Ann Kaiser, editor of Country Woman magazine likes digging her hands into other people’s dirt. So she fit in smoothly with the crew collecting spinach-breeding selections at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Vegetable Substation.

“I don’t mind getting my hands dirty,” Kaiser said during a visit to the Vegetable Substation Jan. 5. “I like hard work.”
 
Kaiser writes a regular feature for Country Woman that she calls a “diary report” about a day spent working alongside one of the magazine’s subscribers. She was invited to visit the station by Paula Crabtree, administrative assistant.

“Paula wrote me a wonderful letter,” Kaiser said. “I was intrigued because she operates a farm with her family, and also has this other job as an administrative assistant at an agriculture research station who also goes to the field to work alongside the rest of the crew.”
 
The day began in a greenhouse where Kaiser joined Crabtree and the rest of the station’s crew to pot collards selected from breeding lines by Dr. Teddy Morelock, UA vegetable breeder. Later, the work moved outside to spinach breeding plots.
 
“I was impressed by the teamwork here, the way everyone works together to get the job done.” Kaiser said.
 
Working alongside Crabtree and the other staff members, Kaiser trimmed off the leaves, dug up the plants and transferred them to pots. The potted spinach and collard selections will be grown for seed that will be planted in test plots for continued evaluation as possible new varieties.
 
Selected plants are evaluated for consistent yield, disease resistance, processing quality and other characteristics that may make them desirable for commercial production, Morelock said.
 
Morelock said he is growing about 400-500 different breeding lines of spinach in nurseries at the Vegetable Substation and the Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fayetteville. His program has released 9 varieties of spinach. The latest releases were two varieties last December named Evergreen and F415.
 
“Our spinach varieties are valued throughout the South for their resistance to white rust,” Morelock said. The fungal disease is common in southern states and can devastate a crop.
 
Kaiser had no experience in agriculture before going to work for the magazine 34 years ago, when it was known as Farm Wife. She said she has learned a great deal about the industry since then through her experiences working with women in agriculture.
 
“I didn’t know there were places like this, that do this kind of work,” Kaiser said. “You’re developing the foods that feed the world.”
 
Country Woman has a circulation of about 1.5 million and is published by Reiman Publications of Greendale, Wisconsin.