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Apples

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,839
6,145
Yakistan
20% tariff for apples going into mexico.

So... mexicans come to USA, pick apples and then we ship 'em to mexico?

..... what is going on ?
Yes, we have been shipping apples into Mexico for a long time. These tariffs, if Drumpf actually executes, will make USA apples more expensive in Mexico. So Mexican apple growers will have a competitive edge on pricing.

We pay a minimum of 14-15 an hour for farm labor. For piece rate work, fast guys can make 25+ an hour. I dont think farm labor in Mexico pays that well. So they come up in droves to work the labor jobs nobody else seems to want. And they send mad cash back to Mexico every week.
 

Montana rider

Turbo Monkey
Mar 14, 2005
1,741
2,164
bumpity bump.

We were told our crab apple would help pollinate it but our apple tree hasn't fruited in 10 (?) years, but is finally growing out of the shadows of the big pine trees in our back yard.

Time to pick up some cider and harvest a bumper crop of (small) Italian (orange flesh) plums off our tree -- the only food besides alpine strawberries we've had luck growing in our garden in Bozeman...

+++++

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2018/10/08/a-guide-to-picking-the-right-apple-for-the-right-recipe

A guide to picking the right apple for the right recipe



By Becky Krystal
October 8 at 10:00 AM
the Welsh apparently? — I think was not standing in front of a bountiful farmers market stand in fall. Whether it’s straight out of hand or in a salad, sauce or pie, it can feel downright impossible to eat only one apple each day.

But which to use when? That depends on what you’re making, not to mention the flavor and texture of the apple.

First things first, though. To be fair to all apples, “Every one off the tree is good,” says Mark Toigo, the owner of Pennsylvania’s Toigo Orchards, which grows more than 20 varieties of the fruit. It’s after they’ve been picked that some hold up better than others, especially for eating fresh out of hand.

According to the U.S. Apple Association, more than 100 varieties are grown commercially in the country, but only 15 popular varieties account for 90 percent of production. Chances are that when you go to the farmers market, you’re going to run into a mix of those popular varieties and perhaps some more-regional or obscure varieties. At the grocery store, your options may be more limited.

While Toigo says he believes a good cook can find a way to use almost any apple in any dish, there are varieties that are better for some purposes. Here are a few broad categories to think about, although even these descriptions can vary, depending on whom you ask.



Crunchy and sweet

Examples: Gala, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Fuji, Red Delicious, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Crispin/Mutsu

These are the types of apples “driving the market right now,” Toigo says. “Americans have gotten into ‘dessert’ apples,” which tend to be sweet and thin-skinned. Naturally, then, one of the best uses for these varieties is snacking. Similarly, they can work well raw in salads or sandwiches. They’re also great for applesauce.

Some of these are better for baking than others, based on how dense the flesh is. Galas and Red Delicious, for example, can break down when cooked, Toigo says.

He wouldn’t make Honeycrisp his first choice of baking apple, mostly because of price — it’s more expensive because the variety is tricky to grow and the market yield is lower. The flavor can be hard to beat, though, and Honeycrisp actually holds up pretty well in baking (it was Cooking Light’s top pick for cooking whole). Alex Levin, executive pastry chef of Schlow Restaurant Group, recommends it in pies.

Golden Delicious is a great all-around apple: Sweet, buttery, eager to please and versatile. Eat it raw or bake it in a pie. In an insanely comprehensive taste test that involved baking an apple pie with each of 10 varieties (twice), Serious Eats chief culinary adviser J. Kenji López-Alt gave the easy-to-find Golden Delicious his highest ranking for flavor. Levin also recommends it, along with Crispin, for pie.

Crunchy and tart

Examples: Granny Smith, Goldrush, Paula Red, Northern Spy

These are great for eating if you don’t have a sweet tooth. They’re also the quintessential pie apples, managing to both soften but hold their shape when baked. They’ll also keep a pie, or other richer desserts, from getting too cloyingly sweet.


Tender and sweet

Examples: Cortland, Jonamac


If you don’t like as crisp an apple for snacking, try one of these. Their more tender texture, though, means they’re not the best in situations where you want an apple to hold its shape. “Nobody really wants their fruit to break down when they’re cooking,” Toigo says.

Levin says he finds Cortlands get too mushy and lose texture when baked. For sauce, though, that’s not a bad thing.

Tender and tart

Examples: McIntosh, Macoun, Jonathan, Mollie’s Delicious

Like the tender-sweet types, these shouldn’t be your first pick for baking. So eat them out of hand (or in raw preparations), or use them for sauce. Toigo likes using Jonathan for applesauce, because the red skin can impart a color that “makes a pink sauce that’s just gorgeous.”
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,855
9,560
AK
Crips w/respect. Might be my new favorite. As I've said before, at the ranches in NorCal we used to get a variety of RD that is very tart, crispy and not overly sweet, unlike every RD I've ever seen in a big store. Been a long time since I've had those at the ranches, so this is my new go-to.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,839
6,145
Yakistan
Crips w/respect. Might be my new favorite. As I've said before, at the ranches in NorCal we used to get a variety of RD that is very tart, crispy and not overly sweet, unlike every RD I've ever seen in a big store. Been a long time since I've had those at the ranches, so this is my new go-to.
When you say crips you are referring to Cripps Pink?
 

Avy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 24, 2006
1,119
374
Basically, it's a little complicated.

