Although two varieties of apples have already been released for
sale by the San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner, the apple
season is just getting started.
Hollister – Although two varieties of apples have already been released for sale by the San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner, the apple season is just getting started.
Local apple growers have already started harvesting, but the majority of the picking, packing, storing and selling will be done in the coming months. Inspectors at the Agriculture Commissioner Office are also busy picking apples from the 490 acres of orchards throughout the county and testing them to see if they are mature.
Apples are big business in San Benito County. Last year the county produced nearly 7,000 tons of apples, bringing in more than $1.5 million, according the annual crop report.
Agriculture Commissioner Office Inspectors were testing Granny Smith apples to see if they met the minimum maturity requirements Thursday. The apples still have too much starch to be released, but will probably get the green light in the next few weeks, Agriculture Biologist and Inspector Sally Boden said.
Boden and fellow Inspector Rachael Griess tested 30 apples from a farm on Bixby Road in San Juan Bautista. To test the apples Boden and Griess cut them in half and soak them in an iodine solution for 30 seconds and then distilled water for 10 seconds. The apples are then left to sit for a minute before being examined.
High levels of starch turn the apples a dark-blue color. This lets inspectors know that the apples contain too much starch to be released, Boden said. The Granny Smith apples tested averaged a maturity level of .97 – far too low to be released.
“The minimum maturity requirement is 2.5” Boden said. “But it doesn’t make a real good apple (for eating). And you want to wait until the market is strong before selling.”
Boden and Griess will test about 180 apples of several different varieties each season. And while a taste test is not required, Griess took a bite anyway. The apples were “too tart” for eating, she said.
Once the apples are released by the Ag Commissioner, the real work begins for growers. Apple grower Ken Perry, who owns orchards in San Juan Bautista, said the harvesting season is just starting. Perry’s workers began picking apples – at the rate of about 100 tons per day – last week. He hopes to continue to pick apples at that rate, or higher, until the last week in October.
Like most other San Benito County growers, Perry sells the majority of his apples to S. Martinelli & Company, a national apple juice producer based in the Pajaro Valley. Some of his apples will also be packaged and sold for commercial consumption. Perry estimates 98 percent of his apples have yet to be harvested.
Although the season is far from over and the money is not yet in the bank, Perry said he is optimistic about this year’s harvest.
“It’s too early to tell (how the season will go),” Perry said. “But everything is going along on schedule. The weather has cooperated this year.”
Fellow apple grower Anthony Botelho, who is also a county supervisor, is also starting to harvest.
“It appears we have a nice crop,” Botelho said. “The weather has been good, so it is looking to be real good season.”
Once the apples are picked and stored, the growers will make a call to Martinelli, Botelho said. But not all of the apples will be sold to Martinelli for apple juice or apple cider. Both Perry and Botelho like to keep some apples around the house for friends, family, eating and baking.
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
