Apple Harvest Continues

California´s Apple harvest has reached the halfway point with farmers reporting excellent quality, even if quantities are down.

Local apple grower Don Wolf says this year´s late, hot fall is helping make apples sweeter and higher in quality. “It tends to accelerate the ripening process and it converts all that starch to sugar,” he said. “So the fruit can be sweet, it just depends when you pick it.”

He has operated Sierra Glen Apple Ranch here in the Sonora area since 1986

Wolf says this year´s crop is a little bit scattered. “We had some late spring frost that really hurt us on some varieties,” he recalled. The apple crop in that area of the Mother Lode wasn´t as impacted as were other fruit they grow, Wolf admitted.

Forecasters say the overall California´s apple harvest should be about 9 percent larger than last year.