Speakers lined up for Feb. 22 Ag-riculture Compliance Conference....................................... Page 4

U.S. Apple Association’s ‘Apples for Education’ Campaign Ben-efits Everyone....................................... Page 5

How to talk about the USDA’s new pesticide residue report....................................... Page 6Spanish-speaking Winter Fruit Schools lined up....................................... Page 7Lost Apple Project seeks to re-vive long-dormant varieties....................................... Page 8

Young Apple Leader program participants announced....................................... Page 9

Your AMO assessments fund all of the activities of the New York Apple Association, helping to encourage profitable growing and marketing of

New York apples. Stories and photos with this logo

specifically highlight how your AMO dollars

are being put to work for you.

In this Issue

7645 Main StreetPO Box 350Fishers New York 14453-0350

Official Newspaper of the New York Apple Association Volume 4, Issue 9 February 2016

Inside: USDA issues pesticideresidue report

Page 6

Analyzing the true costof a $15 minimum wageBy Lauren WilliamsNew York Farm Bureau

In his 2016 State of the State address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his proposal of a $15.00 minimum wage for the state of New York.

The proposal includes a phased-in increase in the minimum wage to $15 by 2018 for NYC and 2021 for the rest of the state. This increase would greatly impact farm business across the state and could negatively impact a farm’s bottom line.

Have you stopped to consider what a $15 minimum wage, a 67 percent increase from the current minimum wage, would mean to your business and how it could impact the overall profitability of your farm?

We encourage farmers and other agricultural businesses to calculate the cost of a $15 minimum wage for their operations. Not only are these numbers helpful for business planning purposes, but they also help to tell why an increase in the minimum wage would be detrimental to farm businesses.

Some things to consider as you calculate the impact of a $15 minimum wage:

Employees who are currently

making minimum wage, $9 per hour, would see their hourly wages increased by $6 to $15 per hour. Those employees currently earning more than the minimum wage, but under the $15 threshold, would also see an increase. In addition, raising the minimum

wage to such a high level puts current workers (at that pay level, who have gained this wage amount through experience on the farm) at an extreme disadvantage as their wages become compressed in comparison to their newly hired counterparts. Would any of your employees making more than

$15 an hour request that their wages be increased as well?

To calculate your increase in employer payroll tax, you should include the cost of workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, FICA, and Medicare.

It’s important to remember that there is no youth wage or separate wage rate for farmers. The majority of the people making the minimum wage on farms and other small businesses are youth and part-time employees who will be largely impacted by this proposal. Increasing the minimum wage to such a high level disincentives employers from hiring inexperienced and younger employees, preventing them from getting their foot in the door and receiving training and experience.

Even if your labor costs are relatively low, you should still consider how other agricultural businesses will be impacted by an increased minimum wage. Will your repair bills increase because you have to pay more in labor? Will feed and other goods cost more because the feed company must offset the increase the wages somehow?

INSIDE:More on the budget

Page 9Worksheet helps you calculate impact on yourbusiness.

Page 11

See Wage, Page 11

Page 2 Core Report® February 2016

Kroger expands produce choicesThe Produce News

The Kroger Co. has renovated and expanded the produce departments at 11 North Carolina stores. To date the company invested more than $4 million to remodel produce departments in 51 stores throughout its Mid-Atlantic Division, which includes North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, Kentucky and southern Ohio.

The 11 renovated produce departments in North Carolina are anchored by new market-style slant-top tables that display fresh produce. The departments also feature larger refrigerated produce cases with new misting systems. These changes have allowed Kroger to expand its selection of organic produce, part of the grocer’s overall strategy to continue to grow its lineup of natural foods.

“We’re excited to welcome shoppers to an inviting, easy-to-navigate space where they can shop for the freshest fruits and vegetables at low Kroger prices,” Anne Jenkins, spokesperson

for Kroger’s Mid-Atlantic Division, said in a press release. “Capital investment in our stores is one way Kroger is constantly working to maintain the outstanding in-store experience our customers know and love.”

Aldi’s offers more produceBy Pamela RiemenschneiderThe Packer

Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi Inc. started the New Year with a “Refresh” of its stores, pledging more healthful options for consumers.

The deep discounter pledged to replace candy and chocolates in its checkout lanes with nuts, trail mix, dried fruit and granola bars, and to broaden its product selection of fresh and “healthier” items.

“By introducing Healthier Checklanes and through a number of other initiatives, we are doing our part to remove temptation at checkout and stocking stores with even more nutritious options,” said Jason Hart, Aldi CEO, in a news release.

Publix to build store on college campusWFLA-TV (Tampa, Fla.)

TAMPA, Fla. — Students at the University of South Florida in Tampa will soon be able to buy groceries without even leaving campus.

In January, the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System of Florida, approved plans for Publix Super Markets to build a 29,000-square-foot store on the USF campus in Tampa.

The project is the first on-campus location in Florida for Publix and will be part of a public-private partnership geared at enhancing a “living-learning community” that will be built on the north side of campus.

It’s also a first-of-its-kind across the country, the grocery store will be the first Publix location that will be fully integrated into a student housing village on a college campus.

Price Rite to open store in Syracuse ‘food desert’Syracuse.com

SYRACUSE — Price Rite is going ahead with plans to open a supermarket in an impoverished southwest side neighborhood that community leaders have called a “food desert” because of its lack of grocery stores.

Dennis Bachman, manager of real estate for Price Rite, said the discount grocery store chain expects to begin construction at 601 South Ave. early this spring and open the 35,000-square-foot store in late summer or early fall.

Price Rite plans to build a 10,000-square-foot addition onto an approximately 20,000-square-foot vacant commercial building at the

southeast corner of South and Bellevue avenues.

The building on the property housed a Loblaws supermarket until the store closed in 1970.

Community leaders have been trying to recruit a grocery store to the site for years so that residents of the area who do not own cars would have a food store close enough to walk to. The neighborhood has a high concentration of poverty and no full-line grocery store.

Price Chopper names new CEOThe (Albany) Times-Union

Price Chopper’s parent company has a new CEO and, for the first time in history, his last name isn’t Golub.

The company announced in January that Scott Grimmett has been named chief executive officer of the Golub Corporation, replacing Jerry Golub.

Grimmett worked for the Safeway supermarket chain for 37 years, starting his career bagging groceries. He joined the Schenectady-based supermarket chain in January 2012 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was named president last year, when he also became the first non-family member in that role.

Jerry Golub, the previous CEO, will become vice chairman of the board and will lead a new board finance committee focused on accelerating the conversion of Price Chopper stores to the new Market 32 brand, the company said.

“The move is recognition of Scott’s exceptional value to the company and our ability to apply Jerry’s considerable talents to the financial side of our growth plan,” said Mona Golub, vice president of public relations and consumer services for the chain.

Grimmett has been one of the people spearheading the company’s transition from its Price Chopper brand to Market 32.

