NNY Ag Development Program

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April 7, 2025 By karalynn

Adirondack Explorer: NNYADP sap beverages article

Small cups with tree sap samples on tray
A taste test by 100 panelists evaluated aspen, birch, and beech sap beverage samples for this NNYADP-funded project. Photo: Catherine Monserrate

The Adirondack Explorer recently posted an article  on the NNYADP-funded tree sap beverages research project results by writer Holly Riddle. Here’s a link to that story: https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/sipping-on-sap-maple-producers-branch-out-to-tapping-other-trees.

See the full project report here.

Filed Under: News & Press Releases

March 6, 2025 By karalynn

NNYADP Research: New Nut Crops for NNY Established

Hand holding 4 fresh-picked hazelnuts
The first hazelnuts produced in the NNYADP New Commercial Fruit and Nut Crops for Northern New York project were harvested on 11/4/24. Photo: Michael Davis

Willsboro/Northern New York; March 6, 2025. Early results of field trials of hazelnuts, chestnuts, and cold-hardy pecans funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) to evaluate them as new commercial crops for regional farmers are now posted at www.nnyagdev.org.

The 3 nut crops and 4 high value fruit crops: juneberry, elderberry, honeyberry and aronia are part of the NNYADP’s “New Commercial Fruit and Nut Crops for Northern New York” project. The trial are hosted at the Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, New York.

Commercial growers in each of northern New York’s six counties: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence are cooperating producers in the research.

American hazelnut and hybrid hazelnut varieties were planted at the Willsboro farm in 2023 and 2024, followed by three lines of chestnut in 2024, and cold-tolerant pecans added in the fall of 2024. These nut crops are nutritious foods, for example, hazelnuts are high in protein and oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid.

According to the early results report, all three nut species established well with one of the American hazelnut seedlings producing the trial’s first nuts in April 2024.

Photo left: Jim Ochterski; right: NNYADP

The high-antioxidant, high-phytonutrient “super fruits” in the NNYADP-funded trials represent a significant economic opportunity through sales of fresh fruit, u-pick, and value-added products. For example, elderberry is a highly imported product into the U.S., indicating an opportunity to develop a locally-grown domestic market. Aronia fruit production in North America has grown into a multi-million dollar industry with several dozen unique value-added products.

The NNYADP established New York’s first juneberry nursery of commercially-sold and wild-collected varieties at the Willsboro Research Farm in 2013. Aronia plantings were added in 2017, honeyberry in 2018, and elderberry in 2021.

“With enough growing seasons now, we are now seeing the natural stressors that impact established crops and beginning to develop best practices for managing pest, disease, and climate-related impacts,” notes Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D.

In 2025, the research team is testing strategies to encourage regrowth after a spongy moth infestation in the juneberry commercial and wild-collected plots and in the honeyberry trial in 2022. The ornamental varieties of juneberry were not defoliated by spongy moth in 2022 and in 2024 flowered profusely.

Visiting Honeyberry Expert Offers Insight
In 2024 University of Saskatchewan Professor Robert Bors, Ph.D., a renowned honeyberry plant breeder, toured the NNYADP honeyberry plots at the Willsboro Research Farm. The trial experienced a marked fruit yield decline between 2021 and 2023. In 2024, yield rebounded with some varieties, but the low yield trend continued with lines with and without branch dieback.

“Dr. Bors suggested that low organic matter in the soil of the trial plots might be impacting productivity, and noted that the use of black landscape fabric weedmat might be causing damage to the honeyberry’s shallow root system on summer high heat days here,” Davis explains.

The 2025 research plan includes nutrient management applications to enrich the soil to encourage honeyberry plant growth and replaces landscape fabric with wood chip mulch for weed management.

Heavy rains in 2023 and 2024, Japanese beetles in 2024, and a fungus that thrives in wet soils and was identified in 2024 may all have played a role in poor vigor and branch dieback in the aronia trial planting in 2024. In 2025, the research team is adjusting irrigation management and applying milky spore powder for Japanese beetle management.

Photo of elderberries
Elderberries; USDA/Stephen Ausmus

Elderberry growth slowed by heavy deer browsing in 2023 rebounded with protection measures installed in 2024. This young trial planting has not yet matured to produce fruit.

Project collaborators include SUNY Plattsburgh Biology Associate Professor and botanist Michael Burgess, Ph.D., Cornell University Horticulture Professor Marvin Pritts, and New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission Agronomist Myra Lawyer working with the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

The 2024 and previous years’ “New Commercial Fruit and Nut Crops for Northern NY” results reports are posted at www.nnyagdev.org. Updates on this NNYADP research are regularly presented at the annual Willsboro Research Farm Field Days and grower events held statewide.

