n this West Virginia Morning, Virginia’s first modern apple cidery Foggy Ridge helped launch a craft cider industry in Virginia, but while the cider business closed in 2018, the farm stayed open. Owner and orchardist Diane Flynt now sells apples to other cider makers and has a new book out. Radio IQ’s Roxy Todd visited Flynt’s farm in Southwest Virginia and has this story.
On this West Virginia Morning, Virginia’s first modern apple cidery Foggy Ridge helped launch a craft cider industry in Virginia, but while the cider business closed in 2018, the farm stayed open. Owner and orchardist Diane Flynt now sells apples to other cider makers and has a new book out. Radio IQ’s Roxy Todd visited Flynt’s farm in Southwest Virginia and has this story.
Also, in this show, with the closing and consolidation of pharmacy chains and independent retailers, patients are left wondering where to go for guidance and their medications. Emily Rice has more.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
Many growers across the country have been left without a market due to oversupplied apple processors. West Virginia rescued its surplus, with a plan that donates apples to hunger-fighting charities.
It’s getting late in the harvest season in Berkeley County, West Virginia and Carla Kitchen’s team is in the process of hand-picking nearly half a million pounds of apples. In a normal year, Kitchen would sell to processors like Androsthat make applesauce, concentrate, and other products. But this year they turned her away.
“Imagine 80% of your income is sitting on the trees and the processor tells you they don’t want them,” Kitchen says. “You’ve got your employees to worry about. You’ve got fruit on the trees that need somewhere to go. What do you do?”
For the first time in 36 years, Kitchen had nowhere to sell the bulk of her harvest. It could have been the end of her business. And she wasn’t the only one. Across the country, growers were left without a market. Due to an oversupply carried over from last year’s harvest, growers were faced with a game-time economic decision: Should they pay the labor to harvest, crossing their fingers for a buyer to come along, or simply leave the apples to rot?
Bumper crops, export declines and the weather have contributed to the apple crisis
Christopher Gerlach, director of industry analytics at USApple, says the surplus this year was caused by several compounding factors. Bumper crops have kept domestic supply high. Exports have declined 21% over the past decade, a symptom of retaliatory tariffs from India that only ended this fall.
Weather also played a role this year as hail left a significant share of apples cosmetically unsuitable for the fresh market. Growers would normally recoup some value by selling to processors, but that wasn’t an option for many either – processors still had leftovers from last year sitting in climate-controlled storage.
“Last year’s season was so good that the price went down on processors and they said, ‘let’s buy while the buyings good,’ ” Gerlach says. “These processors basically filled up their storage warehouses. It’s just the market.”
While many growers in neighboring states like Maryland and Virginia left their apples to drop. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was able to convince the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pay for the apples produced by growers in his state, which only makes up 1% of the national market.
A relief program in West Virginia donated its surplus apples to hunger-fighting charities
This apple relief program, covered under Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, purchased $10 million worth of apples from a dozen West Virginia growers. Those apples were then donated to hunger-fighting charities across the country from South Carolina and Michigan all the way out to The Navajo Nation.
A nonprofit called The Farmlink Project took care of more than half the state’s surplus – 10 million pounds of apples filling nearly 300 trucks.
Mike Meyer, head of advocacy at The Farmlink Project, says it’s the largest food rescue they’ve ever done and they hope it can serve as a model for their future missions.
“There’s over 100 billion pounds of produce waste in this country every year; we only need seven billion to drive food insecurity to zero,” Meyer says. “We’re very happy to have this opportunity. We get to support farmers, we get to fight hunger with an apple. It’s one of the most nutritional items we can get into the hands of the food insecure.”
At Timber Ridge Fruit Farm in Virginia, owners Cordell and Kim Watt watch a truck from The Farmlink Project load up on their apples before driving out to a food pantry in Bethesda, Md. Despite being headquartered in Virginia, Timber Ridge was able to participate in the apple rescue since they own orchards in West Virginia as well. Cordell is a third-generation grower here and he says they’ve never had to deal with a surplus this large.
“This was unprecedented territory,” Watt says. “The first time I can remember in my lifetime that they [processors] put everybody on a quota. I know several growers that just let them fall on the ground. … The program with Farmlink has really taken care of the fruit in West Virginia, but in a lot of other states there’s a lot of fruit going to waste. We just gotta hope that there’s funding there to keep this thing going.”