Retail ReviewNews from the retail marketing industry

FEbruary 15Northeastern NY Winter Tree Fruit SchoolFort William Henry Conference CenterLake George

FEbruary 16-17Hudson Valley WinterFruit SchoolGarden Plaza HotelKingston

FEbruary 23-24NYAA Board of Directors Mtg.The DesmondAlbany -2/23: Legislative Visits -2/24: Board Meeting

FEbruary 29Taste of New York Legislative ReceptionAlbany

March 1NYFB Lobby DayAlbany

March 3-5USApple – Capitol Hill DayUSApple MeetingsWashington, D.C.

auguSt 25-26Apple Crop Outlook & Marketing ConfenceRitz CarltonChicago, Ill.

Calendar

February 2016 Core Report® Page 3

Adapting to the changing times. There are two words in that statement

that I am certain many of you cringe at; most of us do.

We all get stuck in a routine, often become c o m p l a c e n t and most of the time we have a bit of fear in us when it comes

to anything new. Breaking out of our comfort zone, we all hate it. Sometimes we have to just bite the bullet, take the leap and hope for the best.

I found that when it comes to apples

things are always changing. New varieties are constantly appearing making me wonder if our growers are making plans for the future. Since the business world is always changing and evolving so too should our industry. I am a firm believer in all of the apple varieties grown in New York, I believe that there will always be a place for them in our stores, our shopping carts, in our recipes in our hands; but we need to be prepared for the reality that there are other great varieties emerging and we need to be able to tell our story better to keep them in the marketplace.

I love the changes being made to packaging, reinvention of varieties and refreshing of logos. We at the

core report® is published monthly by the New york

apple associationas a member service.

New york apple assn.contact

7645 Main St., Fishers, NY 14453-0350Phone: (585) 924-2171, Fax: (585) 924-1629www.nyapplecountry.com

StaffJames allen, President,jimallen@nyapplecountry.comMolly Zingler, Director of Marketing,molly@nyapplecountry.comJoan Willis, Executive& Communications AssistantEllen a. Mykins,Accounting Dept.Susan Sarlund,Northeast Account ManagerLinda Quinn,Nutrition SpokeswomanJulia Stewart, Public Relations Directorand NYAA spokesperson, julia@nyapplecountry.com

board of DirectorsWill gunnison, Chairman, District 1, Crown Point,(518) 597-3363, gunnisonorchards@yahoo.comJay toohill, District 1, Chazy, 518-846-7171,chazyorchards@westelcom.comJonathan chiaro, District 2, Hudson, (518) 828-1151,jpcyff@yahoo.com

David Jones, District 2, Germantown, 518-537-6500,gwsaulpaugh@valstar.net

alisha albinder, District 3, Milton, (845) 795-2121,alisha@hudsonriverfruit.com

Kurt borchert, District 3, Marlboro, 845-236-7239,borchertkurt@gmail.com Sarah Dressel, District 3, New Paltz,(845) 255-0693, sarahdressel6@gmail.comJack torrice, District 4, Oswego(315) 342-3793, fruitvalley@verizon.net

richard Endres, District 5, Sodus(315) 483-6815, fruitonfarm@earthlink.nettodd Furber, Vice Chairman, District 5, Sodus(315) 483-8529, tfurber@rochester.rr.com

chris hance, Treasurer, District 5, Pultneyville,(315) 589-4212, chance1@rochester.rr.com

abram Peters, District 5, Pultneyville,(585) 455-3600, abrampeters120@gmail.com

Kevin bittner, District 6, Barker, 716-795-3030,bittner82@netzero.comKaari Stannard, District 6, Medina, 518-477-7200,kaari@newyorkapplesales.com

Jason Woodworth, District 6, Waterport, 585-682-4749, jwoodworth.lff@gmail.com

President’s Message

By Jim Allenjimallen@nyapplecountry.com

“One bad apple will spoil the entire barrel”, is almost as well known “As

an apple a day, will keep the doctor away.”

They are both urban sayings that have lived on for centuries, from bygone days in old England to now. We know the apple a day slogan dates back that far, and we are

guessing that the days of shipping apples to Europe from Upstate New York in wooden barrels was the origin of the bad apple phrase. We love to hook ourselves to the Doctor comment, because it clearly communicates all the good that we know about eating apples and how apples enhance a healthy lifestyle.

At the same time, talking about a bad apple sends chills up our backs … and today those chills are more common and more threatening than ever. We are constantly being bombarded with the latest food borne outbreak, that have caused tragic deaths, sicknesses , recalls, and millions of dollars in losses. (Note the order of importance here).

In today’s nanosecond world of social media and Internet news, it almost seems like we are aware of an outbreak before it happens.Consumers today hear about E-Coli 026, Shinga Toxin, Listeria and Salmonella weekly. And the outbreaks are happening in mega companies such as Chipotle and Dole.

Will our industry be next or better said will our industry be hit again? We have suffered through cider issues over the years, but we were able to take the appropriate and somewhat

simple steps to eliminate those risks, but dealing with fresh apples is more difficult. Bidart Bros. of California, last year’s source of the Listeria breakout on fresh apples, can attest to that. The huge spinach contamination and recall, in 2006, that took three lives across the country, is well remembered as one of the worse national food borne illness outbreaks, but it is also remembered for the cause and inception of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) passed by Congress in 2011.

Since passage of FSMA, our collective industries have been sifting through the volumes of FSMA regulations trying to understand what will be required by all.

Because of the spinach crises in 2006, the Center for Produce Safety was formed. CPS is focused exclusively on providing the produce industry and GOVERNMENT with open access to the actionable information needed to continually enhance the safety of produce. Both public and private partnerships of universities, associations and corporations make up the CPS. One of the key components here is that FDA and USDA both look to CPS for direction and for guidance and recognize the credibility and the expertise that it provides for the produce industry.

Without this valuable input from industry, based on sound science and research, enacting food safety laws could possibly be similar to present healthcare legislation. As apple growers, from this state and all states, addressing these issues is critical for the health of the industry. Apple associations in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and California as well private apple companies are being asked to follow the recent Washington State Tree Fruit Association recent commitment of support to CPS. (See story, Page 7). This needs to be a national effort, to address a national concern. We cannot afford one bad apple, anywhere.

Good luck,

Jim Allen

Branching Out

Molly Zingler

Center for ProduceSafety: Apple support!

Jim

Change is constant

See Zingler, Page 11

Page 4 Core Report® February 2016

By Paul Bakerpbaker.hort@roadrunner.com

It seems like the winter months go by very fast. When I was farming I looked forward to a much more “normal” life style by most American’s standards.

I had time to spend with my family and try to redirect the path moving forward for my business. Once the spring thaws occurred it seemed we were locked into a daily battle to try to find 26 hours in a day. Today

I do not farm but I find the time is often just as short as I try to direct my efforts towards the industry needs.

