Crunch Time Apple Growers will be featured in the Fresh Ideas Showcase at the PMA Fresh Summit. Their display will be showcasing the SnapDragon and RubyFrost apples. “It’s going to be exciting,” says Rena Montedoro. The newly designed booth portrays a vintage apple farm market feel.
Her main focus at the show will be to focus on meeting with retailers and getting the word out about the newest apple varieties – it’s their first appearance at PMA. “We really want to enhance the visibility of SnapDragon and RubyFrost. We’re some of the newest New York apples out there and we want to broaden our market reach. We felt it was the prefect place to do it, get in front of retailers and let them know we’re here.”
SnapDragon season has just started in certain parts of New York State. “We just started picking. We’re coming to market a little bit early this year,” says Montedoro. “We’ve had terrific apple growing weather: rain, sunshine and our apples are bigger, they’re lush and they’re gorgeous.” Montedoro is pleased that they’re up in volume 50% over last year. The first week of availability is aimed for the week of October 5th. “We’ll be in large retailers all across the USA. It’s a very exciting year for us.” The apples aren’t available in the Canadian market yet.
Snapdragon and RubyFrost are great examples of what New York farmers are producing, according to Montedoro. SnapDragon is known for its crunch and taste. “Our apples were developed for growers. In that respect we’re focused strictly on marketing them.” She says RubyFrost is equally delicious – it ripens in storage and its color gets a deep burgundy, it’s sweet and tart. “It’s a little bit of a larger apple.” It will be available in January. ‘It’s very unique in that way – you get a fresh ‘fall’ apple in January.”
Currently 145 growers are producing SnapDragon and RubyFrost. Her push is to broaden their consumer base and produce more apples every year going forward. “We’ve had such terrific response to these apples I’ve got people reaching out to me on Facebook for SnapDragon right now,” she says. “It’s very exciting when your customers are chasing you down.”
Visit Crunch Time Apple Growers at booth 4034 at the PMA Fresh Summit.
For more information:
Rena Montedoro
Crunch Time Apple Growers
Ph: 716-300-8072