PRETTY INSIDE
The weather has been unkind to Ceres farmers, but the rest of us are benefiting, writes Richard Holmes
I put it down to jealousy, for goddesses can be temperamental beings. The Ceres valley spread out beneath the towering Hex River mountains is a fertile corner of the Cape. Apple orchards cosy up against acres of pears, and when the winter frost lies on the ground and mist drifts over sheep-filled pastures the valley is an astoundingly beautiful spot. Last summer, as the apple blossoms gave way to young fruit, its namesake — the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility — must have gotten her nose a little out of joint.
Which is perhaps why, in November 2013, the worst hailstorm in half-a-century hit the Ceres valley. Ice, and disaster, struck the orchards with a vengeance.
The valley is home to a quarter of South Africa’s apple and pear orchards, and of the 27 shareholders in the Ceres Fruit Growers association only seven emerged unscathed. On some farms, the entire crop was damaged.
November in the orchards is a delicate time. The blossoms are bulging into young apples, with their delicate undersides pointed heavenwards as they grow into plump, crispy fruit. In short, the perfect target for Ceres’s wrath as her hail pelted the bottoms of the apples-to-be.
Ceres may have been a vengeful goddess, but she certainly wasn’t picky. Gala, golden delicious, Cripps pink, Packhams, forelle . . . few trees were left unscathed.
After a week the clouds parted, the sun came out and the apples continued to grow into ripe, juicy fruit. Come harvest time, unless you look at the pockmarked underside, you’d be comparing apples with apples.
But it’s a tricky thing selling sub-standard fruit to export markets, and to avoid relegating the fruit to the juicer — for a price that wouldn’t come close to covering the cost of growing it in the first place — a plan had to be made.
Enter Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, which liaised with retailers, explained the situation and found a home for the best of what has been bagged and billed as “weatherblemished” fruit. The globalised world of fresh fruit is a competitive business, so the weather-blemished fruit has special packaging to identify it as one step below top-quality. Look for the smiling apple holding an umbrella to ward off hail. For now, they’re on shelves in Shoprite and Checkers stores nationwide, with other retailers expected to come on board soon.
“We need our consumers to understand that even if fruit appears pock-marked because of the hail damage, it is still as delicious and healthy as ever,” says Roelf Pienaar, Managing Director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, which handles 20% of the local apple market.
Part of getting the message across is a Twitter campaign of #UglyPretty, to convince consumers that a few bumps and marks are no reason to ignore these otherwise delicious apples. What’s more, the weather-blemished fruit is priced 10 or 15% cheaper than unaffected fruit. Which all adds up to a remarkably good deal for South African consumers who, unlike their pernickety European counterparts, are unlikely to be too fazed by a few bumps on the bottom of an otherwise perfect apple.
Many are barely blemished, others have a few dark marks and an indent or two thanks to a flying hailstone, but they’re not bruised, floury or mushy. Close your eyes, bite through the crisp skin and into sweet fruit and you won’t notice the difference.
Buy a bag, maybe two, and you’ll also be ensuring the apple farmers of Ceres will still be picking those golden delicious, pink ladies and royal galas next summer. Plus it’ll annoy Ceres the goddess no end.
BITE INTO SWEET FRUIT AND YOU WON’T NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE