Apple lovers in central New York can crunch into two new breeds of apples developed by a professor at Cornell University that are only available for orchards part of Crunchtime Apple Growers.
Two local orchards that grow and sell these new apples, SnapDragon and RubyFrost, are Fruit Valley Orchard in Oswego and Behling Orchards in Mexico, New York.
Susan Brown, professor of horticulture at Cornell University, spent the last 11 years developing NY 1 (SnapDragon), which she said took a much shorter time than the typical 20 to 40 years it usually takes to perfect a breed and release it. SnapDragon was bred to have similar attributes as Honeycrisp apples and is better quality to hold up longer.
“We often get asked if these apples are GMO,” Brown said. “While Cornell supports GMO research, these apples are from traditional breeding, where two apple trees are crossed and the seeds are then all hybrids of the two parents. They may resemble one parent, or the other, or be a unique combination, just like children in a family, but our families are huge – several thousand.”
Brown said NY 2 (RubyFrost) was the result of an experiment of crossing two varieties to prevent browning after cutting the apples. The resulting apple is on the tarter side, is high in vitamin C, deep burgundy color and good for storage for growers. Both have three traits Brown said she believes are important for consumers: crispiness, juiciness and crunch.
“RubyFrost has many diverse fans. It has a little more ‘tang’ or acid and is liked by Empire, Macoun, Cortland and Granny Smith lovers,” Brown said. “Its dense flesh is great for both fresh eating and baking.”
After the apples were perfected, Brown offered the breed to every apple grower in New York, along with the opportunity to join Crunchtime Apple Growers in their partnership with Cornell University for the exclusive rights to grow the breed Brown created.
“Crunchtime decided that these two apples had so much potential that they wanted to market them,” said Rena Montedaro, Crunchtime Apple Growers vice president of sales and marketing. “They procured the license from Cornell to have exclusive rights, so only Crunchtime Growers can grow SnapDragon and RubyFrost, and they are only grown in the state of New York, but we are sold coast to coast.”
Crunchtime Apple Growers consists of 147 apple growers in New York and was launched about six years ago with an open membership for growers to buy into. Growers who are members of Crunchtime benefit from a “higher bid return” of new apples to replace older varieties that are not as popular anymore, according to Montedoro.
“This will help in the further developing of our state’s position in apple growing not only nationally but globally,” said Eric Behling, co-owner of Behling Orchards. “New York is No. 2 in the U.S. in apple production, next to Washington state.”
Fruit Valley and Behling Orchards bought into the membership, securing rights to exclusive apple breeds, such as SnapDragon and RubyFrost for this season.
Behling said his great-grandfather started growing apples with six acres of land, and then, in 1968, Behling Orchards opened the orchard up for public apple picking, and the orchards now stretch to 200 acres.
“SnapDragon matures right after another customer favorite, Honeycrisp…RubyFrost is late maturing and will soon become a favorite, especially during the winter and later months, as it stores very well,” Behling said. “Our family has plans to continue planting and take the time it needs to grow high-quality SnapDragons.”
Fruit Valley Orchard is a small, family-owned orchard and greenhouse on Bunkerhill Road in Oswego. It grows a variety of apples, including the two new breeds, plums, peaches and cherries. It also grows apples to be used to make hard cider, vegetables and flowers.
photo: Kassadee Paulo | The Oswegonian
