Across the state of Michigan, as the harvest gets underway, Honeycrisp apples are taking consumers by storm. Michigan-grown Honeycrisp apples have great flavor this year and there are plenty of them, grower Rob Crane said Wednesday 14 September, the opening day of his orchard's UPick Honeycrisp harvest at 6054 124th Ave.
In blind taste tests conducted there and in Illinois last year by the Michigan Apple Committee last fall, Michigan Honeycrisp apples beat out both other apple varieties, as well as Honeycrisps grown in other states.
By 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, more than 1.5 million Honeycrisp apple trees had been planted to meet that strong demand, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.
"Demand hasn't hasn't slowed down, it wasn't a fad," said Crane, who planted his Fennville orchard's first block of Honeycrisp apples back in 1992. "It will always be good."
In the first few years, Crane's young trees only produced enough fruit to allow customers a sample. When trees in Crane's orchard matured, his supply of Honeycrisps would sell out within an hour or two, he said. He kept planting more trees and the demand kept growing. The 2016 crop is the "biggest crop we've ever had," Crane said, not just in his orchard but for growers across the state.
Not only have the temperature and moisture been right to make lots of big, sweet apples grow, but the cold front moved through just in the nick of time to put people in the mood to pick them, he said.
