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GENEVA-A FRUIT LOVER'S PARADISE

© Connie Krochmal

The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) at Geneva is a fruit lover's paradise. Here in the upstate region everyone simply calls it Geneva.

This is a favorite destination for New York fruit growers. Here they can attend classes, workshops, seminars, and other events. A year or so ago there was a workshop on making jams and jellies.

Fruit growers can use the kitchens at Geneva to bottle fruit juices, pasteurize cider, and make jams, jellies, and other fruit products for sale. James Cummins, owner of Littletree Orchards in Newfield, NY takes 100 bushels of fruit at a time and makes fruit butters.

Jack Torrice, co-owner of Fruit Valley Farm makes and bottles his own gourmet fruit juices. Back at his orchard he crushes the fruit and extracts the juice. Then at Geneva he uses the bottling facilities.

Without the facilities at Geneva it is unlikely these orchard owners could afford to invest in the processing equipment they would need. New York State has strict rules, and requires that this be done in a commercial-type kitchen with stainless steel equipment and the like. Commercial pasteurizers cost a lot of money. But fruit growers can use the pasteurization and bottling equipment at Geneva, and can then make pasteurized cider available to their customers.

All of this processing of fruits and vegetables is done at the 10,000 square foot pilot plant in the Food Science and Technology division at Geneva. Some of the equipment is especially designed for making applesauce, and juices.

In addition the pilot plant has facilities for freezing fresh produce, extracting and making juice concentrates.

Geneva is the research unit for New York State's land grant college, which happens to be Cornell University. This was due to much effort on the part of the legendary Liberty Hyde Bailey. Geneva opened about 120 years ago. As a result Cornell University has two campuses, the Ivy League part and the agricultural part.

A lot of research on fruit goes on here, including fruit breeding, and integrated pest management (IPM)

Dr. Greg English-Loeb and his colleagues are conducting IPM research on controlling the strawberry sap beetle and strawberry diseases. Both are relatively new problems to the Northeast. The results of these studies should help strawberry growers throughout the region.

New York is wine-growing country, and there's a separate research unit at Geneva that focuses on meeting the needs of area grape growers.