At the So What Else food pantry in Bethesda, Md., apple pallets from Timber Ridge fill the warehouse up to the ceiling. Emanuel Ibanez and other volunteers are picking through the crates, bagging fresh apples into family-sized loads.
“I’m just bewildered,” Ibanez says. “We have a warehouse full of apples and I can barely walk through it.”
“People in need got nutritious food out of this program. And that’s the most important thing”
Executive director Megan Joe says this is the largest shipment of produce they’ve ever distributed – 10 truckloads over the span of three weeks. The food pantry typically serves 6,000 families, but this shipment has reached a much wider circle.
“My coworkers are like, ‘Megan, do we really need this many?’ And I’m like, yes!” Joe says. “The growing prices in the grocery stores are really tough for a lot of families. And it’s honestly gotten worse since COVID.”
Back in West Virginia, apple growers, government officials, and Farmlink Project members come together in a roundtable meeting. Despite the existential struggles looming ahead, spirits were high and even some who were skeptical of government purchases applauded the program for coming together so efficiently.
“It’s the first time we’ve done this type of program, but we believe it can set the stage for the region,” Kent Leonhardt, West Virginia’s commissioner of agriculture says. “People in need got nutritious food out of this program. And that’s the most important thing.”
Following West Virginia’s rescue program, the USDA announced an additional $100 million purchase to relieve the apple surplus in other states around the country. This is the largest government buy of apples and apple products to date. But with the harvest window coming to an end, many growers have already left their apples to drop and rot.
This past winter was unseasonably mild. That’s put some of the state’s fruit farmers in an unexpectedly precarious position as plants produce before the threat of frost is gone.
This past winter was unseasonably mild. That’s put some of the state’s fruit farmers in an unexpectedly precarious position as plants produce before the threat of frost is gone.
Garry Shanholtz has been growing apple, peach and cherry trees in his Hampshire County Orchard for close to 60 years, part of a rich agricultural tradition in the state.
“Most people don’t realize what history West Virginia has in the fruit business,” he said. “Of course, the Golden Delicious apple was found in Clay County, and it’s the most widely planted apple in the world. It’s cross bred with a lot of other apples.”
Garry said his father was also in agriculture, mostly timber and cattle, but bought land with a small orchard in the 1950s.
“I decided to go with the orchard because them trees go to sleep in the wintertime, and I take a vacation,” he said. “You don’t have to get up to feed the cattle and so on, so forth. But it’s been a great life.”
But that downtime is starting to get shorter as temperatures warm up. This past winter wasn’t the warmest on record, but according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, it did rank in the top 20 of all time. Garry’s son Kane, who helps him manage the orchard, said farmers are taking notice.
“I was at one of my farm meetings, and there was a guy there talking about the weather,” Kane said. “And he said, ‘It seems like it’s staying warmer later. And then it’s not staying as cool as long as it should, then it warms up.’ Then that’s what happens, everything pops out ahead.”
Almost three weeks ahead by the Shanholtz’s estimation.
During a visit to the orchard in mid April, the pink peach blossoms that would normally be peaking, had already come and gone. The apple orchards were wearing their white blooms, which used to not arrive until the first week of May.
“The Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester has always been the first weekend in May,” Garry said. “Well, the apple blossoms are almost gone.”
Apple trees in one of the Shanholtz orchards in full bloom, three weeks earlier than normal. Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A closeup on apple blossoms. Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
In most lines of work, being ahead of schedule is usually a good thing. But for the Shanholtz and their orchard, early fruiting puts their production at risk. A freeze right now could mean a total write-off of their crop for the year.
“Right here are some peaches coming out of the shuck,” Kane said, indicating budding fruit on the branch. “So now they’re really vulnerable. If we don’t have a freeze, you know, we’re gonna have a good crop. I want it to stay warm to get through this bloom period on the apples in it, get it behind us.”
Threats from a changing climate don’t stop there. Beyond the threat of a freeze killing off early fruit, plants like peaches, apples and cherries – all of which the Shanholtz’s grow – need what are called “chill hours” to produce.
“The sap goes down in the fall of the year on peaches and apples and everything, and then everything stays asleep for a certain amount of hours,” Garry said. “It varies on different crops, different apples, different peaches, then once that time’s up if you get warm weather, that’s when sort of everything starts coming. And that’s been happening, everything has been coming a little sooner.”
