This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Emmalea Ernest, a fruit and vegetable specialist with University of Delaware Extension.
Ernest's areas of expertise include lima bean breeding and production, and heat stress tolerance.
"Delaware is one of the few places in the United States where we have a lot of lima bean production," Ernest said.
Ernest, along with other researchers, focus a lot of attention on lima beans because it's such an important crop for the state, and there isn't much research being done elsewhere.
When Ernest asked growers about a decade ago, heat stress was a top concern for the crop because it reduces yields.
Since getting that response, Ernest has been working to breed varieties of beans that can tolerate heat better than previous commercial varieties.
"A new variety is one of the easiest technologies for a grower to implement," Ernest said. "We can't do a lot to change the weather. So what we need to do is change the varieties that we're growing."
With Delaware being such a small state, Ernest said Extension specialists get to know the growers well, which she said is one of her favorite parts of her job.
"Those relationships are what make the job rewarding," she said.
In addition to her role with Extension, Ernest and her husband own Ernest Fruit Farm in Sussex County, where they grow blueberries, strawberries and, yes, lima beans.
Ernest always knew that she wanted to work with plants, and a career in agriculture flowed nicely into that dream.
She got experience working in greenhouses in high school before going on to study horticulture and plant breeding.
Now Ernest welcomes a handful of young people into the research program each summer to help the next generation get into agriculture.
"Find yourself a job doing something in agriculture as soon as you can so you get some experience and you know what it's like," Ernest said. "Any way that you can to get hands-on experience, that's probably my best advice."
You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:
