New fruit excites us at ThirdLeaf NW. For about a year now, we’ve heard rumor and innuendo about a new variety storming its way to shelves from the Yakima Basin. Those rumors are finally coming to fruition as the Cosmic Crisp becomes available for sale on Dec. 1, 2019. After that, the apples in Seattle may never be the same.
Washington has long-since been known for its apples, but the Cosmic Crisp is the first apple that was actually developed within the state. Washington State University developed the apple and that may account for the deep crimson color.
What is more likely is the fruits’ color comes from its ancestry and the dark-skinned Enterprise apple and its grafting with the ever-popular Honeycrisp. The name comes specifically from the dots on the skin which look like the night sky.
“I’ve never seen an apple prettier in the orchard than these things are,” said Aaron Clark of Yakima. He and his family owns 80 acres of Cosmic Crisp orchards.
Orchardists are going all in with these apples, having planted 12 million trees. The initial yield will only be around 450,000 cases of apples which is approximately 18,000,000 lb. By next year, growers expect in excess of 2 million cases.
Will these be the new hot apples in Seattle?
“This apple (Cosmic Crisp) has a good opportunity to be a hit with a lot of people,” said Clark, a vice president of Price Cold Storage, a company with orchards and fruit warehouses throughout central Washington. “It better be, because we are going to have a lot of them.”
Washington state growers paid for the research and growth. As such, they’ve received a 10-year exclusivity agreement to grow and sell Cosmics.
According to the marketing team in charge of hyping up the apples, the Cosmic has been in production for over 20 years and this will be the largest launch of an apple in history.
Do you have Dec. 1 marked on your calendar? We do. We can not wait to be on the forefront of another wave of ever-changing produce! Let us show you what we have today!