Garry said even in a warm winter like the one we just had, West Virginia still gets plenty of chill hours to accommodate his plants, but it is starting to become a problem farther south.
“They actually plant peaches that take less hours, but we’re not close to that yet,” he said. “We’ve had enough cold weather for him to go into dormant back out. It’s just that they’re coming out of dormancy sooner.”
Dee Singh-Knights, an extension specialist of agribusiness economics and management with the WVU Extension Service, said that in economics, climate and weather fluctuations fall into the category of “wicked problems.”
“By wicked, what we mean is that it’s generally not well understood, because the data is still emerging,” she said. “It does pose significant economic burdens. We’re talking about food that is the underpinning of our society.”
The Extension Service aims to provide producers like the Shanholtz’s with both long and short-term solutions, but Singh-Knights said that has to happen on a case-by-case basis.
“I like to say, ‘When you’re seeing one farm in West Virginia, you’ve seen one farm in West Virginia,'” she said. “That simply means that our farm operators, in terms of the vulnerabilities, every single farm operation will have different vulnerabilities on a very individual level.”
That variety is its own sort of insurance, because Singh-Knights said food systems that will stand up to a changing environment will have to be varied in place and production.
“Whereas we do want to have a very resilient local food system, where our small farm families continue to be profitable, to be sustainable, resilience really is making sure that we’re not putting all our eggs in one basket,” Singh-Knights said.
Peach producers in warmer, southern regions can still provide fruit if a freeze knocks out a local crop, and vice versa if winters down south prove too mild for a good production.
“It’s about deliberate planning,” Singh-Knights said. “It’s about deliberately understanding what you’re doing in the face of climate change and making these changes so that you remain profitable.”
For now, however, Kane said all he can do is work with what’s in front of him.
“Years ago, we used to stress over the weather. But you know, when you’ve been in it as long as we have, it is what it is,” he said. “We can’t control it. So we got to take what Mother Nature gives us, and sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, you know?”
The family-owned orchard was noted as one of the “10 best U.S. apple orchards to bookmark for future travel.”
Orr’s was founded in 1954 and spans over 1,000 acres of land. Located in Martinsburg since 1995, the orchard is most known locally for its apple orchards, peach trees, and seasonal offerings like pumpkin patches. But earning a Top 10 recognition in the country isn’t something the farm expected.
“We do get awards, sometimes, maybe we’ll make a top 50 list — top 50 pumpkin patches in the U.S. or, you know something like that, but to find out that it was one of the top 10 in the country to visit was very exciting,” said general manager and third generation farmer Katy Orr-Dove.
Orr-Dove handles the orchard’s farm sales and tourism. She thinks the award is something that helps put West Virginia agritourism on the map, crediting the authenticity of the farm’s attractions for drawing national attention.
“I think in almost every area of business, West Virginia is always contending to be recognized amongst the larger states, because we do have less firepower as far as organizations that market us,” said Orr-Dove.
She said the award makes her feel like an underdog coming out on top.
“I feel like a lot of times, I’m always fighting to be seen, you know – first of all, to be respected as a farmer in general is a challenge. And then a woman farmer is a second challenge,” Orr-Dove said.
The recognition from a national media outlet also comes with sentimental value to the Orr family after the passing of Orr-Dove’s father last year.
“This was our first year doing everything without him – he is our main farmer here, our main grower. So to find out that we won that award when it’s a year from his death, it just felt like a nice closure to our season.”
With the holiday season continuing, Orr’s Farm Market is now shifting its focus to in-season events like a live nativity scene and Christmas-themed hayrides.
Known for its distinct sour taste when it first ripens, and its creamy applesauce when it matures, an heirloom apple with Russian roots still grows in Appalachia. Generations of southwest Virginians and West Virginians have kept these trees alive for more than a century. The growing season, flavor and versatility of this fruit set it apart.
“I think this is an apple that has sour powder in it,” said five-year-old Renee Halsey when she took her first bite of an Early June Transparent Apple from a neighbor’s tree in Bluefield, Virginia.
Credit Connie Kitts / For Inside Appalachia
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For Inside Appalachia
Renee Halsey enjoys one of the few Early June Transparent apples that survived the mid-May freeze of the 2020 apple season.
