One marked difference about the pages of Good Fruit Grower 80 years ago was the prominence of soft fruits in those pages. Prunes, apricots, peaches, nectarines and more were dominant crops for Northwest fruit growers. The Washington State Fruit Commission, which now publishes this magazine, was founded in 1947 to develop and promote Washington’s soft fruit.  A headline in 1946 heralds an expected 81-million-bushel peach crop, or about 2 million tons assuming 50-pound bushels. In the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture data available, Washington produced just over 6,000 tons of peaches in 2023. For apricots, production hovers around 3,000 […]