> 44 apple growers… are members of “Next Big Thing, A Growers’ Cooperative” (NBT)… across the United States and Canada. Their ranks include both small and large producers…
> NBT was the brainchild of Minnesota apple grower Dennis Courtier, owner of Pepin Heights Orchards Inc. While Minnesota is a small player in the U.S. apple industry, ranked 20 out of 29 commercially producing states in 2014, Courtier is well known in the industry for new variety innovation. He was one of the first commercial producers to grow and market Honeycrisp apples in the 1990s. Honeycrisp — a “fruit phenomenon” produced by the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) apple-breeding program — has turned the apple category on its head. By 2014, it had rocketed to become the No. 6 apple variety in the United States, based on production.
> Honeycrisp saved [Courtier’s] orchards, but soon it was being grown in geography it wasn’t suited to, and, arguably, being overgrown. The university had released it as an “open variety” — meaning that after paying a small royalty to a variety’s developer, any grower can buy Honeycrisp trees and sell the fruit as they wish.
> If apple growers were to be financially healthy in the long term, Courtier felt that apple production and marketing would have to change.
There is also this description about one of the co-op members (which may explain why other commenters have different opinions about Red Delicious)…
> The Clarks watched the decline of the Red Delicious (Reds) variety from a front-row seat. Chelan was historically known for producing prime-quality Reds. Then the variety was “bred to grow red” in parts of the state that weren’t good “terroir” (or growing territory) for it. That fruit didn’t taste as good or store as well.
> The variety’s popularity with consumers fell far and fast…
> “As consumers ourselves, we know that if we consumers don’t get a good apple, we don’t come back for a while,” says Bill Clark. “NBT is managing who grows an apple, where it grows, what the eating experience is. That’s paramount to the variety’s sustainability
http://sweetango.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ruralcoopera...
> 44 apple growers… are members of “Next Big Thing, A Growers’ Cooperative” (NBT)… across the United States and Canada. Their ranks include both small and large producers…
> NBT was the brainchild of Minnesota apple grower Dennis Courtier, owner of Pepin Heights Orchards Inc. While Minnesota is a small player in the U.S. apple industry, ranked 20 out of 29 commercially producing states in 2014, Courtier is well known in the industry for new variety innovation. He was one of the first commercial producers to grow and market Honeycrisp apples in the 1990s. Honeycrisp — a “fruit phenomenon” produced by the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) apple-breeding program — has turned the apple category on its head. By 2014, it had rocketed to become the No. 6 apple variety in the United States, based on production.
> Honeycrisp saved [Courtier’s] orchards, but soon it was being grown in geography it wasn’t suited to, and, arguably, being overgrown. The university had released it as an “open variety” — meaning that after paying a small royalty to a variety’s developer, any grower can buy Honeycrisp trees and sell the fruit as they wish.
> If apple growers were to be financially healthy in the long term, Courtier felt that apple production and marketing would have to change.
There is also this description about one of the co-op members (which may explain why other commenters have different opinions about Red Delicious)…
> The Clarks watched the decline of the Red Delicious (Reds) variety from a front-row seat. Chelan was historically known for producing prime-quality Reds. Then the variety was “bred to grow red” in parts of the state that weren’t good “terroir” (or growing territory) for it. That fruit didn’t taste as good or store as well.
> The variety’s popularity with consumers fell far and fast…
> “As consumers ourselves, we know that if we consumers don’t get a good apple, we don’t come back for a while,” says Bill Clark. “NBT is managing who grows an apple, where it grows, what the eating experience is. That’s paramount to the variety’s sustainability
Edit: formatting