Mike Snyder, a long-time middle-school teacher in Randolph County, West Virginia, and writer for the West Virginia Farm Bureau News, said he’s seen many shiny commercial apples thrown in the school trash because the taste is so poor. An heirloom like the Early Transparent has a unique, wonderful flavor that children won’t experience if we don’t save these trees, he said.
Currently, 90 percent of apples sold in the United States are of only 11 apple varieties. In the 1800s, almost 7,000 apple varieties were known in America, but by 2009 only about 1,500 varieties were still available through nurseries, according to one inventory.
Not a Native Tree
Credit U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POMOLOGICAL WATERCOLOR COLLECTION. RARE AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY, BELTSVILLE, MD.
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The Early Transparent is also known as the Early June Transparent, the Russian Transparent or Yellow Transparent, as titled here in a 1912 watercolor by Ellen Isham Schutt.
The Early June Transparent apple tree is not native to this region — or this country. In 1870 the United States Department of Agriculture imported it from Russia and the Baltic states, both places with cold climates, said Mira Bulatovic-Danilovich, associate professor and consumer horticultural specialist with West Virginia University Extension.
Central Appalachia has more in common with the Baltics than people might think, Bulatovic-Danilovich said. “The nearest neighbor to the Baltic countries is Finland, just to get a perspective. So whatever West Virginia lacks in latitude, it actually gains in altitude. Believe-it-or-not, we have quite similar climates,” Bulatovic-Danilovich said.
There are also geological similarities, Bulatovic-Danilovich added. “Our soils are basically mineral soils, based on sandstone, shale, limestone. This is pretty much the same up in the Baltics,” she said.
But Bulatovic-Danilovich said there is possibly a more important factor she’s seen in the survival of heirlooms like these: they become neighborhood trees. And the community knows the apples’ distinct taste. It becomes part of what people grow up with and share.
“Tradition is still the main reason we still have some of these heirlooms varieties. People remember what their grandparents and great-grandparents had, and they want that apple to survive, you know, to be preserved for the next generation,” she said.
Breakfast Apples
Credit COURTESY OF REBECCA PERRY
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Chunky fried apples ready for breakfast.
Part of that next generation is Rebecca Perry and her husband Willie. They live in Bluefield, West Virginia, alongside the well-known Bluefield railyards, on the south-facing slope of Stoney Ridge, near Early Transparent trees that their families picked for decades.
The Perrys like to cook fresh transparents for breakfast, just like they had when they were young. Rebecca washes and dices the apples, and puts them in a hot skillet, usually with some butter or bacon grease, where they sizzle and quickly cook up. She adds cinnamon and sugar. She makes her biscuits ahead of time, so they’re ready to eat with her apples.
To make that baby-food thin applesauce, Perry says wait until the apples ripen more, peel the skin off, slice, and cook in a pot with just a scant bit of water.
A Tree To Be Shared
Credit COURTESY OF SUZIE WEBB
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Suzie Webb and her late father Frank Johnston, who said he liked eating the apple when it was “green enough to make a pig squeal.”
The Early Transparent blossoms and buds in the spring, putting it at risk of a late frost. If it escapes a heavy frost or freeze and begins to produce apples, there’s only about a three-week window to pick the apples before they rot. And the tree is a biennial, bearing heavily every other year. All of those things make it a sought-after commodity in the early summer.
It’s common to pick the apples green, when the apple’s skin is thinnest, so that peeling isn’t necessary. The peeling cooks down, almost dissolves, when making fried apples or applesauce. Being able to cook the apple with the skin also adds to its nutrition.
Suzie Webb is a retired postal worker in Bluefield, Virginia who grew up eating these apples. When she married, and the apples came ripe, she didn’t have a freezer and panicked. She bought a 23-cubic-foot freezer to put a few bags of apples in. A bit of an overkill, she said, but preserving these apples was something she’d been taught was important.
The trees of her late father Frank Johnston are well-known in the area. He shared the apples generously with anyone who wanted to come and pick, and he often delivered apples to widows. “But if you were able to come get them and didn’t come get them, he just said you could go hungry,” Webb said.
A Tree for the Town
Credit Connie Kitts / For Inside Appalachia
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For Inside Appalachia
Early Transparent trees were often planted close to the house for easy picking, as seen here on Frank Johnston’s farm, which recently sold.
