VICTOR, NY - The New York Apple Association (NYAA) is beating volume estimates once again this year with another great late summer crop. Excellent growing conditions, including a late spring with warm weather, good rainfall, and cool nights have cultivated a harvest which is so far exceeding the 30 million forecast made this past July.

“We're very excited about the crop we have on our hands this year,” Julia Stewart, Spokesperson for the NYAA tells me. “Some people don't realize it, but New York State is the largest domestic source of apples east of the Mississippi and the 2nd largest in the United States. Especially with a crop of this quality on our hands this year, there's no need to look outside of New York for apples.”

Julia is especially stressing this last point to Empire State locals as part of an overarching “buy local” promotional theme this year. Over the last 10 years the NYAA has cultivated an impressive history of growing a wide variety of apples, including new varieties like Honeycrisp, Gala, RubyFrost, SnapDragon, along with traditional New York favorites. The NYAA is encouraging locals to reach out and enjoy the bounty they have right at their doorstep before looking elsewhere for produce.

“Part of our outreach program to our consumers this year has been a complete overhaul of our website,” Julia tells me. “Using our internal analytic numbers we have essentially rebuilt our site from the bottom up so as to more efficiently give consumers the information they look to us for.”

Check out the NYAA's website here.

Part of these changes include a new locator map, which allows customers to punch in their area code and be shown their local orchard or cider producer.

“It's all about showing people how close to home these great products are,” Julia explains.

In addition to the orchard tracker, the new website features a recipe section with over 100 great recipes aspiring chefs will want to check out. Having given it a look myself, I know there are certainly a few I'll be looking into.

To check out some of these great recipes for yourself click here.

In an innovative move, Julia tells me the NYAA will be crowd-sourcing the photos for these recipes so that apple lovers can snap pictures of the great creations they've made with the NYAA's produce and share it with their community.

Congratulations on the great year NYAA! I'll be looking forward to more good news from you in the future.  

New York Apple Association