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Harvest
better than
market
By JANE BANGLEY * Rappahannock News staff writer
There is some good news and bad news about this year's apple harvest.
The good news is the quality and quantity of the crop. The bad news is that -» many local orchardists are letting the apples lie where the„v fall due to low market prices. ^ “We had a good crop, but it’s a tough marketing year,” said Sam Snead, an or| chardist in Gid Brown Hollow. “The processors are choosy and they want big apples, but the drought caused us to have smaller apples than usual.”
He said the dry weather did cut down on diseases and the need for spraying, which made for a good quality crop. Fresh market prices have been good because of the crop’s quality, but only a small percentage of an orchardist’s crop is sold to road side markets or directly to the customer. The rest go to grocery' stores or processors.
“There just isn’t a juice market this year,” said Snead. He said reasons for the bleak processing market were that growers underestimated the number of processing apples, processors then signed § contracts with northern orchardists leavPlease
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