Not far from the Johnston farm and just inside Bluefield’s town limits, is Georgie Durham, 90, who remembers eating off these trees in Bluefield in the 1940s and 50s, when they were popular backyard trees. Durham’s late husband, Ray Durham, sold the Early Transparent tree throughout their new neighborhood of Shelby Heights in the 1950s when he was a door-to-door salesman for Stark Bros Nurseries, Durham said.
“I believe the skin was the reason it’s called Transparent,” Durham said, “because the skin was so thin on the apple. You could almost see through ‘em.”
Credit Connie Kitts / For Inside Appalachia
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For Inside Appalachia
In the late stage of ripeness the Early Transparent turns a pale yellow. This is when it is ideal for applesauce.
As the apples mature, and turn slightly yellow, the flesh inside becomes sweeter, with a mealy crumbly texture — and Durham said this is when it’s excellent for making applesauce. But the skin also toughens, and that’s when people peel the apple.
“Well, I do know one thing,” said Durham. “The Early Transparent, you couldn’t beat it. It’s No.1 buddy, sure was. For cookin’, for applesauce, for pies, well for anything you wanted to make.”
The Tree Needs Maintenance
Just up the road from Durham is Lonnie Johnson, retired from the Navy, and a longtime local with an Early Transparent tree.
He bought his property 30 years ago, and when he moved in, Johnson said his tree was neglected. He said these trees can get unruly without maintenance.
Credit COURTESY OF LONNIE JOHNSON
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Lonnie Johnson, left, also known as “Apple” by 2-year-old J.D. Halsey, under the shade of Johnson’s Early Transparent apple tree.
“It wasn’t taken care of. Everything was all ran down. So I started getting it trimmed and once I had it trimmed and I put fertilizer around it, it took off man!” he said.
Every season since, Johnson and his wife slice and freeze the apples so they have them year-round. “There’s nothin’ better than snow flyin’ and good morning-cooked apples with biscuits. Nothin’ like it. It just makes springtime pop in your head,” Johnson said.
But lately, there aren’t as many producing Transparent trees as there used to be. Sale of farms, new construction and property abandonment are all factors, Johnson says, as well as aging trees and lack of care. The life-span of an Early Transparent is about 50 to 60 years.
“It’s a dying breed. That’s the sad part about it,” he said. “That’s the reason I want to get a couple of more started.”
Saving by Grafting
Junior Crockett
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Grafting work of Junior Crockett.
Someone who’s eager to help out is Junior Crockett, who owns a business just down the road. He grew up in the 1970s with a family orchard that was later cut down.
His hobby is finding and saving some of the area’s old apple trees by grafting them. He uses a cutting and taping technique to attach part of an old tree to a new one.
“YouTube is the best. If you wanna learn to graft apples, or anything, go on there and they show you step-by-step. It’s not that hard to do. You make your own trees. That’s the only way you get a ‘true-to-parent’ apple,” Crockett said.
Next spring will be Crockett’s first attempt at grafting an Early June Transparent tree.
“I just like it because it’s therapeutic, and I love history, love history, and that’s part of history. The only thing for me is I don’t have a young apprentice to take over, to learn,” Crockett said.
Meanwhile the kids at Lonnie Johnson’s home church are picking up his love of the Early June Transparent apple. Johnson said, “I have a little boy in Sunday School. His name is J.D. and he calls me ‘Apple.’ Every time he sees me he wants me to pick him up, then he’ll look at me and say ‘Apple’ so his mother says that he renamed me. My name is ‘Apple’ now.”
Connie Kitts
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Lodi apples, grown by Berrier Orchard in Cana, Va., and sold by Goins Market in Bluefield, W.Va.
This year in Bluefield and the surrounding region, not many blossoms survived the unusually late spring freeze in May and cold temperatures in June. Tree owners in the region say there were only about a handful of smaller, pickable apples on each tree. Apple lovers could buy a close- cousin apple to the Early Transparent — a Lodi — at Goins Market in Bluefield, West Virginia. But for the folks who still have Early Transparents in their freezer from last year, you can bet they’ll be guarding them closely.
Passed-Down Early Transparent Apple Recipes
Credit JENNY PARRIS AKERS.