Once again we will be in Albany to discuss important issues that will have a direct influence on your bottom line. Over the last two years we have successfully influenced the State Legislature to invest one million dollars in apple applied research. These additional funds have allowed our industry to double the amount of work on applied research. The apple industry is in constant global competition to fill the needs of the world consumers. This market demands new technologies to reduce residues and improved quality. All of this must be done while keeping the cost to our customers affordable. These additional funds have helped keep New York orchards on the cutting edge.

We will be in Albany again this year to continue this effort. The entire concept of matching funds makes this a win win for everyone.

If in Albany we cannot question the direction we seem to be heading as far as being the highest minimum wage state in the union. There is no confusion on our part that this drive will only decrease your bottom line and make it increasingly difficult for you to bid against out of state suppliers. Our belief is that a minimum wage is not a living wage but a starting wage. Secondly a minimum wage should be on a Federal level. To place state minimum wages higher than the Federal is to place that state in huge disadvantage. Wages should be driven by supply and demand and ability driven.

We inquire as to if there is any energy after all of the minimum wage discussions in Albany to drive the overtime debates. If this were to arise it will only once again work against our farms ability to remain competitive in both a national and world market place. We will be watching and monitoring these issues.

National ViewAmong the many projects we are

involved in is the support for the Fruit Research Facility in Kearneysville, W.Va.. This federal USDA lab is involved in all areas of fruit research. Topics they have and are working on are controls for invasive new pests (stink bug) pit less fruit, mechanical automated pruning systems, mapping DNA of apples, better thinning practices and best usage practices of our most limited resource water. I will once again travel to West Virginia to chair these reviews. They are all programs that help us improve our industry.

In Washington, D.C., we need to constantly be in discussion with Congress to help them understand the issues that lie between us surviving

and failure. Labor or rather the lack of labor remains on the top of our concerns. We see little progress on immigration reform until we sit a new President. However in the meantime we are very much concerned with the full implementation of the Affordable care Act.

The second large question is the ability of our government to process in a timely manner the guest workers coming across our borders thru Mexico and this year from Jamaica. The visa issue is simply not being taken seriously enough and our hope is that we can be proactive on this topic before we see a delay September first when you need your harvest help.

I have been in Washington, D.C., already once this year (2016) and I have two more scheduled trips to be there to fight for your rights.

Compliance Conference Feb. 22

I hope many of you will have attended or plan to attend this conference in Syracuse. It is an excellent program that is designed to educate you and inform you of your rights. We are often times left to feel that as an employer we are seen as guilty until proven innocent. In this conference we will show you how to conduct an interview and to prepare and handle an audit.

No one wants to undergo an audit. The truth is if you are in business you will most likely have to do so. You need to understand what you need to do to prepare for and how to handle this process. I think this is one day each of you cannot afford to not be in Syracuse for.

Baker

The Hort ReportNews from the New York State Horticultural Society

Busy winter for ag advocates

By Paul Bakerpbaker.ag@roadrunner.com

The driving theme of the Feb. 22 Agriculture Compliance Conference in Syracuse will be to help the industry prepare to be interviewed or to undergo an audit.

If you are in business in 2016 you need to have some basic skills in your possession before you sit down to be interviewed or undergo any form of audit.

If that day never comes you will be one of the very few lucky ones but reality says sooner or later your time will come. We hope to give you some skills on how to best address this challenge.

We have a mix of speakers for the day.

Thomas Maloney,Cornell University

Tom has undergone in the last year a cross examination of the Agriculture Industry in NYS. I think you will find his observations quite interesting.

Ann Margaret Pointer,Fisher & Phillips LLP

Ann is respected as one of the premiere Ag Employer lawyers in the country. She will address a wide range of issues she sees as your primary challenges in 2016.

Elizabeth MeyerAmerican Dairy Association,

VP of CommunicationsElizabeth will help you understand

the role of the journalist or auditor as they probe into your business. I think this discussion will be one you will be glad you were in Syracuse.

Michael Bayer,Bayer & Associates,

West Palm Beach, Fla.Michael brings many talents to

Syracuse. Today we will be drawing from his experience as a U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour investigator from 1976 to 2008. He will try to give you some insights of the mindset of the investigation and what to look out for. Michael is very well versed in many areas such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and the H2A program. His experiences in Florida should be of interest to everyone.

Jim Rogers, NYSDOLJim has agreed to return this year

to address his vision on how NYSDOL can partner with you to meet your 2016 employment needs. Jim is the only returning speaker from our first conference. I think it was safe to say he struck a very positive note with most of those who were in attendance.

Wendel Hall,Hall Law office, PLLC,

Washington, D.C.Wendel has long been practicing

his legal skills in the Beltway. He has been representing employers in court before DOL for almost a decade. His legal areas of expertise include Wage and Hour investigations and

enforcement proceedings on H2A and MSPA. Formerly with CJ Lake, he recently opened his own firm.

Maureen TorreyTorrey Farms, Elba

Maureen is no stranger to the New York scene. Her family operates one of the largest and most diverse farming operations in our state. She has bravely agreed to be the “victim” in our mock Wage and Hour audit. This experience should help draw all the events of the day together for you.

Panel Panel discussion on “Is this the

year I turn to H2a? If I am in Dairy what are my alternatives to source a work force?” Ann Margaret Pointer, Michael Bayer and Wendall Hall

The last speaker of the day will be you. I intend to leave a timeslot at the end of the day for people to ask questions of those who presented. Such questions I feel will give closure to this day.

Second Agriculture Compliance Conference set for Feb. 22

LabormattersNews fromAgriculturalAffiliates

The Doubletree Hotel in Syracuse, site of the Agricultural Compliance Conference.

February 2016 Core Report® Page 5

• How USApple’s ‘Apples for Education’ Campaign Benefits Everyone

This month, rather than hearing from me again, I asked Eric Davis, an integral member of our public relations team, to share his thoughts on our recent Apples for Education campaign.

I felt Eric could offer you, our members, a different perspective on our daily activities, what they mean to us personally, and most importantly, what results they glean for the apple industry. My favorite part of Eric’s insights—and Eric has the memory of the proverbial elephant—is that he puts into perspective our “David” campaign to the Goliath corporate campaigns that cost much, much more than our programs. It certainly tickles me pink when we can get a strong ROI for you—and, in this case, do some good in the process.

— Wendy Brannen,U.S. Apple Association

By Eric DavisHarvest PR

Can a bite of an apple make a positive difference in this world? This past fall, it did just that 20,000 times over with the U.S. apple industry’s inaugural “Apples for Education: Buy an Apple, Help a Student” program, a grassroots but highly successful campaign that earned the type of results typically

realized by campaigns with budgets 10 to 20 times greater.

The initiative was also an important reminder that cause marketing initiatives—public relations and other types of marketing campaigns designed with an altruistic component--have an incredibly positive and emotionally fulfilling impact not just on their beneficiaries, but also on the people who work on such programs.

