Industries and economic trends come and go, but everybody's got to eat. So agriculture is always a major industry in a rural area like ours.
And that industry is different from what it was just a generation ago. Where the Rogue Valley was once the center of the pear industry, many orchards have been converted to vineyards, now producing grapes for wine.
A number of projects track the region's agricultural heritage, including Oregon's Century Farm program and the Wine of Southern Oregon collection at Southern Oregon University's Library. Maureen Flanagan Battistella is a researcher at SOU and a volunteer for the Southern Oregon Historical Society; she joins us with ideas for perusing local ag history.
LINK: Follow for details on the tour of Heritage Orchards on April 17th.