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[Lon Rombough <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: January 5, 2005 5:26:19 AM PST
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Little-Known Fruits Getting More Attention
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>

STORY LEAD:
Fruits of the Future?
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
David Elstein, (301) 504-1654, delstein@ars.usda.gov
January 5, 2005
___________________________________________

Have you ever tasted an elderberry or lingonberry? How about an aronia 
berry? These three lesser-known fruit crops are being studied by 
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who hope to make these 
fruits more popular with consumers.

At the ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Ore., 
research leader Kim E. Hummer and her staff are studying what are 
called "minor crops"--fruits that may be popular in other countries--to 
see if they can successfully grow them here. Another example is the 
edible-fruited honeysuckle, which looks somewhat like a blueberry and 
has its own unique flavor, very different from the more popular 
ornamental honeysuckles with orange fruit.

There are more than 600 minor crops in the United States. While any 
crop that's grown on fewer than 300,000 acres nationally is considered 
a minor crop, many of the crops studied in Corvallis are grown on only 
a few hundred acres.

In some cases, such as with kiwifruit, the fruit may start off as a 
minor crop but eventually become a market staple. The scientists also 
are studying hardy kiwifruit, which is related to the fuzzy kiwifruit 
found in supermarket produce sections. The hardy kiwifruit has a smooth 
skin and is the size of a large grape, but has green flesh and black 
seeds similar to the traditional kiwi.

Two problems with the current hardy kiwifruit cultivars are that they 
are smaller than desired and only ripen during a three-week window, 
meaning they can only be sold for a few weeks a year. Geneticist Chad 
E. Finn at the ARS Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, also in 
Corvallis, is trying to identify new cultivars from populations of wild 
hardy kiwifruit collected in China that have larger fruit and ripen at 
different times in the season than current cultivars.

Read more about the repository and the fruit research in the January 
issue of Agricultural Research magazine, available online at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jan05/fruits0105.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research 
agency.
__________________________________________

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