The concept for Apples for Education began pollinating one year ago when U.S. Apple Association’s Director of Consumer Health and Public Relations, Wendy Brannen, presented the new idea as a fresh strategy for

the industry’s annual fall consumer education initiative aimed at keeping healthy apples in consumers’ minds during peak supply. Wendy sought a perennial cause campaign that not only positively utilized the iconic connection between apples and education, but also provided an enduring impact on the individuals who participated while encouraging consumption.

By January 2015, we previewed the “Buy an Apple, Help a Student” program to long-time seasonal campaign partner (or, “Apple Buddy”) Marzetti to gain support. The concept: Each time a person snaps a picture enjoying an apple or Apple Buddy

product in the fall season and uploads it to Instagram, the U.S. apple industry and its partners would contribute funds to nominated school causes.

The program’s mantra was “Snack, Snap, Tag, Share” to support student causes. Marzetti once again became an Apple Buddy, along with returning partners Johnsonville Sausage and Roth Cheese and first-time partner KIND Snacks – all foods that pair perfectly with apples. By spring, with USApple’s Consumer Education Committee and Apple Buddies’ support, Apples for Education program development was well underway – including the search for school causes and a new Apples4Ed.com campaign hub.

People are busy and distracted, and the marketplace is filled with social media campaigns – whether altruistic or overtly promotional – vying for their attention. Few campaigns break through to make a massive impact (one successful example is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge).

With that in mind, we set a goal of 2,000 engagements (votes) from Sept. 27 through Nov. 15. for the Apples for Education campaign—with its comparably modest budget and grassroots approach—as an ideal metric for success.

To encourage participation, we supported Apple for Education with media outreach and social media activities. Apples4Ed.com included profiles of the 12 nominated school causes, instructions for the “Snack,

Frank A. Gasperini, Jr.National Council of Ag Employers

Although many of us fear agriculture is being left behind in the current

race to the 2016 national e l e c t i o n s , there remain huge misinfor-m a t i o n c a m p a i g n s aimed at the public who continue to spread slanted, questionable, and just plain wrong i n f o r m a t i o n

about our practices in the process of feeding a growing world. In the Washington, D.C., television market the past two weeks I have seen advertisements for and against genetically modified (GMO) and country of origin labelling, for and against renewable energy standards, and for and against general support of agricultural programs. From the employer side, even more troubling has been a series of articles which started as a series in the publication “Buzzfeed,” spread like a stomach flu through other activist media on both sides of the aisle, and has re-ignited public concerns that agricultural workers are generally mistreated and paid ultra-low wages.

This sort of activism is stirred up cyclically, usually with an improving overall economy as we are experiencing now because with better economic conditions Americans traditionally fund and participate in more activist causes. Unfortunately they are too easily led to bad causes.

The apple industry has a strong record of proactive work to inform the public and protect the image of your products. New York Apple Association’s Core Report, political work, active participation with other associations, and other hard work to educate people. The National Council of Agricultural Employers thank you for working closely with us and with other groups to be not only good stewards of your employees, but also for actively participating in helping all of us communicate that being an agricultural employer, and an employee, are honorable, ethical, and mutually beneficial relationships.

A year or two ago we wrote the following talking points for NCAE members to use when members of the public ask about our working relationships. They are still valuable in today’s environment. You may wish to adopt these for your own associations and businesses in order to be prepared. Where it says “our members” or “we” you can use the name of our own business, ranch, or farm.

Our members do, and always will support and promote the premise that the only sustainable, equitable, and fair employment model is a mutual

exchange of values in which the employer and the employee benefit and are better off at the end of each season than they would have been without the mutual relationship.

We recognize that in any mutual exchange, there can/will be certain outlier individuals who may attempt to manipulate the equation in ways that specifically, and potentially unfairly, advantage themselves at the expense of the other party. There are current laws, rules, and ethical considerations in place at the federal and state level that when fully employed are intended, and are well able to protect both sides from abuses; and to prevent future abuses by those outliers who do break the rules. We completely support full and predictable enforcement of these laws and rules and, by virtue of the fact that we spend the resources of time and money to join and participate in our industry’s professional and trade associations, demonstrate that we are also deeply committed to the ethical considerations as well. U.S. and state labor laws are clear, most were written to address and prevent the kind of abuses being alleged, we fully support and obey these laws and regulations and expect others to do so as well. We expect federal and state authorities to deal with those who break our laws and regulations.

It is unfortunate that those who have the interest and vast resources available to make movies, place media advertisements, raise funds from the public and the government, and

promote causes nationally choose to do their work from one-sided pre-conceived standpoints rather than reaching out to groups such as NCAE and the many other ethical and professional associations and businesses who represent agriculture nationally, regionally, an in the states to seek mutual grounds for discussion and forward movement.

Our members are, have been, and expect to remain leaders in sustainable production practices including employer/employee relationships; sound, legal, and ethical employment and management practices; safety and industrial hygiene, and commitment to lifetime and lifestyle participation in feeding both America and the world the safest, most diverse, most abundant, and most affordable food supply the world has ever known. These values cannot exist when one side victimizes, or demonizes the other, they occur when people of good-will and high-ethics work together to make American farms work in ways that leave all parties better off at the end of the season than they would have been without each other’s contribution.

uuu

The author is Executive Vice President of the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE.) NCAE is the national trade association representing Agricultural Employers in Washington, D.C. Visit NCAE’s website at www.NCAEonline.org for more information and continuing updates.

Gasperini

What others think and say can hurt us

A is for Apple, A is for Altruism

Votes for Apples4Ed came from industry members, consumers, and large outside influenc-ers, including someone from USDA, a state legislator, and Miss America Betty Cantrell.

See Education, Page 9

Page 6 Core Report® February 2016

USDA releases new residue report By Julia Stewartjulia@nyapplecountry.com

The latest government report on pesticide residues in foods reassures Americans that the apples they feed their families are safe. USDA’s 2014 Pesticide Data Program (PDP) report was released to the public in mid-January. The program has been informing federal pesticide risk assessments for 24 years.

The 2014 report facts…The 2014 survey found that none

of the 177 apple samples had residues that exceeded federal safety levels. On average, detected residues were only 2.8 percent of those conservative federal tolerances; the highest residue levels found were only 8.8 percent of federal tolerances. That said, only 4.5 percent of the samples were residue-free. Most apple samples contained multiple residues; for example, 23.7 percent of samples contained residues of four pesticides.

Looking at the food supply in general, the 2014 report found that 41 percent of tested foods had no detectable pesticide residues, and over 99 percent of tested samples had residues below federal safety levels. Only 38 out of 10,619 food samples had excessive residues.

How to talk about the report

NYAA is coordinating our 2014

PDP report communications with U.S. Apple Association. Per our crisis communications policy, NYAA stays out of a negative story if it’s not New York-specific. If a situation is New York-specific, we avoid making the situation worse or drag it out for longer. Because the PDP report is not New York-specific, should we get media calls we refer them to USApple. (At press time, we’ve received no press or consumer contacts.)

