Visiting Sage Fruit
Oct 14, 2013, Updated Aug 09, 2022

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Last week I had the unique opportunity to visit Sage Fruit in Yakima, Washington. Yakima Valley & the surrounding Ag regions are the heart and soul of Washington Apples. Did you know that the state of Washington supplies the United States with 60% of her apples? My visit to the growing region was an amazing way to kick-off National Apple Month and I learned so much! I had no clue how complicated it is & how much care & attention it takes to bring a single apple to the grocery store!!! I’m a pretty savvy consumer when it comes to the produce department & I was absolutely blown away with the operation.
I met so many people at Sage & had the opportunity to learn about the operations from every perspective:
Valley Fruit is one of the Orchards that supplies Sage Fruit with their apples โ Valley Fruit alone employs about 1500 laborers throughout the year. Thereโs an art to picking apples & thereโs most definitely an art to unloading the apples into the bins. The men & women picking the apples are harvesting up to 900 pounds of apples per person per hour! Itโs incredibleโฆ
Terry’s job is to take samples from each in-bound truck. She tests the apples for their starch levels & pressures. Based on her findings, she then makes the suggestion for where the apples should be stored at the warehouse – Regular Storage or Controlled Atmosphere Storage. She even makes suggestions on when the apples should be sent to retailers & what stage of each storage classification the apples should be placed. I told her she’s the gatekeeper. The FIFO system that is so important in the fresh produce industry literally starts with Terry! Again – if it weren’t for Terry, the efforts of people like Andy & the hard working field laborers would be wasted. The apples could rot if not stored properly based off their starch levels & pressures. Important job.
Stay tuned for more information about apples – I have a few specific questions I plan to answer during this blog series. These are questions I am constantly being asked about all produce, but especially apples.
- Why do farmers use pesticides?
- Why are apples waxed?
- Are organic apples healthier than conventional apples?
- What makes Washington Apples different from apples grown in other states?
- How long and why are apples stored?
Feel free to email me at lori@theproducemoms.com if you have any questions you would like me to consider as we put together this “Apples Farm to Fork” blog series. We have a lot to cover & it will be done gradually over the next month.
Happy National Apple Month!
xoxo Produce Mom