Apple pricing reflects supply and demand plus some other factors. When there aren't many available then they can fetch higher prices. While if the market is bloated the price comes down. Other apples are branded and trademarked. These varieties are grown short in order to get the higher prices. Apple growers pick into bins which hold roughly 800 lbs of apples. Last year we picked Braeburns and grossed $40/bin. That is 5 cents per pound. We pay $25 just to the pickers. We really need to be getting $150+ to break even/make $$. The apples were nice but the market for them was shit. Braeburn don't store well. It is being pulled out by everyone in order to make room for new apples like Cosmic Crisp. That is one of the problems. The apple market isn't growing and to bring in higher value apples you have to push other apples off the shelves. A lot of the old Gala blocks are getting hammered. Red Delicious and Goldens went through it over the last 15 years. Braeburns also.

Apples are graded out on packing lines by size and color. The modern lines have camera's that can detect internal defects and reject fruit they know has water core. It's all pretty fancy. There can be several grades, depending on the quality of the lot being run and more than 15 individual sizes can be graded out. Out of the 15 sizes, maybe 3-4 of them are really valuable. Alot of the smaller or larger fruit have to be down graded and sold at lower prices or sold into the processing market for apple sauce or juice or ? There are lots of niche markets and other strange things which can be a good deal. Red Delicious don't have a strong North American market but they still kill it in Asia. A large portion of Washington Red's ship to Asia. Or take Jazz, a traditionally small apple. It has been on the market for 15 years maybe, and all the sales and marketing strategies have developed around pushing smaller apples. It has been largely successful. Two growing seasons ago, we had a long growing cycle and the Jazz apples were large. Even though the larger apples were really nice, all the marketing and avenues for sales were targeted around small apples. So the small apples were worth more and sold out quickly. The large fruit sat longer and was sold at lower prices. Goldens were pulled out en masse over the last 15 years. It's funny because the market finally balanced out and last season Goldens were pulling as much as $350/bin.

Honeycrisp has had strong demand for decades now. It really has been a savior for many apple growers. High quality organic Honeycrisp can return $1000/bin. New strains have been developed which color better and store better. I think it's market share will change in the next few years as more new apples are introduced. Pink Lady is another apple that is seeing growing demand and new strains which color better and pick earlier.

View attachment 128037
Dam boost,thank you. When you talk about “Market”,can you give me a Tip for buying Stock on this matter? I dabble a little bit. Most of my Stock is in Medical and Engery.

Avy
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,800
8,383
Nowhere Man!
Airfried apples with oat crisp. Cinnamon, butter and honey in a pan. I add a couple of shots of Harveys sherry and a few drops of tincture before I add the oats. You can omit that step for the kids. You will need to add flower if you plan on baking it over 270deg. I can't do the math for how many Mg's that is, but I suspect its alot.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,839
6,145
Yakistan
Dam boost,thank you. When you talk about “Market”,can you give me a Tip for buying Stock on this matter? I dabble a little bit. Most of my Stock is in Medical and Engery.

Avy
Well when I am talking about the apple market it's generally all about the bins of apples and their supply and demand. If you want to place bets, you can start farming apples! That said, there are lots of international investment groups buying up the tree fruit business here.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,800
8,383
Nowhere Man!
Well when I am talking about the apple market it's generally all about the bins of apples and their supply and demand. If you want to place bets, you can start farming apples! That said, there are lots of international investment groups buying up the tree fruit business here.
Cider apples get huge money now. The Cider business is huge here in New York.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,839
6,145
Yakistan
Cider apples get huge money now. The Cider business is huge here in New York.
It's funny but for whatever reason, cider making doesn't here. Its an under-developed market. Same with high-end, small scale drying. As for juice - there's Treetop but thats it. We don't have tourist orchards either.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,241
20,022
Sleazattle
It's funny but for whatever reason, cider making doesn't here. Its an under-developed market. Same with high-end, small scale drying. As for juice - there's Treetop but thats it. We don't have tourist orchards either.

If Jim is talking about the kind of cider I grew up with in in NY I doubt it would work in Yakima. We had a few small orchards that survived mostly via their own retail stores. We'd go get a some hot cider and fresh donuts in the morning and take home a gallon of just pressed cider and a bushel of apples every weekend. Popular stops for tourists up from NYC too. Was nothing like the industrial size of things in Yakima.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,839
6,145
Yakistan
If Jim is talking about the kind of cider I grew up with in in NY I doubt it would work in Yakima. We had a few small orchards that survived mostly via their own retail stores. We'd go get a some hot cider and fresh donuts in the morning and take home a gallon of just pressed cider and a bushel of apples every weekend. Popular stops for tourists up from NYC too. Was nothing like the industrial size of things in Yakima.
There is room for one of something like that. Theres only macro producers / processors. We have access to the cheapest fresh fruit in the country. If someone wanted to process light-commercial volumes of fruit through juice/drying, they would be able to source the ingredients at a lower cost than anywhere else. It'd have to be a well ironed machine to run a tap room or store front.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,800
8,383
Nowhere Man!
I was unaware how many varieties we have here. I usually get 2 or 3 bags of honeycrisps and eat and cook with them almost exclusively. For almost 3 years now. I ate a couple of Cortland's on a hike recently. They were delicious. Never heard of them. Good fuel.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,192
19,158
Canaderp
I'm still on the pink lady boat. Good taste and they don't bruise or get mushy like some others - easy to toss in a bag for a snack.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,839
6,145
Yakistan
Pink ladies are a tasty treat. Yesterday I snagged a handful of Rockits - a golf ball sized apple thats flavorful and crisp. Today i rummaged through a bin of apples called Autumn Glory. Theyre pretty good too, normal sized, kinda sweet, with a cinammon after taste.