Green Horizons

MNGA 2014 Nut Show, Annual Meeting

On Friday, Feb. 7, the 2013 crop year nut show entries will be evaluated in the morning. The Board of Directors will meet that afternoon. Saturday, Feb. 8 is the annual business meeting which includes viewing the winning nut entries and presentations by nut growers, industry, extension and university specialists. Again this year is the Nutty Cookie Contest. Entries will be sampled at lunch, and you'll want to mark the date now.

At this point, 2013 crop year nuts should be harvested, cleaned and dried for storage. MNGA hopes to see more entries this year. Hammons reported that they bought 28 to 30 million pounds of black walnuts, and the MNGA webmaster fielded many inquiries from people seeking out harvest equipment or contractors.

The MNGA evaluation protocol calls for submitting 30 pecans, 25 walnuts or 15 nuts of another species. They recommend placing clean, hulled nuts from a single cultivar or seedling tree in a brown paper bag and setting them in a cool, dry place to finish air-drying. Write your name and the sample tree ID (its cultivar name or tree identification for seedling entries on the bag). Use the 2013 Crop Year Sample Entry form (available on page 15 of MNGA's fall newsletter) and print as many copies as needed. Each sample should have its own form. It can be brought to the Friday nut evaluation session, or the sample can be mailed in. If you are not attending on Friday, entries can be mailed to Pat Miller at the Vernon County Extension Office.