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\\u201cThe seeds inside will be a cross of two parent apple trees. Breeders will plant those seeds, grow that tree and just wait to see what the results come out to be. It\\u2019s very similar to having your kids.\\u201d

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Brett Valicoff (21:26-21:36)

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Brett Valicoff, President of Valicoff Fruit, a farm started by his great grandfather over one hundred years ago, certainly knows the complexities that go into growing apples and tree fruits. Ever wonder where some of the unique and new apple varieties are coming from? Hint: it has nothing to do with genetic modification or engineering, instead, a primitive process that\\u2019s touched by human hands as little as possible.

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Valicoff\\u2019s great grandfather, an immigrant from Bulgaria, started the farm after traveling from Ellis Island to Washington while working on the railroads, settling into the very fertile Yakima Valley. Yakima Valley is quite well known for their hops, world-renowned apples, and wine grapes, and although it\\u2019s a high desert, most of the water comes from irrigation canals that flow snowfall from the mountain ranges into the deep valleys. This makes the soil extremely fertile and ideal for growing.

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Valicoff is a \\u201cvertically integrated\\u201d company that\\u2019s positioned themselves well as a stakeholder in the food supply system. By diversifying what they grow as much as possible, Valicoff has the ability to generate a consistent, good return year-after-year and invest it back into the business. If a certain commodity isn\\u2019t performing well one year, another one of their commodities will, however this makes for deep risk taking in future forecasting what a consumer is going to be interested in buying in the next five to seven years time.\\xa0

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\\u201cVertically integrated means we are farming our own land and growing different commodities. We\\u2019re diversified with apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines and some cherries. Not only are we growing them, we also own and operate a storage and packing facility, so we bring the food that we grow along with outside growers who trust us to handle their fruit and packaging and get the best return for them that we can.\\u201d Brett Valicoff (8:53-9:34)

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Why five to seven years? Apple and fruit trees have a unique growing process that\\u2019s nothing like row crops. Tree fruit take about two years of preparation time before they\\u2019re ready to be planted thanks to something called grafting. After grafting and planting, you have to train the tree for another two to four years before you can start picking, with a maximum yield not happening for up to seven years.

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Ever wonder where the new, unique varieties of apples are coming from? Even though it\\u2019s easy to assume genetic modification has something to do with it, for Valicoff Fruit it\\u2019s the exact opposite. They use tree grafting, an ancient horticultural practice that adds one plant\\u2019s tissue to another, helping two plants grow into one.

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Each tree is just a \\u201croot stock\\u201d (established root) and once a root stock is big enough to graft, farmers will Very similar to conceiving and having a child, when farmers graft trees, they will cut off a \\u201cscion\\u201d of the tree (the part of the stem with buds) and cut off a bud. They\\u2019ll make a notch in the root of another tree, insert the first bud into the notch, cover it completely so air is kept out, and then nature takes over to create delicious fruit varieties we haven\\u2019t ever tasted before!\\xa0

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\\u201cThis looks like such a primitive way to change over an entire orchard or variety of apples, but it works.\\u201d Lori Taylor (16:35-16:44)

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Nothing is more old fashioned or primitive than tree grafting, and when\\xa0 you come across a new apple variety, it was most likely created from this. Even more interesting, farmers will use seeds from tree grafting and often get 50 or 60 different looking and tasting apples from the same combination. They then have to decide which variety will grow the best and have a flavor consumers will love. If you ever have decision fatigue about all the new apple varieties, just do a quick internet search and find out what flavor and texture you can expect. Check out Valicoff Fruit\\u2019s website at https://www.valicofffarms.com/ to discover the 13 varieties of delicious apples they grow, along with other tree fruit, vegetables, flowers and more!\\xa0

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