10/28/08 Stemilt at PMA

Stemilt at PMA. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. PMA. Any one in agriculture knows that the Produce Marketing Associations Fresh Summit is one of the largest international events solely dedicated to fruit, vegetables and floral, Fresh Summit draws more than 17,000 attendees from 70 countries annually. West Mathison with Stemilt Growers was again at the summit announcing something new. MATHISON: The new thing at Stemilt is the Piñata apple and we have been working on this thing for about 4 or 5 years and this is an apple that came from Europe. Actually in 2001 it was voted apple of the year specifically in Germany. Mathison says that they are into Pinata in a big way. MATHISON: We've got over 500 acres planted and we're ready to go nationwide with the Piñata and to do that we're using Jason Wilson with the Seattle based Crush restaurant to do that. With the help of Chef Jason, Mathison says they have working on special concepts. MATHISON: What we're trying to do is create customized promotions with the Piñata apple and find some ways that we can use this apple in different types of recipes and in different restaurants and Jason's been doing that. Piñata is a cross between Golden Delicious, Cox's Orange Pippin and the Duchess of Oldenburg varieties. It was bred in Germany and in January 2009, Stemilt will launch Piñata nationwide with custom merchandising materials and sweepstakes featuring Chef Jason. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.