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Using this 1950s sieve and wooden pestle, Jenny Akers’ mother, Mary Helen Summers Parris, made Early Transparent applesauce for generations.
Creamy Applesauce
Jennifer Parris Akers, Bluefield, Virginia.
“It was my Mom who made it forever. We always used the ripe/yellow ones. The riper ones were sweeter. We would even fight the yellow jackets to pick up apples on the ground. All we did was cut the apples into quarters/eighths, add enough water to keep them from sticking, and cook at a low and slow simmer until soft. Then run them through a cone sieve with a wooden pestle. That gets rid of the peels and seeds. Add a little sugar and voilà! The best applesauce in the universe! In my book, Transparents are the only apple for applesauce. I’ve tried other apples and they’re fine but not the same.
“All the grandchildren grew up eating it. Whenever they came to see their Nannie and Paw they expected homemade applesauce! Mom made and froze enough to last all year. Every Spring she made 40 quarts of applesauce for four or five decades. ”
Fried Apples
Credit Connie Kitts / For Inside Appalachia
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For Inside Appalachia
Early Transparents fry in left-over bacon or sausage grease.
There are many versions of what locals call “fried apples” made from Early Transparents. One thing they have in common is that the apple is picked in its early green ripe stage and is cooked with the peeling on, after it’s cut into quarters or eighths and seeded. The apples are usually fried in sausage or bacon grease and on medium heat in a cast iron skillet, but any skillet will work. Sugar is usually added as the apple cooks. Some folks season with cinnamon. How long the apple is cooked is a matter of preference. Some add a little water toward the end. Others don’t. The longer it cooks, the more it loses the shape of the apple slice. Fried apples are popular for breakfast with biscuits, sausage and eggs. The sausage can be a little spicy and the apples will take the spice away, said Suzie Webb. “They’re a perfect fit,” she said.
Fried Apple Pies
Kim Asbury of Bluefield, Virginia.
Credit Connie Kitts / For Inside Appalachia
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For Inside Appalachia
A batch of fried apple pies ready to eat.
Kim Asbury said she was about 14 years old when she learned to make fried apple pies from her mother, Julia Inscore, who was well-known for making hundreds for her church, Mountain View Church of Christ in North Tazewell, Virginia. Asbury said her mother usually used the Early Transparents or sometimes the Winesap apple. It’s time-consuming, she added, but here’s how to do it with Transparents: Leave the peelings on if they haven’t gotten tough. Cut the apples into quarters and take out the core. Cut into slices and cook in a pan over low heat. When almost cooked down, add cinnamon and sugar to taste. Then cook down more until it’s not runny (the sugar will make it runny). Set aside to cool.
Make biscuit dough “just like for homemade biscuits” she said, but add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Asbury said she doesn’t measure her ingredients but she prefers to use Hudson Cream self-rising flour, Crisco shortening, and buttermilk. Knead the dough, then pull off a small ball and roll out with a rolling pin on a floured surface into a round shape. Flip, and roll out a bit more. Put some of the cooked apples in the middle of the circle, fold in half and pinch closed with the tongs of a fork dipped in flour. Heat a cast iron skillet on medium heat and add lard. Not oil, but lard, she said. When skillet and lard are hot, add pie. Lard should be about halfway up the pie. Cook until one side is browned, then flip and cook other side until brown. Remove and put on paper towels to absorb grease.
Freezing Early Transparents
Ruth Jackson of Bluefield, Virginia.
Connie Kitts
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Early Transparents from the market ready to be cut up for freezing.
“We liked to pick them when the skins were still green. You don’t peel them. As you cut them up, you put them in a little salt water and they stay that white-looking look and they don’t turn brown. Then you rinse all that off, and dry them really, really, really good. Put them in plastic freezer bags and make sure you get all the air out. We never peeled the Early Transparent. Their skin wasn’t tough. Mom never did and I never did. Others I did but I never peeled those.” Other tips for freezing can be found in this West Virginia Extension publication.
Canning Early Transparents
Georgie Durham of Bluefield, Virginia.
Credit Connie Kitts / For Inside Appalachia
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For Inside Appalachia
A mason jar of apples alongside jars of blackberry jelly in Durham’s basement.
