Everett Griner talks about the apple being widely grown, explored and consumed in today’s Agri View.
Apple Versatility
Apples. Always considered a good health food. Why do we see so little in the news about apples? No other fruit offers as much variety as apples. Take pears. I know of only two varieties. Bartlett and Pineapple. Apples, there is Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala and a dozen more. Apples are one of our most widely grown crops too. Washington State, Michigan, North Carolina, Maine just to name a few places. In fact, apples are grown in more countries than any other fruit. South America, North America, Asia, Europe. In places like Chile, China, Mexico, Canada. See. You can eat them right off of the tree or you can cook a hundred different recipes. But apples have no match. And, now apples are becoming an important export item. There are larger crops of course but none more important nor versatile than apples.
That’s Agri View for today. I’m Everett Griner.
From: California Apple Commission
Apple Facts
Health Facts
- Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free.
- A medium apple is about 80 calories.
- Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams of fiber.
- Don’t peel your apples. Two-thirds of the fiber and lots of antioxidants are found in the peel. Antioxidants help to reduce cell damage, which can trigger some diseases.
Statistics
- 2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
- 7500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
- 100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.
- Apples are grown in all 50 states, but commercially grown in only 36 states.
- 39 percent of apples are processed into apple products; 21 percent of this is for juice and cider.
- The apple variety ‘Red Delicious’ is the most widely grown in the United States.
- In 2008, the average U.S. consumer ate about 16.4 pounds of fresh-market apples.
- The largest apple picked weighed three pounds.
- The average size of a United States orchard is 50 acres.
- Apples are the second most valuable fruit grown in the United States. Oranges are first.
- The largest U. S. apple crop was 277.3 million cartons in 1998.
- China is the leading producer of apples with over 30 million metric tons grown in 2009.
- The world’s top apple producers are China, United States, Turkey, Iran and Poland.
- Apples account for 50% of the world’s deciduous fruit tree production
- The five most popular apples in the United States are Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith.