From the USDA (Aug 12th) "Apples: The United States apple production for the 2012 crop year is forecast at 8.06 billion pounds, down 14 percent from 2011. Production in the Western States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) is forecast at 6.21 billion pounds, up 6 percent from last year. Washington growers experienced a relatively normal growing season, without losses from freezes or frost, and with good pollination weather. Production in Oregon is up from last year, contrary to the typical alternate bearing pattern. Production in the Eastern States (Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia) is forecast at 1.60 billion pounds, down 31 percent from last year. New York producers reported significant losses due to adverse weather conditions. A warm spring season prompted trees to begin budding earlier than usual. Immediately following the warm spell in March, multiple freezes in April damaged many of the buds. In July, drought conditions hampered most of the remaining production. In North Carolina, production is expected to be down significantly from last year due to a late freeze, hail damage, and flooding. Production in the Central States (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin) is forecast at 252 million pounds, a decrease of 79 percent from last year. The Michigan crop was severely hampered by multiple significant frosts in April as well as high temperatures and very dry conditions throughout the growing season. Ohio production was greatly diminished this year due to a damaging frost during bloom time. "

Not a lot of people are fans of that article/report/paper/study/whatever. Neither of the guys who authored it have any experience in marketing even if they have experience with food production, genetics, and chemistry. The same reason they have no business writing papers on marketing is the same reason Stephanie Seneff has no business writing about sulfur supplements and herbicides. Besides that, Dr. David Tribe is an embarrassing "anti-organic" crusader who spreads 1/2-truths and outright lies about the industry in between the occasional nugget of well presented fact. Academics Review was founded to collectively eye-roll the grand idiot Jeffrey Smith (speaking of someone who has no business pretending to be an expert), but it very quickly de-evolved into an anti-organic, pro-anything-non-organic weird thing. Thankfully, people who are pro-GMO/pro-chem/etc mostly dismissed and walked away from these guys rather than celebrating their existence or pretending what they're writing is ground breaking research. A lot of people don't have time for intellectual dishonesty no matter how passionate the subject. It would be nice if some who are "anti-GMO/chemical/etc" would vet their own mouthpieces rather than following them off an intellectual cliff because they're saying something they want to hear.

If it is the one in Three Oaks, here's part of the report from the South County Gazette: "The group [proposing the market] said in their proposal that they want 'to feature local growers, with an emphasis on pesticide-free goods, but not excluding any group.' "Also, they want 'to stay away from craft items that are not garden- or farm-related' in order 'to keep the market moe about local agricultue and the diversity of food grown here.'" Later in the article it says "the group asks that vendors produce 60 percent of what they bring to the market, noting that "the other 40 percent should be raised locally and/or made of natural materials." Personally while I'm really excited about a market here, I think 60 percent seems kind of low. Where I used to live there was a market that was dominated by two farms that trucked in produce from Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida... I suspect most of the public was clueless that their red June tomatoes, peppers, etc. came from nowhere nearby. The Three Oaks market proposes charging vendors $40 for the full season or $10/Saturday, on a first-come basis. That seems pretty fair to me. While there are many fruit stands and so on around here, you have to go up to St. Joseph to get to real vendor-produced food. I'm in Galien and I look forward to shopping, and perhaps participating. --Johanna

Yes, there is alot of estrogen in my house. To top that, I am a teacher. Most of the teachers at my school are female. We also have 45 female chickens. At least the cat is male! In my High Tunnel I am growing these varieties, Big Beef, Estiva, Celebrity (3), Rutgers (1), Florida 91, BHN 640, Lemon Boy, Mountain Gold, Orange Blossom, Pineapple and Cherokee Purple. The Celebrity and Rutgers were to replace a few that froze. I ran out of replacements and I didn't want to waste any space. I have had lots of comments at my markets from people who read the article. Lots of opportunities have also came up. Someone who offered the use of a commercial kitchen for my Jellies, Someone who wants to buy tomatoes from the University, Someone who wants to sell my Jellies in their store, Someone who wants to come out and visit. Thanks for all the kind words, it is just want I needed to hear to go out and finish digging my last 80 foot row of potatoes, and pick 250 feet of green beans.