October 26, 2018
CapitalPress.com
5
Onion quality ‘excellent’ as harvest crosses finish line
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Onion quality, size and
yield look good as harvest
wraps up and storage sheds run
full-speed in southeastern Ore-
gon and southwestern Idaho.
Yields appear to slightly
exceed long-term averages.
“Generally, things are quite
good so far,” Kay Riley, gen-
eral manager at Snake River
Produce in Nyssa, Ore., said
Oct. 19. “Harvest has been
exceptional and size has been
exceptional.” Quality and ap-
pearance also have been excel-
lent, he said.
Quality looked to be un-
affected by heavy rains Oct.
4 and 9 in parts of the region
and a light frost early Oct.
15, he said. Most of the crop
had been harvested before the
frost, he said.
Internal decay can occur
after about a month in stor-
age, Riley said. More will be
known later, but that does not
appear to be an issue so far
at Snake River, he said. The
operation began packing in
mid-August.
The region’s onion industry
typically ships around 30,000
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
Onions have looked good this year in southeastern Oregon and
southwestern Idaho.
semi-truck loads of onions,
and shipping as of Oct. 19
was about 2,200 loads ahead
of last year’s volume, he said.
“We anticipate having a
very good season,” Riley said.
Recent rain and frost likely
did not reduce onion quality
or yield, said Oregon State
University Extension Mal-
heur County Crop Agent Stu-
art Reitz.
When morning tempera-
tures drop into the upper 20s,
growers will wait until lat-
er in the day to harvest and
handle onions — after any
frost comes off outer layers
— so they don’t bruise the
vegetables, he said. Morning
temperatures were around 28
degrees in the area early Oct.
15, “in some areas a couple
degrees cooler.
“But the onions are sit-
ting on the ground, so they
get some additional heat
from the soil,” Reitz said.
“And if it doesn’t stay too
cold for too long, they don’t
suffer that damage.”
Last year’s late-starting
season had below-average
onion sizes and yields. The
current onion crop looks
much more like the 2016
crop, which was fairly large,
he said.
Good skin color and size,
and a high percentage of sin-
gle-center onions good for
processing are among on-
ion characteristics seen this
year, Reitz said. Mostly good
growing conditions, with few
stops and starts, helped over-
all quality and yield as well as
centering.
“It seems like things are
going into storage pretty well.
You see onions moving, and
guys are getting finished up,”
said Bruce Corn, who farms
between Ontario and Nyssa,
Ore. He expects harvest in the
area to conclude by the end of
the month if conditions hold.
He said on Oct. 19 he
would be surprised if earlier
rain and frost affected quality,
as “the stuff we see moving
on the truck looks really good
— well cured.” This year’s
curing weather has been good,
he said.
Nyssa-area grower Paul
Skeen said his crop looks “ex-
cellent, probably the best I’ve
ever seen. Quality and appear-
ance and everything else.”
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Five Ways to Reduce
Your Breast Cancer Risk
greater risk for invasive breast
cancer compared with women
who sat less than 3 hours a day,
and an increased risk for other
cancer types as well.
Written by: Stacy Simon
Although there is no sure way to
prevent breast cancer, there are
several things you can do that
may lower your likelihood of
getting it. Other factors,
including family history,
also increase your risk, but most
women who get breast cancer
(about 8 out of 10) do not have
it in the family.
4. Limit alcohol. Research has
shown that women who have 2
to 3 alcohol drinks a day have
about a 20% higher risk
compared to women who don’t
drink at all. Women who have 1
drink a day have a very small
increase in risk. Excessive
drinking increases the risk of
other cancer types, too.
Here are 5 ways to help
protect your breast health:
1. Watch your
weight. Being overweight or
obese increases breast cancer
risk. This is especially true after
menopause and for women who
gain weight as adults. After
menopause, most of your
estrogen comes from fat tissue.
Having more fat tissue can increase your chance of getting breast
cancer by raising estrogen levels. Also, women who are overweight
tend to have higher levels of insulin, another hormone. Higher
insulin levels have also been linked to some cancers, including
breast cancer.
If you’re already at a healthy weight, stay there. If you’re carrying
extra pounds, try to lose some. There’s some evidence that losing
weight may lower breast cancer risk. Losing even a small amount of
weight – for example, half a pound a week – can also have other
health benefits and is a good place to start.
2. Exercise regularly . Many studies have found that exercise is a
breast-healthy habit.
The American Cancer Society recommends getting at least 150
minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous
activity each week. (Or a combination of both.) Moderate-intensity
activities are at the level of a brisk walk that makes you breathe
hard. And don’t cram it all into a single workout – spread it out
over the week.
The American Cancer Society
recommends women have no
more than 1 alcohol drink in a
single day. A drink is 12 ounces
of regular beer, 5 ounces of
wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard
liquor.
5. Avoid or limit hormone replacement therapy . Hormone
replacement therapy (HRT) was used more often in the past to help
control night sweats, hot flashes, and other symptoms of
menopause. But researchers now know that postmenopausal women
who take a combination of estrogen and progestin may be more
likely to develop breast cancer. Breast cancer risk appears to return
to normal within 5 years after stopping the combination of
hormones.
Talk with your doctor about all the options to control your
menopause symptoms, and the risks and benefits of each. If you do
decide to try HRT, it is best to use it at the lowest dose that works for
you and for as short a time as
possible.
For cancer information, answers
and hope – every minute of every
day, visit www.cancer.org, or call
1.800.227.2345.
3. Limit time spent sitting. Evidence is growing that sitting
time increases the likelihood of developing cancer, especially for
women. In an American Cancer Society study, women who spent 6
hours or more each a day sitting when not working had a 10%
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