‘Game changer’ apple debuts soon
‘JUST LIKE US’
WHEN: 2:30 p.m. WHERE: AWC Theatre, AWC Yuma campus, 2020 S. Avenue 8E GOING ON: “Just Like Us” follows the true story of four Mexican girls coming of age in America, four friends from immigrant families in Denver straddle two worlds, two of the girls have legal documents, two do not; against the odds, each finds her way into a good college, but the hurdles only mount from there COST: $5 general public, $3 local students and seniors, or free with AWC ID; tickets available at door
LECTURE RECITAL
WHEN: 3 p.m. WHERE: Gloria de Cristo Lutheran Church, 11273 E. 40th St. GOING ON: AWC faculty and community members will perform “Moving Away from the Margins: Women Composers - Center State!” will feature both men and women playing music written by women composers with a brass trio, a horn solo, flute solo, piano solo, piano duet and two vocal soloists; free, open to general public
AWC COMMUNITY BAND
WHEN: 7 p.m. WHERE: Mary Elizabeth Post auditorium, 400 W. 5th St. GOING ON: AWC community band will perform its fall concert with two featured compositions “With Pleasure” by John Philip Sousa and “A Northern Legend” by Alfred Reed; free, open to public; donations accepted INFO: Call 928-344-7573
OPEN MEDICARE ENROLLMENT
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: Assembly of God Church, 12831 E. 41st St. GOING ON: WACOG will have open enrollment for Medicare INFO: Angela Meza, 928-217-7198
‘HAILING CESAR’ DOCUMENTARY
WHEN: 3 p.m.
OPEN MEDICARE ENROLLMENT
(See Oct. 22)
OPEN MEDICARE ENROLLMENT
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: Main Library, 2951 S. 21st Drive GOING ON: WACOG will have open enrollment for Medicare INFO: Angela Meza, 928-217-7198
JOB RESOURCES EXPO!
WHEN: 10 a.m. WHERE: Yuma County Community Room, 2050 S. Main St., Somerton GOING ON: Family self-sufficiency, self-employment, job resources expo INFO: Anel Torres, 928-304-7318, Anel.Torres@yumacountyaz.gov; Anna Dalton, 928-304-7331, Anna. Dalton@yumacountyaz.gov
PERSONAL FINANCE WORKSHOP
WHEN: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. WHERE: Wellton Library, 28790 San Jose Ave. GOING ON: Learn how to budget, plan for emergencies, determine the cost of borrowing money and understand credit reports; space is limited, registration required, free INFO: To register, call or email Jodi Uebergang at 928-726-3904 or juebergang@email.arizona.edu
LUTES TAKEOVER
WHEN: 4 to 8 p.m. WHERE: Lutes Casino, 221 S. Main St. GOING ON: The Spanish Club at Gila Ridge High School will host a takeover at Lutes to raise funds for their cultural trip to San Diego
CRIMS’ FALL CONCERT
WHEN: 7 p.m. WHERE: Yuma High School, Snider Auditorium, 400 S. 6th Ave. GOING ON: YHS Criminal Choir will perform a selection of harvest season repertoire including selections from the annual Dia de Los Muertos parade; funds will support YHS Criminal Choir and future productions COST: Entry fee is pay what you can
SPOKANE, Wash. — They call it the Cosmic Crisp. It’s not a video game, a superhero or the title of a Grateful Dead song.
It’s a new variety of apple, coming to a grocery store near you Dec. 1
Cosmic Crisp is the first apple ever bred in Washington state, which grows the majority of the United States’ apples. It’s expected to be a game changer.
Already, growers have planted 12 million Cosmic Crisp apple trees, a sign of confidence in the new variety. While only 450,000 40-pound boxes will be available for sale this year, that will jump to more than 2 million boxes in 2020 and more than 21 million by 2026.
The apple variety was developed by Washington State University. Washington growers, who paid for the research, will have the exclusive right to sell it for the first 10 years.
The apple is called Cosmic Crisp because of the bright yellowish dots on its skin, which look like distant stars.
“I’ve never seen an apple prettier in the orchard than these things are,” said Aaron Clark of Yakima, whose family owns several orchards in central Washington and has planted 80 acres of Cosmic Crisps.
The new variety keeps for a long time in storage and in the refrigerator, said Kate Evans, who runs the breeding program at Washington State University.
And it’s an exceptionally good “eating apple,” she said. “It’s ultra-crisp, very juicy and has a good balance of sweetness and tartness.”
Cosmic Crisps are a cross between the diseaseresistant Enterprise and the popular, crunchy Honeycrisp varieties. The Honeycrisp, nicknamed “Moneycrisp” by some growers, was the latest apple to spark a big buzz in the United States when it was introduced a couple of decades ago. It was developed by the University of Minnesota.
“This apple (Cosmic Crisp) has a good opportunity to be a hit with a lot of people,” said Clark, a vice president of Price Cold Storage, a company with orchards and fruit warehouses throughout central Washington. “It better be, because we are going to have a lot of them.”
Apples are a $2.5 billion a year business in Washington, which grows about 60% of the nation’s supply, or nearly 140 million boxes. The top varieties are Gala (23, Red Delicious (20%) and Fuji (13%).
Apples are grown in the arid valleys and brown hillsides of central Washington, a few hours east of Seattle, and watered by irrigation projects.
The state has around 1,500 apple growers and 175,000 acres of orchards. About 50,000 people pick some 12 billion apples by hand each fall. The fruit is exported to 60 countries.
With so much success, why was a new apple variety needed?
“A new apple brings excitement,” said Toni Lynn Adams, spokeswoman for the Washington Apple Commission, which markets apples internationally. “A new variety can reinvigorate a market and industry.”
Washington growers, who had watched the market share for sometimes mushy Red Delicious apples plummet over time, were looking to replicate the success of the Honeycrisp, Adams said.
“It’s going to shake things up in a great way,” Adams said. “We’re expecting it to increase in volume rapidly.”
Adams could not speculate on how much Cosmic Crisp apples will cost per pound.
“Better quality makes for better returns,” said Clark, the grower. “This is a for-profit deal, man. We’re trying to make some money with it.”
Remarkably, this is the first apple variety developed in Washington state, which has been known for apples for more than a century.
Scientists at WSU’s Tree Fruit Research Center in Wenatchee spent 20 years breeding the desired apple tree seeds. In addition to helping pay for that research, apple growers need a license to buy the trees and pay a royalty on sales of the fruit.
The trees take three years to produce a crop, said Kathryn Grandy, a member of the team marketing the apple.
“This will be the largest launch of a single variety ever, globally,” she said, and it’s backed by a $10.5 million marketing budget.
Consumers will not have trouble finding the variety, said Grandy, who works for a company called Proprietary Variety Management and is based in the town of Chelan, in the heart of apple country.
Work on developing the variety began in 1997, said Evans, of Washington State University. The process of cross-hybridization has been used to breed plants for hundreds of years, Evans said, and is quite different from the more controversial genetic modification methods.
“The goal, in my opinion, is to get more consumers eating apples,” she said. “Ultimately that is the goal of any plant breeder.”