I have never really written a blog, let alone apple juice news, but I think it might be a good idea to start one now. As you probably know the apple juicing business is slow in the spring and although we are preparing for the upcoming season, I have a bit of time on my hands.
I really wanted to talk about all the apples that go to waste every year here in the Okanagan. For example, we juiced apple and pears for a farmer last fall, who did not pick over 100 bins of pears and approx. 70 bins of apples. All because they were rejected by the packing house. As you can see on the photo, the imperfection is minimal and hardly visible.
It makes me sad that consumers are so picky about their food. If they’d only know how hard the farmers works to grow the fruit. Pruning, thinning, picking and everything in between makes it a hard and lonely job. Especially if you consider that some of the farmers have 30 – 60 or 100’000 trees to prune / thin / pick, often by themselves of with very few helpers.
So what is actually the purpose of this little rant? I guess if you see a farmer next time, thank him for his/her hard work or even better, buy a couple of pounds of fruit from them. That is the best support you can give them.