To date the report has received little media or other public attention. The Environmental Working Group, authors of the infamous “Dirty Dozen” list that misconstrues the PDP report, has been focused on debate over the just-released federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Understanding that New York apple industry members may receive queries from your customers, NYAA has developed messaging for your use (see the sidebar).

We will only get a moment of consumers’ attention, so rather than citing statistics we recommend focusing on short, simply-stated messages on the topic that is most important to consumers: our apples are safe, to eat and we are watching out for them and their families.

For assistance communicating about the PDP or the “Dirty Dozen” list, contact NYAA Public Relations Director Julia Stewart by email at julia@nyapplecountry.com. Another great resource is www.safefruitsandveggies.com, from the Alliance for Food and Farming.

Talking about the 2014 PDP reportThe following consumer messages were developed by NYAA staff for the New

York apple industry’s use should consumers ask about pesticide residues on apples, or the so-called “Dirty Dozen” list.

We personally assure you, our apples are safe to eat -- so keep on eating them.

• Keep in mind, we and our families eat our apples first.• If a residue can be found on an apple, it is harmless -- like a drop in a

bucket, and more likely a drop in a swimming pool. • We hate to use chemicals as much as you do. We use them as a last resort to

protect the fruit and trees, and then in the smallest amounts possible. We work hard to not use them at all.

• If you are still concerned, then peel your apples. (But then you’ll lose fiber, antioxidants and other good stuff.)

• We should all be eating more apples and other fresh produce, not less, for our better health and healthier weight.

• For more information, visit safefruitsandveggies.com.

February 2016 Core Report® Page 7

Ruby Frost demos in advance of big stormBy Susan Sarlund

Often times, the weathermen hype up storms so much that they don’t live up to their expectations. Well, such was not the case with Snowstorm Jonas that crossed the country and traveled up the East Coast leaving historical amounts of snow totals from Washington, D.C. through New York City.

With all the media hype generated in advance of these events what do people always do? Scramble to the store to get food, in advance of the potential Snowmaggedon.

We at the New York Apple Association benefited from this frenzy. With Ruby Frost demos scheduled at Whole Foods in the Northeast region, stores were packed

with people loading their carts. I visited Whole Foods in Madison to check on the demo there. As with all real estate, like the saying goes – location, l o c a t i o n , location – that is key. Great news is, when

I was able to actually get in to the store after fighting for a spot for my car, I walked right in to the Ruby Frost demo

set up. Everyone had to. It was great.MaryAnn was the specialist there

executing the demo and the flow of people was steady and excitable. Feedback from everyone was positive! From senior citizens to children, those sampling the apples liked what they were tasting.

Adjacent to the display table was a prominent display of Ruby Frost with great signage to lead off the produce section. Even with a retail of $2.49, the Whole Foods produce worker was consistently re-filling the display with more apples.

“Crunchy, crisp, tasty, fun to eat, taste a bit like Honeycrisp, juicy, like the color”, these were the resounding

themes from the audience that stopped by to taste the “new” New York Ruby Frost apples. A sure sign of the reception they received was my observation that from the demo table they headed straight to the display to fill up a bag to purchase.

Whole Foods has been a loyal supporter of New York apples. They are always looking for something to offer their consumers that sets them apart and this new variety was another example of that.

We will be meeting with their produce staff again soon to plan for next season and what we can do to support them and sell more New York apples. Good selling.

Sarlund

Have something to sell? Looking for something to buy? Take a look at the New York apples and hard cider classifieds brought to you by Cornell Cooperative Extension-this is a great apple grower resource.

Cornell offers online classifieds Spanish-speaking winter fruit schools address labor training

The 2016 CCE LOF Spanish-speaking Winter Schools are Tuesday, Feb. 23, in Orleans County and Thursday, Feb 24, in Wayne County.

The program’s goal is to continue introducing Spanish-speaking commercial farm workers to basic and applied pomological and pest management concepts and modern apple pruning practices in the Spanish language.

The topic of high skilled labor has become increasingly important so the CCE LOF team will be offering again a full day of educational sessions for Spanish-speaking employees. Invited Cornell speakers Gemma Reig and Jaume Lordan will be talking about apple disease identification and irrigation, water stress, respectively. The CCE LOF team will have dissecting microscopes to learn to dissect and differentiate vegetative and floral buds of Honeycrisp and Gala. Horticultural “hands-on” sessions will continue emphasizing the science behind pruning and basic tree plant physiology. The educational program will again include the participation of Mary Jo Dudley of the Cornell Farm Worker Program who will be assisted by Katie Oakes (CCE Orleans County) and Mario Miranda Sazo (CCE LOF).

The 2016 CCE LOF Spanish-speaking

See Spanish, Page 12

Washington assn. supports Center for Produce SafetyWOODLAND, Calif. - The Center

for Produce Safety has announced it has received a $750,000 commitment from Washington State Tree Fruit Association (WSTFA), the trade group representing all segments of the tree fruit industry in the state of Washington.

The pledge is part of the Campaign for Produce Safety, a major fundraising initiative publicly launched in September 2015 designed to secure

$20 million over the next five years to fund critically needed, actionable produce safety research.

“The Washington State Tree Fruit Association’s contribution to the Campaign for Produce Safety demonstrates our members’ commitment to ensuring that Washington apples, pears and cherries are not only healthy and delicious, but also remain among the safest food choices consumers can make,”

said Jon DeVaney, WSTFA President. “Our industry chose to make this investment in research through the Center for Produce Safety because of its strength in developing solutions to food safety questions that are practical and science-based while using research dollars effectively.”

Since its inception in 2007, the Center for Produce Safety has provided $18.4 million to fund produce safety research.

Page 8 Core Report® February 2016

The hunt for the $1 billion appleBy Christopher HughesThe Week

The best apple you’ve never had is out there. Somewhere.

It’s not the tough and tangy Granny Smith. It’s not the Honeycrisp, the de rigueur dessert apple of the 21st century. And it’s definitely not that rubbery Red Delicious, loitering year-round in your supermarket produce aisle.

Instead, this transcendent orb is unassuming, mottled, and misshapen, its flesh dense and mouth-puckering — what orchardists affectionately refer to as a “spitter.” But when pressed and fermented, it could blossom into liquid gold. With time and expertise, its nectar could become as layered and as nuanced as the great wines of France’s Loire Valley.

At least that’s what Shacksbury co-founder and cider maker Colin Davis is telling me as we careen around blind corners and gun down half-finished roads in Cornwall, Vermont, a rural hamlet 40 miles south of Burlington. For years, Davis has been consumed by the hunt for a possibly apocryphal apple known as the Tinmouth. In the 1905 book The Apples of New York — still considered the bible for self-proclaimed “apple geeks” like Davis — legendary horticulturist Spencer Ambrose Beach described the Tinmouth as “sprightly” and “peculiar” tasting. But today, that vague characterization is all that remains of the forgotten fruit; about a century ago it mysteriously vanished from New England, and therefore from

the world.Finding the Tinmouth, and other lost

species of cider apples, is a large part of Shacksbury’s business. As Davis steers us through fields of sugar maples and other deciduous trees, it’s hard to make out anything distinguishable in the gnarled overgrowth, let alone a grubby, golf-ball-size apple. We’ve been here once before: About a month ago, Davis brought me along with a small group of friends to a hidden, overgrown grove of wild apples — located deep in the woods on private land — that looked suspiciously like Tinmouths. We have no idea if we’ll be able to find it again — but this time, Davis has brought reinforcements.