“When I’m canning I always peel my apples,” said Durham. “Then slice them and cut out the seeds and core. Put them in a pot with just a little bit of water. You don’t want them too sloppy,” she said. Bring the apples to a boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure they don’t scorch. Have your canning jars hot. You can get them hot in a warm oven. Pour the hot applesauce into the cans, Durham said, and seal with a lid and ring. (For details about safe canning, see West Virginia Extension Service’s Canning Process Guide.)
Apple Butter
Connie Kitts
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Jean Billips with a 2019 season jar of apple butter.
Early Transparents are seldom used in apple butter because they are an early apple, and they have a thinner consistency and take a long time to cook down for apple butter. But the apples from Frank Johnston’s Transparent trees were part of an apple butter recipe used by his good friend and neighbor, Conn Fuller, to make a signature apple butter that was sold in cases and shipped all over the country and as far away as England. Fuller’s daughter, Jean Billips gave the basics of the recipe: Ingredients: 10 to 12 gallons of Early Transparent applesauce (make in early summer and freeze in 5-gallon buckets until fall); 25 to 30 gallons of Summer Rambo applesauce (make and freeze in August); 75 to 90 pounds of sugar; 2 ½ ounces of cinnamon oil; 1 pint cider vinegar. Process: Thaw the applesauce (it may take several days). Pour applesauce into a copper kettle set over a wood fire, and cook 8 to 12 hours, stirring constantly until thickened. After about 5 hours, add sugar, a little at a time, and continue to add over the next few hours. Toward the end of the cooking time, add cinnamon oil, then vinegar and cook about 30 minutes longer. Vinegar acts as a preservative so the apple butter will not mold. Pour into mason jars and seal with lid and ring.
Tips for Pruning Trees
Credit COURTESY OF MIRA BULATOVICH-DANILOVICH
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Mira Bulatovic-Danilovich, far right, talks about tree pruning at the West Virginia University organic farm in Morgantown, W.Va.
Owner Tom Brown reported in early September 2020 that he typically has the Transparent apple trees for sale in the fall. This year however, all of these trees have been sold. He will have more Transparent apple trees for sale next year, 2021.
Owner Meredith Leake says all of his Early Transparents have sold out for this year but he’s taking orders now for trees and custom grafting for the 2021 season.
When you think of some of West Virginia’s biggest economic drivers, extractive industries like coal or natural gas are likely the first things that often come to mind. But agriculture has been a fixture in West Virginia’s economy for hundreds of years. Yet today, farmers struggle to keep their business afloat. Take apple farming, for example. West Virginia has been producing apples since the late 1800s, even exporting them out of state. Now, as the cider industry expands, there’s an increasing demand for local apples. And some people think this is one economic development opportunity the state is overlooking.
Most of the apples grown in West Virginia are in the Eastern Panhandle. Katy Orr-Dove’s farm is one of the largest orchards in the state.
“70 percent of our business is wholesale, which is going to grocery stores up and down the east coast,” Orr-Dove said. Her family has managed to hang on to this property and their farm business for three generations.
Credit John Hale/ WVPB
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Katy Orr-Dove, market manager of Orr’s Farm Market in Martinsburg, W.Va.
“I think there’s always been challenges. And I just think it’s the nature of farming that people overcome them. And you adapt and go to the new trend, or you go out of business and sell your farm,” Orr-Dove said.
And though Orr’s Farm is going strong, many farmers across the state are looking to sell their businesses. West Virginia produces about 110 million pounds of apples every year, just a third of what we used to grow in 1979, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Despite Increasing Demand, Some Small W.Va. Apple Farmers Struggle
Apples grown in West Virginia have traditionally been sold as eating apples, or for apple juice or applesauce. Sweet varieties, like Golden Delicious apples, are good for those uses. But there’s a growing demand for apples that can be used to make alcoholic cider, an industry that is on the rise across the country, and here in West Virginia.
West Virginia now has two craft cideries that both use West Virginia apples, Swilled Dog in Pendleton County, and Hawk Knob in Lewisburg. Hawk Knob owner Josh Bennett buys about 80 tons of apples every year to make into cider and mead.
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Golden delicious apples were developed in West Virginia. They are a sweeter apple, better for eating than for making apple cider.
“And there’s huge demand for those apples. So it’s kind of sad to see that that there’s not more of that going on in West Virginia when we’re sitting in such a nice Apple growing climate and such a cultural heritage in Apple growing,” Bennett said.
