The Rural Voice, 1980-12, Page 12Acres of Apples
Looks like the apple harvest is better than ever this year
BY ROBERT STEEL
Red and juicy and sweet and lovely to
behold.
That describes the McIntosh, the first
variety to be picked in the autumn apple
harvest. This year is a bounteous one
with approxiamtely two million bushels of
all kinds to be picked in the south
Georgian Bay region before the season is
over in November.
Macs are first, followed by Red
Delicious and Northern Spy. Other
varieties such as Cortland are grown, but
the chain stores concentrate on (and
advertise) the first three so the growers
plant accordingly. Macs take about 40 per
cent of the market with Delicious 20 per
cent and Spies 30 per cent. The
remaining 10 per cent are called
"summer" apples, picked in late August
and early September for the first of
Ontario apples. But they do not keep.
Apples can be kept for good eating
until May of the following year. Storage is
in a controlled atmosphere: a refrigerated
air -tight room with high humidity. This
slows the respiration rate of the apple
which takes oxygen from the air and
emits carbon dioxide. The odour in a
storage warehouse is ethylene which is
the natural aromatic smell of the apple
and which causes them to rippen. This is
a branch of pomology, the science of fruit
growing. (Knowledgeable housewives
place a basket of apples beside green
tomatoes which then ripen faster.)
There are so many Macs this year that
pickers and containers are in short
supply. Canadians are hired first, but
about 660 workers have been brought
from the Caribbean for the harvest,
staying for six weeks, to supplement the
local labour pool. Buses, for example,
bring pickers from the Chippewa Hill
Indian Reserve and from Owen Sound.
The Farm labour Pool employed,
thankfully, people affected by the
teachers' strike in Bruce County:
teachers and high school students
obtained jobs in the orchards and proved
generally more then adequate workers.
The first apples did not have quite
enough sugar for juice so the picking was
somewhat delayed. Then when the
picking began in earnest there were so
many Macs that bins would not be
returned fast enough for the growers to
fill again to send to the factories and the
warehouses. This held up final
harvesting.
The Ontario Apple Marketing
Commission sets the price chain stores
pay the processors for fresh fruit and
after taking costs of packing, transporting
and storage plus profit the growers.
receive $5.00 per bushel from the
processors. t
The Commission has done a lot of good
for the growers and the prices. This year,
because the harvest is so great, prices
have not held up. It is one of the protests
Bay and the Niagara Escarpment. Here, a
combination of bright sunny days and
cool nights. good earth and sufficient
rainfall, results in excellent conditions for
growing top quality, better flavoured
fruit. The temperature in this region in
lower than in British Columbia and
California orchards. Niagara is a soft fruit
area. In Ontario, apples are grown in
Simcoe, Norfolk. Ottawa Valley, Whitby
and Goderich areas with the largest
concentration in Georgian Bay. In the rest
of Canada, British Columbia, Quebec,
The bright. red apples piled in boxes outside the Georgian Bay Fruit Growers'
warehouse in Thornbury were one of the few colourful sights on this year's rainy
Thanksgiving weekend. [Photo by Gibb]
that persons in agriculture have - costs
rise but returns do not increase in the
same ratio.
It appears that the whole harp est will
be larger than normal but the supply for
the fresh fruit market may be less due to
hail which hit Oct. 3. Damage has not
been fully assessed as yet but fruit
blemished by this act of nature will be
used for juice, unless the marks are
minor, in which case many will go for
peelers. These are skinned and cored and
processed for apple sauce, slices and pie
filling.
One quarter of Ontario's production of
an expected eight million bushels ;n 1980
is grown in the area between Georgian
PG. 10 THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1980
Nova Scotia and Ne% Brunswick we
apple orchards.
The Southern Ge ,rgian Bay District
Fruit Growers Association covers Owen
Sound to Collingwood and has over 200
members with 6,000 acres of orchards.
Meaford is the largest section. Recently
planted trees, now coming into full
production. have caused a larger harvest.
And the weather has generally been
good. Although many orchards have been
replaced by houses and like develop-
ments, acreage for fruit is increasing.
Packers who built new warehouses last
year believe all will be filled this year.
Orchards used to have 27 trees to an