Hard cider is the fastest-growing category of alcoholic beverage in the United States; it’s projected to become a billion-dollar industry within the next several years. Until now, most of that growth has been driven by mass-appeal megabrands such as Woodchuck and Boston Beer Co.’s Angry Orchard, which tend to favor saccharine ciders made from common dessert apples like the McIntosh.

Despite the lure of easy profit, Davis and his business partner, David Dolginow, have never tried to capitalize on the lucrative sweet-cider trend. Instead, they’ve embarked on a far more ambitious — if not quixotic — quest for perfection. Their goal with Shacksbury, and with the company’s offshoot, the Lost Apple Project, is essentially to bring America’s greatest apples back from the dead, scouring Vermont roadsides and pastures for forgotten strains that once lined the

roads of Colonial New England.Like Sangiovese grapes in Tuscany,

or pinot noir in Burgundy, apples such as the Tinmouth typically thrive in a single region. That’s why Dolginow sees New England — and its once vaunted concentration of the world’s greatest apples — as, potentially, the cider-making equivalent of Napa Valley.

It’s difficult to fathom how important the apple was to early America. Today, industrial-scale farming has squelched biodiversity, so that the broader market is dominated by just six varieties: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, and McIntosh. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, American nurseries cataloged more than 16,000 different named apples, and as many as 7,500 American varieties. Apple trees were everywhere — particularly in New England, where they were used to mark property lines. Sugar was still a luxury good then, and apples sated the colonists’ sweet tooth. But far more important, most apples were grown to make America’s national beverage: hard cider.

Up until Prohibition, Michael Pollan wrote in The Botany of Desire, in rural areas “cider took the place not only of wine and beer but of coffee and tea, juice, and even water.” It’s easy to see why: Until the 1900s, most water was contaminated with bacteria. Beyond issues of sanitation, cider was America’s homegrown answer to wine — our native grapes weren’t sweet enough to ferment. And just like European wines, American ciders could be incredibly complex, even nuanced — that’s why Thomas Jefferson grew cider apples at Monticello, where Hewes Crabs are kept to this day.

Cider, not snacking, was the real reason John Chapman — better known as Johnny Appleseed — was flinging seeds and setting up nurseries through the Ohio Valley and the Midwest in the early 1800s. Growing apples is easy, but cultivating a tree that bears palatable fruit is rare. Most of the chance seedlings that germinated in Chapman’s wake weren’t fit for his tin-pot hat — but they were plenty suited for a decent quaff, or even a nip of applejack. In fact, Chapman couldn’t possibly have known what he was growing. Apples are extremely heterozygous, meaning each seed contains the genetic makeup for a completely new and different type of apple tree. If you were to plant a seed from a McIntosh apple, the one thing you could be sure of is that the sapling

it produced wouldn’t be a McIntosh tree.

That’s why apple farmers focus on the stem, not the seed. When Shacksbury growers find a choice wildling — a wild apple tree, out in the brush — that they want to duplicate, they have to cut a scion, a branch with buds, and graft it onto the rootstock of an existing apple tree. This is, essentially, the art of cloning. The technique hasn’t changed significantly in hundreds of years, and it requires a skill that, even today, wows its practitioners. “The fact that you can take one stick, wrap it in grafting putty to this other stick, and they grow together…it’s a tiny miracle,” Dolginow says.

Early colonists had the foresight to bring over scions of their favorite European trees, but many of the grafts failed in the harsh New England climate. The millions of seeds they planted, on the other hand, flourished in their new home. Some 7,500 new varieties took root — several times what Europe had produced in 3,000 years of cultivation. In the colonies, apple farmers identified the best of the new seedling trees, then grafted and propagated them in nurseries. The first of these distinguished new American cultivars, the Roxbury Russet, was discovered just outside of Boston in 1645.

Thanks to a perfect storm of seed and soil, the golden age of apples had arrived. By the mid-19th century, Americans were achieving fame and fortune just by finding the next Red Delicious or Grimes Golden. It was an era some called, appropriately enough, the Great Apple Rush. Unfortunately for the apple, the rush didn’t last. Soon, beer and wine surged in popularity, Prohibitionist Carrie Nation’s hatchet came calling, and grocery chains began demanding monocropped uniformity. By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the apple had been reduced to a few baking varieties — the sweetest, shiniest, most lipstick-red among the thousands.

Elevated by industrial demand, these dessert apples choked out some of the most exquisite cider apples ever recorded. Unique specimens that could thrive only in New England were driven to the brink of extinction. In places like rural Vermont, a few hardy stragglers were swallowed up again by the forests, forgotten except for their names.

See Billion, Page 12

February 2016 Core Report® Page 9

governor’s Fy 2016-17 budget agricultural Program Funding

New York Farm Bureau provided this analyis of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed FY 2016-17 budget. In addition, the following proposals from the governor were announced: · Minimum Wage increased to $15/hr—phased in to 2021 upstate· Elimination of Thruway tolls for farm vehicles· A new voluntary “New York State Certified High Quality” food label administered and inspected by the Departments of Agriculture and Markets and Health· Reductions in small business taxes—filing as individuals and as partnerships, LLCs and S-Corps· Paid family leave for 12 weeks· Moving agricultural and dairy marketing orders from Agriculture and Markets to Em-pire State DevelopmentNYFB will be pouring through the legislative language to provide you more details and analysis soon on all of these and other issues in the budget.

New York Farm Bureau“Gov. Andrew Cuomo is moving

forward with some major budget proposals that will impact agriculture across the state in positive and negative ways. New York Farm Bureau has advocated on a host of issues mentioned in the State of the State, and many of the governor’s requests reflect his interest to improving conditions for family farms across the state.

“New York Farm Bureau is hopeful his efforts to substantially increase the

Environmental Protection Fund will assist farmers with expanded water quality, conservation and farmland preservation programs that are widely used. In addition, his request to offer a 100 percent tax credit on Thruway tolls for farm vehicles that use EZ Pass is a sensible approach to helping farms save money while at the same time making it easier to move their products

N.Y. Farm Bureau issues statementon Gov. Cuomo’s executive budget

See Budget, Page 11

Young AppleLeaders namedBy Molly Zinglermolly@nyapplecountry.com

We are pleased to announce the 2016 Young Apple Leaders from New York.

Tim Dressel is a 4th-generation apple grower from New York’s Hudson Valley. He is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a focus in Horticulture and Business Management. He currently works full-time on Dressel Farms as well and runs his own spin-off hard cider business- Kettleborough Cider House.

