Cider Season

Cider Season

Cider Season. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

More and more people are discovering the crisp, refreshing taste of hard ciders made in the Northwest. Marcus Robert , Cider Maker with Tieton Cider Works in Yakima talks about how their apples fared this year.

ROBERT: It’s been a little dry. We’ve seen smaller fruit. I think most of that is due to 30 days of hundred degree weather we got this summer kind of stunted the growth during the middle of the season and then we just didn’t wind up with very large fruit all around. The total crop in Washington is obviously down.

When it comes to cider apples they don’t have to be real attractive or large.

ROBERT: Those apples, most of them aren’t very big. Regardless, we had some issues with sunburn and that sort of thing but we resolves that so not a whole lot of issues out in the cider orchard, necessarily. All we do with them is juice them so the internal quality is all we care about.

The cider industry has been growing in the last few years and it’s not just apple ciders. Pear, apricots and even cranberries are being used to make delicious ciders.

ROBERT: Just a few weeks ago we launched a cranberry cider which has really taken off and it’s one of our more popular - it’s really just hit the market in a big way so that’s for right now and this holiday season, that’s going to be one of our biggest sellers.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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