For many New Yorkers, autumn’s cool weather
brings weekend visits to the many apple orchards that decorate the landscape
upstate.
In fact, New York is the second
largest apple producing state in the US, averaging 29.5 million bushels
annually. There are 694 family-owned
apple farms in New York, and together they grow and market a staggering 19
commercial varieties of fresh eating apples.
The most popular apple in New York is the ‘McIntosh Red’, named for John McIntosh, a New York farmer born in 1777. It is New York's Big Apple.
McIntosh relocated to Upper Canada in his early twenties and settled on a property that featured a number of seedling apple trees growing wild. McIntosh transplanted the seedlings to his home garden but within a year, only one plant was left standing. Within a few years, the surviving tree had begun producing the crisp, delicious fruit that now bears McIntosh’s name. And while McIntosh lived out his days in Canada, his namesake fruit grows abundantly in the rich soil and frosty climate here, making it the perfect ingredient in the apple pies and ciders that grace many New York tables during the holiday season.
