06/06/06 Grapple

Looks like an apple, tastes like a grape. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Stumbling into a well received new product is a business owners dream and about 2 years ago the owners of C&O Nursery in Wenatchee, Washington did just that. Todd Snyder is the marketing manager for the Grapple. SNYDER: Took it to some of our trade show booths for our parent company C&O Nursery where our parent business sells fruit trees. And we took some basically as a giveaway because a lot of booths at hort show and trade shows have something they give away. We went ahead and said you've got to try this grape tasting apple. Half the people coming to the booth saying, "yeah sure it does" and then the other half being curiously interested. Once they finally ate it, they go, "this does taste like a grape tasting apple. What is this thing blah, blah, blah and one thing leads to another and pretty soon during the end of the second day and going on well into the third day of the show, of a 3 day show, pretty soon people are coming to our booth not to talk to us about trees but to say "I hear all the way downtown that you've got this new grape tasting apple. I'd sure like to try it." The Grapple is simply a Fuji apple infused with natural grape flavor. SNYDER: It's not a variety. What C&O does is we sell fruit trees. Granny Smith, Brae burn, Fuji, Gala whatever and sell those to the orchardist. So we have gotten some emails and phone calls contacting to say can I get a Grapple tree. Because they think that we've figured out how to make this tree. That the tree then produces Grapple fruit and that's not the case. Snyder says they are at the end of the season but to look for the Grapple product in the fall at your local grocer. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.