The Rural Voice, 1981-12, Page 17prime apple country
by Susan Glover
workers, and as a result sixty young men
arrived in the fall to help with the harvest.
In the past, local farmers often had time
after the grain harvest to earn some extra
money picking apples, but today's more
intensive farm schedule has ended that.
After the fruit has been picked, it is
graded. Any apples that don't meet
number one standards are culled, the
larger ones, or "peelers," for processing,
and the remainder for juice. Clarksburg
boasts three major packers - Clarksburg
Cold Storage, Binkley Apples, and Beaver
Valley Growers and Packers and Golden
Town Apple Products, which has facilities
for drying apples. In nearby Thornbury,
Georgian Bay Fruit Growers is set up for
processing and juicing apples, making
products under the Mitchell and Allen
labels.
Packers take apples from the growers
on consignment, and the fruit is either
sold immediately as fresh fruit or put in
storage. Cold storage, as the name
suggests, is simply refrigeration, and fruit
can be kept that way till about Christmas.
Longer storage requires a controlled -
atmosphere, where the amounts of oxygen
and carbon dioxide in the air are regulated
to retard the ripening process, enabling
consumers to buy apples well into the
summer months.
Beaver Valley Packers and Growers
have recently installed a computer-
r -
controlled line which can grade apples by
size and color, recording the grade of each
piece of fruit at the rate of five hundred
bushels per hour. The various grades -
extra fancy, fancy, C grade, and utility -
are determined by shape, size, colour, and
number of blemishes, and each variety
has specified amounts of color required for
each grade. The fruit arrives from the
growers in twenty -bushel bins and is
washed, waxed, graded and then packed
by hand, ready for delivery to the
retailers. The wholesale price is set by the
Ontario Apple Commission, whose board
includes representatives from consumers,
growers, packers, processors, and re-
tailers.
Ontario, and in particular the densely -
populated area known as the Golden
Horseshoe, is an excellent market for
apples, yet the growers' share of that
market is slipping. According to the
Report of the Apple Task Force, published
in June 1977, the province's producers'
share had dropped from 95 per cent in
1972 to only 72 per cent in 1976, and the
trend is continuing. Growers face stiff
competition from France. South Africa,
Chile, and of course the U.S. since most
countries tend to export only top quality
produce, consumers can usually find a
tempting array of large, well -coloured,
flawless fruit at their fruit stands and
produce departments, all from outside the
.the rural
Voice
CIRCULATION DEPT ,
BOX 10, BLYTH, ONT
country. Naturally growers are
discouraged when they see their apples
displayed in a stack of print -covered poly
bags, often containing fruit bruised from
rough handling. Since there is no tariff on
fresh fruit, produce moves freely across
the border, and Ontario growers will have
to become more aggressive in their
marketing to recover their share of the
fresh fruit market.
Last winter's severe cold and late spring
frosts caused heavy damage to trees both
in this province and in Quebec, where crop
losses averaged sixty to seventy per cent,
and tree loss has been extensive.
Naturally this resulted in lower yields this
fall and -you guessed it -higher prices.
According to Brian Judges, president of
Beaver Valley Growers and Packers, it's a
seller's market this year.
Nevertheless, apple growers remain
optimistic about the future of their
industry. Whether in sauce, puddings,
cake, pie, salads, cider or juice, apples
are a staple of our diet. Their versatility is
unmatched, and we've come a long way
from the day when Mrs. Traill could
remark, "The Canadians season their pies
with nutmeg and allspice, making thew
sickly tasted; they stew the apples till they
are an insipid pulp, and sweeten them till
the fine acid is destroyed. A good, juicy
fine -flavoured apple pie is a rare dish to
meet."
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THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1981 PO. 15