His current role on the farm revolves mainly around post-harvest handling including storage, packing, shipping, and wholesale. He also manages and maintains two vineyards on the property. Looking forward, Tim hopes to expand his blossoming hard cider company while maintaining a helpful presence in the family business.

Christopher Whipple is the orchard manager and a minority owner at Kirby’s Farm Market, LLC. Chris also owns a small farm with his brother in Kendall, New York where they grow and process hops. He has been working on fruit farms since he was in high school. In 2007, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from SUNY Brockport and subsequently spent a year working at a CPA firm in Rochester. In 2009, he return to farming and is now transitioning into ownership at Kirby’s Farm Market, LLC in Albion, New York as the current owners begin phasing into retirement. As someone with the desire to have a positive influence in his community and a passion for agriculture, Chris was accepted to Class 15 of LEAD NY in 2014. Chris currently lives near Holley, New York with his wife and their 15 month old daughter, Annabelle.

Ryan Burk, Head Cider Maker, Angry Orchard Cider Company, started working on orchards in his hometown of Williamson, an apple rich area with a great cider making tradition, from an early age. After attending college in New York City, Ryan moved to Chicago, where he immersed himself in the growing craft beer and cider culture,

later earning a certification from the Siebel Institute, a global leader in fermentation studies and brewing education. Prior to joining the Angry Orchard team, Ryan served as the head cider maker at Virtue Cider in Michigan, where he led the cider industry’s largest barrel aging program.

Ryan is based in Walden, at Angry Orchard’s new orchard home for research and development. There, Ryan and the other Angry Orchard cider makers focus on research and cider making innovation projects while helping to grow awareness of the cider industry overall. Topics that Ryan hopes to explore range from wild fermentation processes and barrel aging, to cultivating unique apple varieties, and working with local New York groups to maximize apple harvests and test new varieties.

These three gentlemen will be traveling to Washington, D.C. March 2 to 4, where they will have the opportunity to network with other emerging leaders in the apple industry, as well as key industry contacts and professionals. They also will be able to join the industry and USApple staff where they will meet with our lawmakers on Capitol Hill and as well as Senate and House Members and staffs.

Snap, Tag, Share” voting process, healthy apple facts, and delicious recipes featuring apples paired with Apple Buddy products.

During the campaign’s first weekend, we realized Apples for Education was going to vastly exceed our goals, as creative Instagram uploads from people snacking on apples, applesauce, apple juice and Apple Buddy products poured in by the hundreds – each tagged with their favorite school cause. We quickly learned participants in the program’s nominated school causes – its beneficiaries – were truly driven to rally their friends and community to raise funds. People were making the campaign their own – the mark of a great cause program.

One reason this campaign sparked an early grassfire was that, prior to the

campaign’s launch, Wendy at USApple had a brilliant tweak to the idea that would make the campaign’s reach spread exponentially:

Each of the 12 nominated school causes would receive school funding based on the proportion of votes it received – rather than only the top one or three schools. That way, each school had a powerful incentive to always keep pursuing more votes. Many schools devised creative ways to keep their photos fresh, such as an apple-themed school photo booth, apples mandatory on school lunch menus, baskets of apples on playgrounds, and class snacks featuring apples and Apple Buddy products.

By Nov. 15, the campaign had 20,000 Instagram uploads, a beautiful online tapestry of people of all ages and backgrounds in large cities and rural towns enjoying U.S. apples and apple products.

This engagement exceeded even the highest watermark I could imagine.

EducationContinued from Page 5

Clockwise from top left, New York’s Young Apple Leaders are Ryan Burk, Tim Dressel and Christopher Whipple.

Page 10 Core Report® February 2016

February 2016 Core Report® Page 11

An increased minimum wage will put New York farmers at a disadvantage because production costs will increase, but the price received for goods and

products may not. New York Farm Bureau has continually supported keeping our state minimum wage linked with that of the Federal minimum wage, as we are competing in a global marketplace and raising the wage separate from the federal level has led to a competitive disadvantage with

other agricultural states when selling products throughout the country. Of the top 12 agricultural states, only California has a higher percentage of sales spent on labor— making an additional wage increase unsustainable in an environment where profit margins are extremely slim.

WageContinued from Page 1

The following Minimum Wage Calculation Worksheet can be used as a guide to help you calculate the cost of a $15 minimum wage and what it could mean to your farm. It can also be cut out and used at legislative meetings.

A. Current Employee Wages: $_________ (Sum of hourly & salaried employees)

B. Current FICA, Unemployment Insurance, Workers Comp, Medicare Payroll Tax Cost: $ __________

C. A+B=$ __________ Total Current Farm Payroll

D. Number of employees _____ x $15 Minimum Wage x____ hours per week x ____ weeks worked = $________

E. Number of employees _____ x $_____ per hour (if different from minimum wage) x ______hours per week x ______ weeks = $__________

F. Total salaried employees wages: $_________ (Account for any increase due to $15 minimum wage)

G. Social Security: D x E x F x 6.2% = $_____________

H. Workers Compensation Cost (calculated based on business type and individual rate): = $___________

I. Unemployment Insurance Cost (Each employer’s contribution tax rate varies): = $___________

J. Medicare Cost: D x E x F x 1.45% = $___________

K. D +E+F+G+H+I+J = $_________ Projected wages with a $15 minimum wage

L. K-C = $_________ Increase in labor cost due to $15 minimum wage

around New York. Improving rural infrastructure also remains a priority for New York Farm Bureau, and we are pleased to see additional funding as well to improve roads and bridges in the upstate and Long Island regions.

“There is also support for agriculture

reflected in funding for critical research. Plus, the governor has maintained his commitment to marketing initiatives that let our neighbors and the world know about the healthy food and products that come from our farms.

“Despite these positive endeavors, New York Farm Bureau remains deeply concerned about the impact of a $15 minimum wage on our farms’ bottom lines. Many of our members tell us they

will be forced to make tough choices should it pass, choices like reducing staff, changing what they grow and how they grow it, or just leaving farming altogether. We encourage Gov. Cuomo to continue working with Farm Bureau to find better ways to promote job growth, better wages, and new opportunities for our family farms and their employees,” New York Farm Bureau President Dean Norton said.

BudgetContinued from Page 9

Canadian grower petitions for Fuji apple sales in U.S.

Yakima (Wash.) HeraldIn spite of consumer and trade

group concerns over the genetically-engineered fruit, Okanagan Specialty Fruits of Summerland, British Columbia, has petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deregulate sales of their Arctic Fuji, which is genetically modified to reduce browning after slicing. The apple could potentially appear on U.S. tables sometime this year.

Two other of the company’s non-browning varieties — the Arctic Golden and Arctic Granny — were approved last year by the USDA for commercial sale.

To inhibit browning, the company uses “gene silencing” to reduce the apple cells’ supply of the plant enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which contributes to turning apple flesh brown.

