On October 25, 2005, Nahla Bassil traveled to Langley, British Columbia, in Canada to attend her first North American Cranberry Research and Extension Workers Conference (NACREW). The first day, participants toured a cranberry farm, Cranberry Meadows, in Pitt Meadows and got a first-hand look on cranberry farming in B.C. In the afternoon, a visit to a fruit winery, the Fort Winery, (http://www.thefortwineco.com/What%27s%20New.htm) in the Glenn valley gave a glimpse into value-added products.

The conference lasted two days and was opened on Oct 27^th with a symposium on “Practical Solutions Based on Good Science”. The symposium was dedicated to the memory of Sridhar Polavaparu, an entomologist and extension specialist at the Philip E. Marucci Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension Center, Chatsworth, N.J. Nicholi Vorsa (Rutgers U., NJ) discussed breeding new varieties for different end uses and future markets while Hilary Sandler (UMass-Amherst cranberry Station, MA) described plants we love to hate. Disease etiology was described by Patricia McManus (U of WI, WI). A representative of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., WI., explained the evolution of cranberry insect management in Wisconsin and Teryl Roper (U. of WI) made new recommendations for P management in cranberry farms. The afternoon paper sessions covered “Nutrient Issues in Cranberry production”.

At the evening poster session Nahla discussed her preliminary results on the potential usefulness of microsatellite markers developed in blueberry for cranberry molecular analyses.