Another advantage for home gardeners of not having to prioritize for shipping and long post-harvest storage is that they can also do research to choose the cultivars best suited to their microclimate and soil.
When a trait you want is close on the chromosome to another trait you don't desire, making it hard to breed for the traits you want without a trade-off, that's called "linkage drag".
Breeding fruit involves choices. Sometimes one trait that is desirable isn't easily obtainable without losing or getting less of another trait that's even more desirable. Who the fruit is bred for matters - is it for mass production & distribution by professional growers or is it for home gardeners?
This is an example of shipping qualities being among the top traits they're breeding for - breeding for professional growers who will be shipping long distances.
If you like Martinelli's (non-alcoholic) cider, I suggest you contact them and remind them that you like what 'Newtown Pippin' contributes to their apple cider blended flavor and you'd like them to keep supporting Watsonville growers of this cultivar.
If you live around that part of California, you can also support these growers by buying apples at their farm shops and support hard cider and other companies that use their crops. Let's keep 'Newtown Pippin'!
'Newtown Pippin' is sweet enough for fresh eating, but has a tart kick for those of us who like our sweet on the tart side. It also has a white wine-like complexity to its flavor which is why it's a major component of Martinelli's famous taste.
It is also a good component of hard apple ciders, which is why the farmer being interviewed is trying to shift to selling his crop to the various craft cider makers around. #FruitToot
'Newtown Pippin' is a US variety of apple that originated as a chance seedling in NY in the 18th century. The fact that there are fewer and fewer acres of it in the US (in the places where it can be grown well) is a real tragedy.
If Martinelli's stops buying as much, there's a lot of pressure to convert the orchards to another crop, like wine grapes. Market pressures did that to 'Gravenstein' apples in Sonoma and Napa counties. We lose agrobiodiversity when that happens. #FruitToot
Martinelli's cancels contracts with Watsonville apple growers, raising concerns
The report doesn't mention it, but Martinelli's taste doesn't come from just any ol' apples. A major component of its tastes comes from my favorite apple variety - 'Newtown Pippin'. That is the variety those Watsonville growers are growing. Those used to be *the* green apple in stores when I was a kid, but it has been supplanted by the inferior (in my opinion) 'Granny Smith'.
could use your donations in the donation jar. Be on best behavior because I really have seen some selfish behavior at these tastings...
But it is a great opportunity to taste fruits and fruit cultivars that are hard to find in supermarkets.
June 14, 2026
https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/1388 #FruitToot #Horticulture #PlantBreeding
Cherry Harvest Day | Homemade Juice, Jam, Compote & Cake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVlebnhtMn8 #FruitToot #Horticulture #Albania
you probably wouldn't see in Czechia or Greece.
But saying "produce here is higher quality because you don't see cloned varieties here" is just an ignorant statement and it does people a disservice by miseducating them about fruit and produce. What makes for quality is a different thing.
Megan Lynch (she/her)