Apple harvest is just getting underway in Washington State, and this year promises to be a big one. Early varieties make their way to shelves in the summer, not just fall.
“People associate apples with the fall, but many of our varieties are harvested earlier, and some of our growers start picking right around the first of August. Our industry will wrap up harvest usually in late November,” said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.
The harvest season lasts several months, and the industry releases an annual estimate to help retailers and consumers plan for apple availability.
‘Our harvest period is several months long, but at the beginning of the harvest season, we try to produce every year an estimate of what we think as an industry what will be picked and will be packable for the fresh market, so that folks have an idea of how many apples they can expect to see in the supermarket. This year, that number has come in with an estimate of a pretty large crop of about 142 million 40-pound boxes. That would be about tying our previous record, which is a good sign of the growing conditions we’ve had.”
With such a long harvest season, growers are really dialing in on timing and quality to get fresh apples into stores. If you are a fan, expect plenty of apples to choose from well into the fall.
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