<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">...and they were expensive….”<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So V and I traveled to Capital City Saturday evening to listen to our favorite band - ‘Dead of the Winter’ show at a yacht club of all places - a good crowd and a good time, tho the temperatures were in the 50’s and it seemed more like a spring evening - The band members are long-time friends, we travel to see them about once a month and they’ve played our farm parties several time - I’ve got them hooked on good fruit and as long as I have stock leave a small bag with each after a performance - the core three piece are professionals and tonight John B. joined them playing slide and guitar, he works days in commercial real estate and plays on the side - fascinating to watch a slide guitarist at work - the show ended at midnight and as the tear down begins I ask John if he’d like a bag of apples (he knows us kinda and has received some before) -</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The look on his face was revealing?..gratifying?..don’t know exactly but a solid reaction as his eyes opened wide and said “yes!” - - “I went to the city market last week, now a fancy place, and bought a bag of apples, hoping….they were bad…and they were expensive.”</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I said “I can do better than that” and went to the car and fixed a half-peck bag with Goldrush, EverCrisp, and another MAIA numbered elite that is just delightful, brought them back into the room and set them beside the sub where John was unplugging cords - waved to everybody and blasted out as it is an hour and a half drive home.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So - long drive, V is napping, I’m thinking about this little exchange - I don’t know any details of John’s purchase at the market, tho if I had to guess on the basis of small familiarity, I’d guess he purchased fruit that came out of commercial channels, as the permanent vendors at this market are all resellers, but it could have been out of condition local fruit. The important point being that John’s experience meant that he was lost as a customer at least until new apples start appearing next August. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We get home, I park the car and carry what’s left of the crate of fruit back to the sales room (not to keep it from freezing, but rather to keep it from getting too warm - January!) I’m looking around at what I’m offering customers and think about what has sold recently - Goldrush, Golden Delicious (half-bushel bags of #2 (but real nice) fruit), there’s one Nittany (it does maintain texture for all its other flaws) customer that comes every week, EverCrisp are gone except my private stock - the great majority of common stuff is out of condition and just sitting there waiting for cider, but we do cut samples so everyone knows exactly what they are getting before laying out any cash - </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Dunno - or maybe I do - I have full confidence that John is delighted with his bag of 21st century varieties - they are in great condition despite being handled just like the out of condition 19th and 20th century varieties setting around my sales - if they were available to the city market they’d be more likely to stand up to that abuse also - </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We are fortunate - there are choices - more so for WA, MN, and NY growers, but there are a plethora of new varieties becoming available that are accessible to everyone - Obviously I want to bang the drum for the MAIA stuff, but PRI has Pixie Crunch, CrimsonCrisp, Goldrush, all great apples for their niche, and in CC’s case it may be a big niche - Stark’s just sent out a press release on new varieties with Honeycrisp parentage - there’s material out of private programs floating around - </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’d suggest that anyone not aggressively evaluating new material to integrate into their business is losing ground faster than they realize - rootstocks are dear and new trees are are tough to get scheduled - I never dreamed the apple industry would or could change as fast as it is - </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">David Doud</div><div class="">grower, IN</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><img height="480" width="640" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" apple-inline="yes" id="DB4B3190-9A10-4EA8-9884-F7A625BC4859" src="cid:04D08882-2315-4AFA-8E20-5159F60DBF72" class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>