Thank you, Mountain Lake PBS! Click on dated link to see the segment.
Plattsburgh, NY; August 27, 2018. In a Friday, June 24, 2018 broadcast, PBS television affiliate Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh, NY, featured a first-of-its-kind research site, made possible with funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, in Willsboro, NY.
The weekly news magazine program, Mountain Lake Journal highlighted the first Juneberry research nursery in New York State and one of the largest living collections of Amelanchier in the U.S.
Amelanchier is the scientific name for Juneberry, considered a “super fruit” for its antioxidant value.
A grant from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) providing research and technical assistance to farms in the six northernmost counties of New York State provided the funds that created the Juneberry nursery at the Willsboro Research Farm. The farm is a Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station.
“The farmers who review grant requests to the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program put value on the potential of Juneberry to become a significant new fruit crop for regional growers,” says NNYADP Co-Chair Jon Rulfs.
Mountain Lake PBS Senior Producer Thom Hallock says, “We wanted to feature this research and the Willsboro Farm Juneberry nursery to give our viewers a look into the fascinating work that is going on to develop several varieties of Juneberries for commercial scale production that may, in the not-too-distant future, be available for farmers markets across New York State.”
Viewers heard about the Juneberry research from project leaders Dr. Michael Burgess a botanist and assistant professor of biology at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and Willsboro Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D.
To start the project, Burgess and Davis collected cultivars of wild Juneberry growing in multiple states in 2013 and 2014. Burgess grew the cuttings out in his greenhouse laboratory at SUNY Plattsburgh for transplant to the new nursery site at Willsboro. The nursery also includes commercially-available varieties of Juneberry.
Farms in the Northern NY region have begun adding on-farm Juneberry plantings.
The Associated Press and such publications as Fruit Growers News, Nursery Management, Producer Grower, and the international Horti-Daily have reported on the progress of this Northern New York-based Juneberry research.
Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Senate and administered by the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets.
More information is posted on this website under the Horticulture tab.
Mountain Lake PBS has been the public media station for the Adirondacks and Champlain Valley region for more than 40 years. Its reach includes audiences in New York, Vermont, and Quebec and Ontario, Canada. Mountain Lake Journal airs on Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 7 pm, Sunday at 10 am, and on all the Mountain Lake PBS social media platforms. Learn more at www.mountainlake.org.