same triple high scores, but it ripens earlier, filling a hole in the fresh market harvest season between when trailing varieties ripen and when Triple Crown ripens.

    “Eclipse inherited Triple Crown’s outstanding flavor, beloved for its sweet, fruity taste, with hints of root beer and spice. But what Eclipse has that Triple Crown doesn’t is a firmer skin that gives you a good pop when you bite down. Firmer skin also means the berries handle and ship better and don’t leak, which is always an attractive feature for the fresh market,” said biological technician Mary Peterson, who works in the blackberry breeding program.

    The second blackberry release, Galaxy, also has Triple Crown as a parent and inherited similar traits, with the firmer skin of Eclipse. But it produces a few days earlier than Eclipse. Galaxy’s berries are slightly larger than those of Eclipse with dark-colored fruit.

    “People who’ve tasted Galaxy have detected hints of blueberry, mint and grape,” Peterson said.

    The third release was named following the same sky theme, and the specific name Twilight was selected because it ripens last of the three varieties, 4-5 days after Eclipse, Peterson explained.

    With an ancestry seven-eighths eastern U.S. blackberry and one-eighth western blackberry, Twilight is higher yielding than Eclipse. Tasters have remarked on its complex, deep blackberry jam flavor, with floral and honey notes, but the berries are perhaps not quite as sweet.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.