As apple picking season continues across the Northeast, one researcher is looking for more than a crisp taste. WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief James Paleologopoulos reports the red, green and gold fruits of labor tend to thrive in the Bay State.
Since Labor Day, it’s been one of the busiest times of the year for fruit scientists and specialists like Jon Clements.
Plugging away in the lab at the University of Massachusetts Cold Spring Orchard, tucked away in Belchertown near the Quabbin Reservoir, his days include adding troves of data to an apple maturity report – a lengthy assessment keeping tabs on different varieties and how they’re faring.
Letting WAMC take a peek of the operation in late September, he was in the midst of testing a half dozen Haralsons. Slicing them up, he hits them with an iodine solution to test their starchiness. He’s also able to see a disorder emerging in the samples.
“I cut these in half, right down the equator,” Clements says as he cuts up the mostly red fruit with various green spots. Pointing at the fruit’s flesh, he notes some darkened splotches. “This is a disorder called water core that is, in itself, not terrible.”
If anything, he says, it’s a sign of just how ripe this kind of apple is at this stage of the year.
For almost 25 years, Clements has been working with the university’s Extension unit. Part of the UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, the university says it is the “Massachusetts partner in the national Cooperative Extension System and addresses public concerns of high priority for the commonwealth.”
That includes providing training, educational opportunities and spreading research amongst growers. For Clements, the Extension Fruit Team Leader, that often means traveling across the state to meet and advise with orchard owners, spreading word of new trends while hearing concerns and answering questions.
While the state is known for its cranberry bogs and nurseries, its apple crop is close to the core, too. Clements estimates his “customer base” is about a hundred apple farmers, combining for roughly 3,000 acres in Massachusetts – a state that while small compared to other agricultural hubs, is more than ideal for the crop.
“I like to say that we are in the sweet spot for growing apples,” he explains. “I mean, we may be affected by climate change a little bit, but we can grow almost any apple variety here, whereas you go farther north, like up in Canada, where they have a shorter growing season, go farther south, they have … the hot weather - apples don't really like hot weather … we're in a real sweet spot.”
That sweet spot includes the slice of Hampshire County Clements and a handful of other researchers make use of. The property spans about 50 acres, including space devoted to peaches and other fruits.
But this time of the year, the name of the game is apples – now ripe and, in many cases, falling to the ground.
The facility came to be in the early 1960s, after UMass Amherst moved to convert its previous research orchard into dorms. Clements says due to the significance of the orchard, the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association pitched in to purchase the then-Hanifin Farm and donate the property.
Nowadays, Cold Spring Orchard is open throughout the week for those wanting to pick fruit themselves or buy some at the facility’s shop. The orchard’s largely self-sustaining, Clements says — with McIntosh, Gala and Cortlands among the varieties available.
The orchard’s also the scene of experiments.
“Probably, during a growing season, between the entomologists, the horticulturists, the pathologists, we have 6, 7, 8 different experiments,” Clements said. “They can change from year-to-year. Often … we can look at management tactics. Sometimes it's called IPM, integrated pest management, whether it's spraying or using traps, monitoring the pests - we do all that. I have a bunch of weather stations in this orchard that are kind of monitoring the micro climates.”
More than a hundred varieties of apples are growing on the property, with many in the back, off limits to the public. That includes a sort of researcher’s playground, Clements explains as he gives a tour, driving between the rows of cross-breeds, products of testing and special types of apples undergoing experiments.
That includes Modi apples - slender and dark red. Clements can’t recall how they came to be at Cold Spring, but they continue to grow - far from Italy, where they were first developed.
“These are the only Modi trees in Massachusetts,” he said. “There's an outfit in California that has licensed this - these were from Italy. The group that bred this apple licensed this outfit in California to grow these, and they won't let anybody have them. It's unfortunate, because I think it's a nice apple. It grows well for us, It's productive.”
Nearby is another sort of forbidden fruit – at least when it comes to local, Massachusetts growers. Pazzazz apples, similar in shape and color to the Modis, are also tested at the facility. They’re also a “club variety,” limited in terms of who can grow them and where.
Elsewhere in the rows of apple trees are varieties tied to the Midwest Apple Improvement Association — one of several groups trying to introduce new varieties to smaller growers, including pick your own growers. Clements estimates there’s about 15 or 20 different varieties in that vein at Cold Spring.
By and large, he says the apple industry in New England itself is generally shrinking. Stiff competition in the wholesale business poses challenges and on top of taking years, creating new orchards is a costly affair, an estimated $20-25,000 an acre at least.
But, Clements says, those who are in are in it for the long haul – helping them out through UMass is its own reward.
“Over the course of 25 years, you get to know them pretty well, and that's really the rewarding part of my job,” he said. “In addition to this kind of research, I also like this, but, you know, working with the growers, helping them solve problems become more sustainable, hopefully more profitable. Many of them are very good business people, and I even hesitate to call them small businesses, because some of these orchards [have] become quite big and they're small businesses, yes, but multi-million-dollar small businesses, if you can imagine, trust me.”
