Washington State farmers grow 70 percent of the country’s apples, and this year there’s a new apple on the tree, says NPR. For the first time anywhere, growers are planting a variety known as Cosmic Crisp, named after the yellow, star-like flecks of color in its flesh.
So far, Washington farmers are the only ones allowed to plant Cosmic Crisps, because they helped fund the breeding program behind it. Interest from the state’s orchardists has been impressive, with 12 million trees ordered across the state.
“That first wave of plantings will deliver about 5 million 40-pound boxes of Cosmic Crisp apples to grocery stores,” says NPR. “For comparison, it took the popular variety Honeycrisp 20 years after it was introduced to reach that level of production.”
Washington farmers have long relied on the Red Delicious for the bulk of their sales, but while that apple is still the most grown variety in the state, it’s been losing ground with American consumers. In recent years, prices have sometimes fallen so low that it wasn’t worth the cost to harvest. Meanwhile the much more popular Honeycrisp is difficult to grow and trendy new apples like Opal are only available for a select “club” of farmers to plant, says NPR.
Farmers are banking that consumers will like the taste of Cosmic Crisp, which has been described as perfectly sweet and crisp, but that it won’t be as fussy to grow as other varieties.