February 15th 2012 Issue

Last Bite–The Empire State apple

Empire ranks eighth in U.S. production.

Empire was developed in an effort to combine the sweetness of McIntosh with the flavor of Red Delicious. The Empire apple is considered the most successful variety ever eleased by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in its 125 years of breeding apples. Bred in 1945 and released in 1966, it had, by its 30th birthday in 1996, captured a fifth of the apple crop in New York State, which produced 2.5 million bushels that year. Even since the influx of new varieties, it is still an important apple, ranking eighth in production in the United States. The U.S. Apple […]

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February 15, 2012

Apples, Varieties, Richard Lehnert

Richard Lehnert

After growing up on a Michigan dairy farm, Richard Lehnert began writing about farming in 1962, while still a junior studying journalism at Michigan State University. He worked at newspapers for a year before joining the staff of Michigan Farmer, where he spent 26 years, the last 15 as chief editor. He was a member of the staff of Good Fruit Grower from 2010 until 2015. Read his stories: Story Index

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