Cooler nights and trees beginning to drop their leaves in Central New York also mean the apple harvest season is well underway.
"This actually is going to be a very beautiful crop. We've had a great range of sizes. The color is coming up beautifully this time of year."
Cynthia Haskins is President and CEO of theNew York Apple Association. They’re anticipating 31.5 million bushels of the crunchy fruit this year, which is slightly above the five year average. That translates to about a billion pounds of apples, and includes increases in popular Cornell-bred varieties such as SnapDragon and RubyFrost. Haskins says weather was not much of a factor this year…
"Spring was wet. But that's OK. It just meant that the ground was wet. The grower's did well. It didn't affect volume at all."
Haskins says the state’s 600 growers also had little issue with pests or disease this season. The continued success and growth of the apple crop means New York is still the second largest apple producing state, topped only by Washington. Haskins says most New York-grown apples stay here, but an increasing number are going to other states.
"We get a lot of phone calls looking to where someone can source New York apples at their local supermarket. We market to retailers across the country. At one time, we were very significant to retailers east of the Mississippi. That line has actually been erased, if you will. We have retailers throughout the country looking for New York Apples."
Many of them might come from Onondaga County, which is one of the top ten apple growing counties in the state. Some U-pick locations are already open. You can find one by going to applesfromny.com.
