"apple orchards" news and stories

Growers in the nation's southernmost commercial apple-producing region are fighting a change in crop insurance law, which they claim could wipe out a 200-year-old industry.

Henderson County, N.C. -- a stretch of Southern Appalachia where the first apple trees were planted by a Loyalist on the run from the Revolutionary Army -- today generates about $24 million in annual apple revenue, representing 85 percent of the state's apple crop. But the region's 150-plus growers have been hard hit in recent years by calamities including frost, wind and hail.

"You name it, it's happened," sighs Agricultural Extension agent Marvin Owings.

Owings credits the Federal Crop Insurance Program, which reimburses growers for lost apples at a rate of $9.25 a bushel, with keeping area orchards solvent. He's worried a new proposal to significantly lower disaster payouts for lesser-grade apples could prove devastating.

The growing thirst for hard cider may prove to be the saving grace for Britain's apple orchards, which have lost two-thirds of their trees since the 1970s. Cider's newfound popularity has been linked to Irish maker Magners, which has helped the drink shed its downscale image.

Magners is doing such a robust business that the company has begun to purchase British apples. And they're not the only cider maker driving the resurgence of the country's apple orchards. Thanks to a hot summer and cider's association with organic foods demand is up across the board. Last month sales of the refreshing libation leaped 51 percent. How about them apples!?

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