Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT
County has lost more than 90% of its Gravenstein acreage
On Sunday, Aug. 2, longtime apple producer Dave Hale and his daughter walked their orchards, picking apples from 20 trees. They filled only eight 40-pound boxes, where once a single tree could fill up to seven boxes.
The next day, Hale’s Apple Farm announced the season for selling Gravenstein apples directly to people who come to the farm for their boxes was over.
Hale’s Gravenstein harvest is only 3% of the annual average this year, he told The Press Democrat. He will shut down operations and make juice with the remaining apples on the 16-acre farm before reopening in early September.
“We just don’t have the fruit to work with,” Hale said. “It’s really bleak.”
Amid ongoing financial struggles for the apple industry, Hale and other local growers are pessimistic about the future of the Gravenstein variety, which once helped define Sonoma County’s identity.