Northern New York Agricultural Development Program logoFunding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Filed Under: News & Press Releases

February 14, 2025 By karalynn

NNYADP Research Results: Processing & Bottling Tree Sap Beverages

Small cups of tree sap beverages on a tray
Aspen, beech, and birch sap beverages were evaluated by a consumer panel of 100 participants at the Cornell Sensory Evaluation Center as part of the NNYADP-funded project that validated the feasibility of processing and bottling aspen, beech, and birch saps as shelf-stable beverages. Photo: Catherine Monserrate

February 14, 2025, Lake Placid, New York.  The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has announced the results of a project evaluating and validating the feasibility of small-scale processing and bottling the saps of aspen, beech, and birch trees as shelf-stable beverages.

“This project responded to maple producers’ hesitancy to invest in tapping trees other than maple due to the low sugar content in the sap of other species of trees. This research explored the option to bottle the sap from other tree species without the expense required to concentrate the sap and suggests that it is indeed feasible for small-scale production,” explained project co-leader Aaron Wightman.

The research team of Wightman and Adam Wild, co-directors of the Cornell University Maple Program, and Cornell Food Scientist Catherine Monserrate, Ph.D., adapted a small-scale bottling method for maple sap recently developed by the Cornell Maple Program for use with sap collected from beech, birch, and aspen trees at the Uihlein Maple Research Forest in Lake Placid. Their processes used equipment commonly present in many sugaring operations in northern New York. The processes produced a thermally pasteurized refrigerated sap beverage and an acidified and thermal pasteurized shelf-stable product.

Wightman notes that the procedures developed for processing and preserving the sap of maple trees as a bottled beverage need to be adapted to fit the different composition of each species of tree to make a shelf-stable sap beverage.

Two jars of beech syrup: one made with reverse osmosis, one without R-O.This NNYADP-funded research may be the first report of the composition of aspen and beech sap. The project identified the content, composition, and pH of the beech, birch, and aspen species’ sap. An earlier NNYADP-funded project by Wild determined the mineral composition of beech syrup and served as a precursor for this new research.

Photo:  Beech syrup samples made (left: with reverse osmosis, right: without RO) during a 2022 NNYADP project evaluating whether beech saplings would yield enough sap for profitable syrup production to potentially provide regional maple producers with another forest-based product. A new grant in 2024 has evaluated the bottling of beech and other tree saps. Photo: Adam Wild

This 2024 project is also believed to be the first validation of the carbohydrate pectin in beech sap. The trial process was successful in isolating and removing the pectin from the beech sap.

Food science laboratory stainless steel table set up for tree sap tasting trial.
The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded research trial on the feasibility of small-scale bottling of tree sap beverages included a taste test with 100 panelists judging flavor, sweetness, acidity, and their likeliness to purchase the sap beverages. Photo: Catherine Monserrate

Taste Test
A taste test with 100 panelists at the Cornell Sensory Evaluation Center assessed consumer response to the acidified and pasteurized aspen, beech and birch tree sap beverages produced by the trial, judging for flavor, sweetness, acidity, and likeliness to purchase the sap beverages.

“Best by” and Production Steps
An overview of production steps for producing a refrigerated pasteurized sap with a “Best by” date of 5 days and for producing shelf-stable acidified sap with estimated potential for storage of longer than 6 months are in the “Developing Alternative Tree Sap Beverages” report posted under the About: NNYADP Projects by Year: 2024 projects tab and under the Research: Maple, Beech and Birch Research tab at www.nnyagdev.org. Extension fact sheets for bottling tree saps and isolating and reducing pectin content in beech sap will be available at cornellmaple.com soon.

Northern New York Agricultural Development Program logoFunding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets.

 

Filed Under: News & Press Releases

January 16, 2025 By karalynn

NNYADP Committee Farmer Elected to NY Farm Bureau Board

Congratulations to Michael Murphy, an NNYADP Farmer Committee member who has recently been elected to serve on the New York Farm Bureau Board of Directors. Michael is the production manager at Childstock Farms in Franklin County. The farm produces seed potatoes, kale, turnip greens, cilantro, and collards. In his youth, Michael helped his family operate a dairy farm and raise beef. He holds an agricultural science degree from Cornell University and is a Certified Crop Advisor. Michael has been a member of the Franklin County Farm Bureau since 2020; a NYFB member for 10 years.

Program logo with farm field landscape.The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is pleased to have Michael among the more than 80 farmers from across our six-county region helping to prioritize research for the diverse farming sectors of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties.

Filed Under: News & Press Releases

January 13, 2025 By karalynn

NNYADP “Value of Manure” Research Update

Diagram of layout of six rows of six rates of manure application
Left: Research plots with 3 strips receiving manure before planting corn (1a) and three unmanured plots. Right: At the V4-V6 stage each strip received a different rate of inorganic N sidedress.

January 13, 2025. Morning Ag Clips recently ran an article on “Manure Nutrient Variability During Land Application on Four New York Dairies” written by researcher Quirine M. Ketterings and her research team. The article recognizes NNYADP among the grant sources supporting the work. Click here to read the article.

Click here to read the NNYADP research report on the “value of manure” trials in 2023. 2024 report is expected to post in February.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Filed Under: News & Press Releases

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