You might notice a vegetable with unusual pink leaves at farmers markets this fall. While often mistaken for cabbage or lettuce, the culprit is actually radicchio, which is native to Italy.
For local farmers, the crop offers an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Radicchio is increasing in popularity amongst consumers and restaurants for its unique color, flavor and health benefits. But researchers say there’s still a lot to learn about its performance in New England.
University of New Hampshire researchers examined over thirty varieties of radicchio to learn how farmers in the region can grow the leafy green.
Becky Sideman is a professor of agriculture, nutrition and food systems at UNH and lead author of the study. She said that the crop makes for interesting research due to its genetic variability.
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“It’s got more diversity in it than pretty much any other vegetable crop I can think of,” Sideman said. There’s all these types and colors, and they’re used for different culinary purposes.”
Some varieties of radicchio can be easily impacted by climate conditions. Under heat and other sources of stress, the vegetable can see bolting, early flowering that increases bitterness, or tip burn, a form of rotting at the edges. In New England, it’s typical for less than half of radicchio plants to become marketable heads, according to the UNH study.
For Sideman and her team, it’s important to understand which radicchio varieties produce the greatest number of marketable heads consistently. The unusual dry growing season of 2022 and extreme wet conditions in 2023 allowed researchers to see how the crop fared under a variety of stressors.
“One thing that was kind of exciting for us to see is that some varieties were really consistent in their performance between those two years,” she said. “It’s early to tell, but that suggests that they might be able to take what the climate throws at them a little better than maybe some varieties or some crops.”
The study’s results found that amongst seven main radicchio types, the chioggia type and varieties had the best marketability in combination with disease resistance.
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This is the type of radicchio most familiar to consumers, with its traditional red coloring.
Sideman and her team plan to continue their research on radicchio this fall, and hope to better understand how planting times will impact the plant’s harvest window.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
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At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
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Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
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Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
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Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
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Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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