WENATCHEE, Wash. — Washington prides itself on being a state that exports a lot of goods - $77-billion worth of goods every year.
Apples are one of the top 10 exports, about $760-million dollars of the fruit travel around the world annually.
“Washington apples represent about 65% of the entire U.S. fresh apple production. We are the leading state in the US. We export about 1/3rd of our apples to 60 countries nationwide,” said Tony Lynn Adams of the Washington Apple Commission.
Adams added that the Washington apple industry creates around 40,000 jobs in growing and packing, and 21,000 jobs in support industries like shipping and transportation.
Tim Larson from Snowdrift Cider in Wenatchee has been working in the industry for the last several years. His family has grown apples for decades.
“A lot of people are starting to become aware, but the small family farm Is dying. It’s not commercially viable in today’s economy and there’s too much pressure from very large agricultural firms to make it work.”
Tim’s father-in-law, Peter, started brainstorming about what else he could do with the land.
“There was a lot of like, oh we could do wine, we could do a u-pick we could do all sorts of things, but we came down to it…Why not cider?”
Now Snowdrift Cider has changed the types of apples it grows.
“We grow about 35 different varieties of cider apples across a pretty large spectrum of cider apples. There are bitter sweets, bitter sharps, sharps and sweets. We focus on bitter sweeps and bitter sharps. They have the most dynamic flavors and aromas,” said Larson.
Local cider has become popular at grocery stores, with more varieties.
“What we’re already seeing is the dominance of large brands beginning to decline.The small regional players are becoming much larger. I think it’s going to continue but I think we’re going to see a departure from all these sweet flavored ciders to more authenticity. By that I mean, stay truer to the apple.”
What makes you proud to live in the Pacific Northwest? Share your ideas with by emailing Jordan Steele at jsteele@king5.com.