10/05/07 Club Variety Harvest

Club Variety Harvest. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. We've all heard the expression apples to apples but are they really equal? A Jonathan is not a Fuji and a Red Delicious is certainly different from a Golden Delicious. Then you hear the term, club varieties. These are the lesser known and smaller production apples. Right now is apple harvest time. Most varieties are finishing up but there are a few like Pink Lady that are just getting started. Alan Taylor is the marketing director with Pink Lady America. TAYLOR: Well we're looking at what's projected to be a very good crop this year; in fact one of the projections I've seen has it by some 25% over last season so we're really excited about that. The Pink Lady was first produced in Australia and is a cross between a Golden Delicious and Lady Williams varieties. Its flavor is described as both tangy and sweet. Even though it's a newer variety Taylor says the numbers are increasing. TAYLOR: We're talking about around 2.4 million boxes, at least that's the projection and then probably another 400-thousand in California and that compares to  at least in Washington  that 2.4 million compares to 1.9 million last season so that is a significant increase. Even though the fruit tends to be a bit smaller Taylor says it's looking good. TAYLOR: We're looking at what looks to be a very clean crop, a very high quality crop at least at this point and we're still about 3 weeks away from harvest. Pink Lady's don't generally become very large. They're a medium to large apple but usually on the medium side so overall we're very excited about what looks to be good sized, good quality crop. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.