Hard Cider Meeting
Hard Cider Workshop. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.
The wine and microbrew industries here in the northwest have been growing by leaps and bounds. It now looks like the hard cider industry will follow suit but it is going through some growing pains. Specifically, not enough of the right kinds of apples are being grown to supply the fledgling industry. Karen Mauden with the Northwest Agriculture Business Center.
MAUDEN: We look at it as a workshop where we can bring people together for the purposes of education. This workshop is education and outreach and the purpose is to reach out to the people that are orcharding. Whether they are current orchardists or want to be future orchardists. It doesn't matter if they are doing grapes or any kind of tree fruit.
She says they want to make folks aware of what the potential is for the growing of cider products.
MAUDEN: There are not enough hard cider apples grown in the United States to support the industry. And right now this is a worldwide problem. Even the folks in England who drink half of the cider in the world do not have enough hard cider apples and people are looking for other areas of sourcing.
The worksop is planned for March 18th at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. You can register online at agbizcenter.org.
MAUDEN: We feel it's important to reach out to people who have the assets. They have the land. They have the know-how. But this is a new area for them and it's not the same varieties of apples. We have over 400 types of apples between these bittersweet and bitter-sharps which have a higher tannin content and produce a different characteristic.
That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
