Fall: How do you like them apples?

The late-summer warmth and the lack of severe weather helped produce a bumper crop of a favorite autumn fruit.

By BILL McAULIFFE, Star Tribune

Last update: September 23, 2009 - 3:18 PM

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HERE COMES AUTUMN

Length of daylight today: 12 hours, 10 minutes.

Daylight on Dec. 21, winter solstice: 8 hours, 47 minutes.

Twin Cities average high/low temperatures today: 66/46

Averages on Dec. 21: 24/8

Next date the average high exceeds 65 degrees: May 4

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Say what you will about the summer that ends today -- too cold, too dry, too darn sunny -- it was good for apples.

A bumper crop of one of Minnesota's favorite crops is rolling into orchard shops and grocery stores, putting a bright red highlight on the beginning of autumn, which officially begins at 4:18 p.m. today.

"It's been a good year. I don't know how good it was, but certainly a good year," said David Bedford, lead apple breeder (also known as a pomologist) for the University of Minnesota.

For most apple growers, Bedford said, the dry weather reduced threats from insects and diseases. But rain in August was perfectly timed to help apples gain in size. Cool weather, particularly at night, helped reduce apples' metabolism, preserving more of their sugars and flavor. Even with the recent summer-like warmth, nights have been cool enough to boost a substance called anthocyanin, which turns apples red, Bedford added. The lack of severe weather meant little hail and wind damage in most of the state's orchards.

Apples also appear to be about the only local crop to be ready on schedule in Minnesota this year, added Brian Erickson, agricultural marketing specialist for the state Agriculture Department's Minnesota Grown program. Almost everything else, from asparagus to zucchini, was delayed by the cool weather of June and July.

Apple-growing is a $17.8 million business in Minnesota, not counting the impact of community festivals and tourism built on the apple. Last weekend alone there were apple celebrations in La Crescent, Brooklyn Park and Appleton (fittingly), with dozens more coming up. Led by the ballyhooed but scarce new variety from the university, SweeTango, the parade of fall apples with Minnesota roots has already begun. Honeycrisp and Zestar come first, said Terri Bennis, vice president of perishable operations for Kowalski's Markets, followed by Macintosh and Cortland, and finally, Regent and Fireside.

At the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, workers will pick apples through about Oct. 20. Last year they picked more than 1,300 bushels -- familiar varieties and some still with research numbers instead of names -- but the crop will be bigger this year, said Peter Moe, operations director.

Most Minnesota apple varieties have been bred to withstand frost, though frost isn't predicted in any meaningful forecast for southern Minnesota, where most of the state's apples are grown. The national Climate Prediction Center, in its new three-month outlook, is describing a strong trend toward above-normal temperatures for much of the Upper Midwest through December.

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646

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