If you’re anything
like me you love the quest for the next great apple. Do you skip lunch
– or rather, have lunch – chomping your way from one end
of the new variety showcase to the other? Me too. Did you tear into
this year’s nursery stock catalog like a teenager pawing through
a fresh Abercrombie & Fitch quarterly, scanning the full color
spreads cover to cover, fresh from the mailbox, with your work boots
still on? Yeah. Do you start conversations at the winter meetings
by asking “any new varieties on your horizon?”
A typical pitch could sound something like this:
Have I got an apple for you: A pretty, red-green early ripener with
good vigor and precocity. The trees are grower friendly and hardy
enough for our chilly winters. The flesh is white, juicy and tasty,
with a tart zing, appealing aroma and finish.
Sound good? Heard it all before? Of course you have, this is a pitch
for McIntosh. Let’s hear the downsides:
Well, there’s some sales resistance if it isn’t colored
well, in fact they can look quite bad. A supermarket might take 70
percent red, which is achievable. If they hang on the tree long enough
– oh yeah, they tend to drop. Sometimes before maturity. But
those red ones sure look good in the bin, if you can keep from bruising
them. Did I mention scab? They store pretty well, if you have controlled
atmosphere. And put them in their own room, they like it a little
warmer. Still, flavor is great, even if the eating quality is poor
and they go directly to mush at room temperature, which may or may
not be helped by 1-MCP.
So what can I put you down for? How many Macs are you going to plant?
Were this a new variety, it would warrant no more than regional planting
for the, ahem, “heirloom” buyer or the odd u-pick operation.
The last 20-plus years of marketing have already taught us what traits
won’t be appealing, manageable or profitable in the marketplace.
Who in their right mind would willfully plant Mac as a variety of
the future?
Presumably, the problems with Mac and other old standards have been
deliberated to what passes in our industry as consensus. Still, it
seems they are given a free pass in the replanting process. Grandfathered
in, as it were. Meanwhile, we withstand a bombardment of new varieties,
and strike back with skepticism: Cameo colors poorly; Pinova/Sonata/Corail
has too many names; Honeycrisp isn’t grower-friendly; Jazz is
too clubby. Any variety you plant is, by definition, a variety of
the future, and we might want to start subjecting the established
varieties to the same squinty-eyed standards that new apples require.
Thus, our decade of economic crisis has morphed into an era of dissatisfaction.
The industry is desperate for new apples we can get behind but faces
too many choices and risks, too little capital and cooperation.
In New York, where I grow, the problem is compounded by the independent
nature of the average small-medium grower. A grower willing to take
a significant risk with a new apple would have to recruit other planting
interest to penetrate the market, and even then compete with growers
backing different new apples. Whereas the West Coast is already contemplating
the replacement and removal of varieties we would consider advanced:
Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith. In a novel, cutting-edge move toward profitable
agriculture, California is seeing its apple orchards replaced by something
else!
More acres removed often leads to more planting power, setting up
the West coast to continue its dictation of new established varieties,
a hard lesson they learned form New Zealand. Must my future include
me, outside on Thanksgiving, shaking snow off fresh- picked Pink-Lady?
If we can’t turn West for new varieties, then the Northeast
has to learn how to better make up its mind.
An informal survey of six packing houses had yielded some frustrating
planting recommendations that would make that consensus seem unlikely.
All six touted Gala strains in spite of overproduction from the West.
Many recommended Gala and Red Delicious, which I will not dignify
with comment. Meanwhile, Honeycrisp – a modestly planted winner
for our region – was recommended by only half of them! I believe
it is unfair to expect our packers to pick new varieties for us. It’s
like asking the water to judge Olympic divers: it’s after the
fact, and they are the last to know.
To grow and succeed as a band, the Beatles decided to replace their
drummer. Removing Macs to plant more, newer Macs would be like firing
Pete Best to hire Mickey Dolenz – of the Monkees. And replacing
Macs with Delicious would be like firing John for Peter Frampton.
