Aristeo Maldonado of Tonasket, Washington, received EQIP funds to update his irrigation system. When apple prices tumbled in 1998, just a year after he bought an orchard, Aristeo Maldonado knew what he had to do. His orchard at Tonasket, Washington, had only Red and Golden Delicious trees, so he began to replant. He had seen growers in Wenatchee who were already diversifying. “Everybody called me loco, because I started pulling out the orchard and planting new trees at high densities,” he recalled. The previous orchard owner was particularly alarmed to see him pushing over the trees that had served him […]