Friday, April 17th, 2009

Luther Burbank and the 'Garden of Invention'

Wickson Plum, released by Luther Burbank and named after E.J. Wickson, friend and dean of agriculture at the University of California, Berkeley. Photo by Peggy Greb / USDA ARS.

As spring marches onward, you may be looking forward to getting your favorite fruits and vegetables started in your garden. In this segment, Ira talks with Jane S. Smith, author of a new biography of plant cultivation pioneer Luther Burbank. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Burbank led a revolution in agricultural science in the country, developing varieties of plants including the Freestone peach, the Wickson plum, the Shasta daisy, and the Russet Burbank potato, which has become a prime potato variety for commercial processing.