Apples grow best in climates with moderate summers, and places with distinct seasons, and some cold in the winter.
This year, Bennett began buying his apples from Orr’s orchard, over 200 miles away, because his main source of apples sold their farm.
“We were sourcing everything within about 30 miles of the facility at Morgan Orchard. And that orchard sold last year, and it didn’t sell to another orchard. It actually closed that sold to a turkey farming company. So, at a personal level, I would say that was it was really sad to see that was one of the last commercial orchards in southern West Virginia.”
Credit Janet Kunicki/ WVPB
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Josh Bennett, owner at Hawk Knob Cider and Mead in Greenbrier County, W.Va.
Morgan Orchard was a 100-year-old orchard in Monroe county. The owners tried to find a buyer who would keep the property operating as an orchard, but they sold the property to Aviagen Turkeys.
The farmers who sold Morgan Orchard did not respond to a request for an interview, and neither did the owners of Aviagen Turkeys, who bulldozed the 100-year-old heirloom apple trees.
Dead apple trees are all that remain of what was once Morgan Orchard in Monroe County Credit Photo Roxy Todd/ WVPB
When West Virginia Public Broadcasting visited in December 2019, the dead trees were still visible, tossed on top of each other in what looked like a massive timber pile, ready to be burned.
Residents in Monroe and Greenbrier Counties who spoke with West Virginia Public Broadcasting said they were frustrated to hear the orchard had closed.
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The land that was formerly operated as Morgan Orchard sold to a new buyer, Aviagen Turkeys, who cleared the land and bulldozed the 100-year-old apple trees.
Suzanne Williams has a small business making jams, which she sells in shops across the state. She used to get peaches and apples from Morgan Orchard to make into some of her best selling products, like rhubarb and apple jam.
“Morgan Orchard was one of my absolute favorite places to go as a as a jam maker,” Williams said, “just walking amongst all the trees and being able to see the fruit ripening and see heirloom apple trees, It was just… a wondrous experience.”
Credit John Hale/ WVPB
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Apples growing at Orr’s Orchard in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Now Williams travels to the Eastern Panhandle to get her fruits and apples.
“But I’ve had up my prices a little bit because of the time and travel and gas involved. So that’s unfortunate.”
She’s concerned that there simply aren’t enough farmers left in southern West Virginia who can keep going, and make a profit.
“I don’t know that the Department of Agriculture can offer some kind of incentive for people starting up orchards. I just don’t know if that possibility exists. I just know it’s tough. It’s a tough business.”
Brian Wickline is a WVU extension agent in Monroe County. He tried to find a buyer who would keep Morgan Orchard open; he even contacted agriculture schools and universities out of state.
Credit John Hale/ WVPB
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Farm workers at Orr’s Orchard in Martinsburg, W.Va.
“We had some local folks who were interested in the orchard, but just really never could come up with the funding to purchase it.”
Wickline said the story of what happened to Morgan Orchard should be a wake up call. The reasons they couldn’t is kind of emblematic of the struggles most farmers in West Virginia are facing.
“I mean, we’ve got young folks that want to come back to the farm. Those young folks have to come back and they have to worry about their health insurance. How are they going to pay that?” he wondered. “They’re concerned with how are they gonna come up with enough money for retirement. So those are huge additional costs, where if they were employed in another job, that would be taken care of.”
In addition to being an extension agent, Brian Wickline is also a beef and dairy farmer. It’s a lot of work. The cows have to be milked twice a day.
Credit Janet Kunicki/ WVPB
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Dairy cows at Brian Wickline’s farm.
Small farms like his make up the majority of agricultural businesses across the state. Costs are rising, but profits are not. Because most farmers are operating at a small scale, there just is no way for them to earn enough money without drastically raising the price of food. And consumers aren’t willing to do that. Increasingly, more of our food comes from large industrial farms.
“If we’re able to keep those funds here locally, a larger amount of those dollars would stay in the local economy, Wickline said.”
Wickline said state lawmakers could help by making it easier for small farmers to sell their products, at a profit, to customers locally. For example, helping farmers to sell to school systems.
And they could also help farmers advertise niche products, like heirloom apples, to build up the brand for foods that are unique and special to the mountain state.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting reporter Liz McCormick contributed to this story.