The nonprofit Center for Food Safety, based in Washington, D.C., argued last year that OSF’s genetically-engineered varieties could pose risks for Canadian and U.S. growers concerned about contamination of non-GMO and organic orchards by the non-browning apples.

The center also argued that browning is a sign that apples are no longer fresh, and that masking this natural signal could lead to people consuming older, overripe and expired fruit.

Raleigh Baehre, a student in Michigan State University’s fruit, vegetable and organic horticulture management program is looking for a summer internship related to his field of studies. Raleigh will be the fifth generation to operate Kent City, Mich.’s, Baehre Orchards. He is looking for a summer internship position in an apple orchard setting, learning about new systems and orchard management. For information about the MSU internship program is available here: http://www.hrt.msu.edu/assets/PagePDFs/internship-program/Internship-Information-for-Employers.pdf. To contact Raleigh, email his aunt, Julia Baehre Rothwell, at juliarothwell@comcast.net

Internship Sought

Association are trying to keep things fresh in these ever-changing times; we have innovative promotions at work pushing New York apples out to the consumers through demos, digital coupons offering savings on apples through their smartphones and computers; these types of new promotions work-we see redemption numbers, sales increases from retailers that show us the success rates.

Let’s keep on being successful by setting New York up for a strong future with the varieties consumers want.

ZinglerContinued from Page 3

Molly

Page 12 Core Report® February 2016

Fresh PlazaThe French minister hopes that the

sanctions against Russia can end before the summer. The American minister John Kerry also recently voiced this hope. Russia intercepted and destroyed various parties of fruits and vegetables from boycotted countries in recent weeks. Iran is boycotting the re-export of Turkish products to Russia, Abkhazia is joining the Russian boycott of Turkey. In the Ukraine the prices in the supermarket are rising, faster than in the Crimea.

The French minister of Economics spoke to French businesspeople in

Moscow on Jan. 25. The minister voiced his hope that the sanctions against Russia would be lifted after the implementation of the Minsk agreements. This could end the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine before

the summer.“Our collective goal is to lift the

sanctions before the summer,” a Russian newspaper quotes the minister. Earlier this month the American minister John Kerry voiced his hope

that the sanctions could be lifted over the coming months. However, part of the sanctions were placed in response to the annexation of the Crimea, the chance of these sanctions also being lifted is low.

Export Report

French minister: Russia sanctions may end

Apple foragers rely on a combination of rough forensic evidence, historical data — some of it available only in ancient nursery catalogs, old newspaper articles, books like Beach’s out-of-print tome — and even some educated word of mouth. It’s more Sherlock Holmes than James Watson.

As it happens, word of mouth is why we’re all racing around Tinmouth today, on 500 idyllic acres owned by Adam Guettel, an ardent conservationist and Tony Award–winning composer and lyricist. (His grandfather was Richard Rodgers, of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame.)

The tip, Guettel told us, came from a “Washington Irving–type character” named Marshall Squier, a local farmer whose family has been in Tinmouth for generations. Squier believes that the town’s once-famous apple resides somewhere in a wild orchard on Guettel’s land.

Ryan Yoder, a wild-eyed farmer from neighboring Danby, has heard the rumors as well. Five years ago, he spotted some feral trees on the Tinmouth property, then spent more than a year tracking Guettel down in

Manhattan, hoping to harvest the fruit for his cider-vinegar business. He’s been here before and hopefully can lead us back to the old orchard. And this time out, Davis has brought along Windfall Orchard’s Brad Koehler. A sweet-cider maker and horticulturist, Koehler grows dozens of ancient heirloom varieties in Cornwall — including one called the Windfall Golden.

After about 30 minutes, we come across our first stand of unpruned apple trees, and our ragtag party begins picking samples from the rough rows of budding fruit. Tasting is a major step in identifying wild trees, so no branch goes unplucked. Yoder bites into a particularly vegetal sample that smacks of asparagus and immediately spits it out, chucking the half-eaten orb into the brush.

Tree after tree reveals some variation of a McIntosh or Rhode Island Greening — good apples on any other day.

But Koehler, our resident expert, is growing increasingly frustrated. “This is why they say in our field that finding an apple like [the Tinmouth] is a 10,000-to-1 proposition,” he says. “It almost never happens.”

Ahead in the distance, we hear Yoder hollering, “This way!” and the rest of the party takes off in a dead sprint. Davis and I find our way blocked by a wall of vegetation so dense and nettlesome that it seems impenetrable without some sort of heavy machinery. After squirming through a brambly tunnel, we emerge onto a muddy, blue-black clearing.

Even on a sunny August afternoon, the panorama is shadowy, hushed, and cool. Errant shafts of sunlight break through foliage high overhead, framing a tree larger than any of the others we’ve seen on Guettel’s property. Its brawny trunk looks like three trees entwined as one.

“This is the old orchard I was telling you guys about,” Yoder says.

Koehler spots one of the few apples

at eye level and gingerly extracts it, careful not to let it escape into the dead foliage crackling beneath his feet. “This is definitely the most promising thing we’ve seen all day,” he says. “See how it has a matte finish and just a little bit of russeting?” He pierces the apple with his front incisors and shuts his eyes in contemplation. Then he takes another bite, and another, until he’s gnawing it to its core. “The flavor seems right,” he says.

Yoder and Davis immediately drop to their knees and begin searching the underbrush for their own Tinmouth as Koehler barks at us to find more specimens — but all of them appear to be dangling about two stories over our heads. Overjoyed as a prospector in sight of gold, Yoder shimmies up the tree and steadies himself on a high branch. The limb groans under his weight, showering loose bark and debris. He crawls on his belly to a small parcel of apples and carefully shakes them free.

We scramble for the fallen apples. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. But no sooner do I bite into mine than Koehler lets out a devastated sigh. He’s found the faintest streak of pink curving down the shoulder of one of the tree’s apples.

For a few pained seconds, we all stare at one another, slack-jawed and confused. “What?” Davis asks. Koehler breaks the damning news: Regardless of the season, the Tinmouth would never have a hue other than green or yellow.

The silence is palpable. I watch as Yoder, Koehler, and finally the Shacksbury founders slowly walk single file out of this secret garden until we find ourselves at the base of the hill peering up at the red barn where our journey began.

“So how disappointed are you?” I ask. Davis shields his eyes from the punishing sun and looks back at me with his toothy, infectious smile. “Oh, we’ll keep looking,” he says. “The search will never end.”

Winter Fruit Schools will be on Feb. 23 at Zingler Farms Inc. (Orleans County) and on Feb. 24 at KC Bailey Orchards Inc., Williamson, Wayne County. The full program will be posted on the CCE LOF website, http://lof.cce.cornell.edu/, and sent in next LOF Fruit Notes newsletter on early February 2016. A $15 registration fee will include lunch for each participant. For more details contact Mario Miranda Sazo at 315-719-1318 or email him to mrm67@cornell.edu.

SpanishContinued from Page 7

BillionContinued from Page 8