Jason Hess took a tour of a nursery by a resaca in Bayview in 2017 and discovered a paradise. It was River’s End Nursery back when Hess first saw it. He works in the healthcare field, with a hobby and passion for growing fruit trees, so the tour was of special interest to him. Hess was in awe of the splendor at River’s End. Ed and Kathy Pechacek took a…
Before there was a University Drive and UTRGV, there was Harriman Drive and Pan American College in Edinburg. Harriman was where Al Martin started Martin Farm & Ranch Supply in 1955. There’s an old photo of Al in a hat looking at his products through a store window with a long sign above him touting “Feed, Seed, Fertilizer, Insecticides.” “Daddy has us working all the time,” said Doug Martin of…
For the first time in 13 years, the Port of Brownsville resumed the export of grains overseas via vessel. WestPlains LLC, the operator of the port’s grain elevator, loaded 34,000 metric tons of sorghum onto the M/V Tian Fu in late-August. The grain was harvested from throughout the Rio Grande Valley. This is the first of four vessels with sorghum that WestPlains will ship to China this year. The port…
People all over the world enjoy having a glass of wine. Some make special trips in search of this spirit that has been produced for decades in countries like France, Spain, New Zealand and Australia. Some go to the Texas Hill Country, now home to dozens of wineries. Others go to California’s Napa Valley, the top producer of wine in the United States. But do you know that sometime this…
England Farms of Mercedes is the first cotton grower in the state, country and world to bring in the first two bales of cotton for the 2020 harvest season. The new crop arrived at Ross Gin Co in Mercedes on June 18 at 10:37 a.m. The first two bales weighed 484 pounds and 543 pounds, respectively. Once ginned, the cotton will be transported to the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce.…
One day, Bonnie Emerson was getting ready to stage another weekend Rancho Viejo Farmers Market – and then the world changed. The threat of the coronavirus led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to issue an executive order on March 19 that limited public gatherings and eventually led to the closing of many businesses. The Rancho Viejo Farmers Market of March 21-22 saw an abrupt cancellation with no roadmap of what to…
Diana Padilla describes it as seeing a piece of land and knowing it’s where she wanted to be. The Chicago native and retired federal government employee chanced upon the farmland near the corner of Rangerville and Morris roads in Harlingen and had a good feel for it. She and her husband Saul purchased a 15-acre plot, including the old farmhouse where they live, and then began farming. It was 2004…
The 81st annual Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show kicks off on March 12 and will run through 11 event-filled days of exhibits, rodeos, carnivals and live music. It’s the largest show of its type south of San Antonio. The livestock show, as always, takes place at the livestock show grounds in Mercedes. The Valley iconic event has a reputation for its entertainment and fun times but at its heart is…
Research by two UTRGV professors is monitoring the critical honeybee population in South Texas via tiny cameras placed on their hives. The research by Dongchul Kim and Joanne Rampersad-Ammons is receiving funding from a federal research grant from the USDA. Kim is an assistant professor of computer science and principal investigator on the project. Rampersad-Ammons is co-PI and professor in the School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences. “Applying Computer Vision…
The City of McAllen and MAFO leaders will host the National Farmworker Conference on April 26-29, 2020 in McAllen. More than 400 delegates from around the state and nation will to convene in McAllen for the conference. “MAFO is a national partnership of farmworker and rural organizations and we are grateful for the partnership with the City of McAllen and excited about the opportunity to host our conference in McAllen,”…