Once considered impossible, organic apples now thrive

The apple-growing region of Sebastopol in Sonoma County has shrunk through the years, as vineyards replace apple orchards. Today, the few remaining apple growers and the last independent processor have become organically certified, in part as a means of survival.

"The market pretty much insisted that we become certified organic and it was just the right thing to do," said Stan Devoto of Devoto Gardens, who has been farming in Sebastopol since 1976. "I'm real positive about growing apples for the organic market. It takes a lot more work. You have to build up a whole ecosystem in your orchard."

Apple growers such as Devoto have found a niche by growing organic apple varieties that are sold in the fresh market or are processed into apple sauce, juice and cider vinegar for grocery stores including Safeway and Trader Joe's. Devoto started the process to become organically certified in 2007 and harvested his first organic apple crops in 2010 and 2011. A large portion of the crop is sold to the fresh market, and the remaining 40 percent is sold to the area's remaining independent fruit processor, Manzana Products Co.

"There's a much larger market for organic apples, and most wholesalers and retailers are willing to spend the extra dollar for organic apples," Devoto said. "(Growing apples conventionally) was much more competitive. Everyone had conventional apples, so it was more difficult, and the price we were getting from the stores and even at the farmers market was not as good as the organic apples."

Manzana Products Co. in Sebastopol has been in business for more than 85 years, processing apple varieties such as the Gravenstein, Golden Delicious, Jonathan and Rome Beauty into applesauce, juice and cider vinegar. The company's president and owner, Suzi Kaido, said Manzana started processing organic apples in 1990.

"There were nine canneries in the area and there was a lot of competition, so it was difficult to make money. We were probably the first expected to go out of business, but the others all eventually closed," Kaido said. "We decided to set ourselves apart and look for products that the other canneries wouldn't do to sell our products at a premium. We thought we'd try organics. We got our organic certification and it just happened to boom."

Breakthroughs in research also helped grow the organic apple business. Researchers from the University of California developed organic solutions to fight pest and disease issues such as codling moth, aphids and apple scab.

UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Paul Vossen, who serves Sonoma and Marin counties, recalled that in the 1980s he wrote a paper in which he declared it was not possible to grow apples organically, because there were no adequate organic methods of controlling codling moth.

"We endeavored to see if we could figure out a way to control codling moth and about two years later, a company came out with a pheromone confusion technique," Vossen said. "We found that you could control codling moth very effectively and economically by just using pheromone confusion."

With an organic solution to codling moth and additional research discoveries to solve apple scab and aphid problems, Vossen changed his earlier conclusion.

"The conclusion we finally came to is that you could grow apples organically and in 2000, we published an Organic Apple Production Manual that essentially documented how you could control these things," Vossen said.

Even with organic methods in place to control pests and diseases, Devoto said, "regardless of how good of an organic farmer you are, about 40 percent of your crop goes for processing, primarily because the apples might have some scab, they might have worm and wind damage."

Because apples can adapt to any climate and are grown all over the state, and as more growers become organically certified, Devoto said he foresees prices for the processed market moving a bit lower, which might not be sustainable for most growers. He said that makes fruit quality crucial.

"We have good soils, ocean fog every day, and most of the orchards are non-irrigated. We don't get high production, but the quality is just superb," Devoto said.

Devoto Gardens, which also grows cut flowers, features about 50 organic apple varieties and Devoto said he grafted another 25 new apples this year.

"We're planting niche and unusual varieties that you can't find anywhere else and that is how we're able to make it as a small farm—tree-ripened fruit and good quality," he said.

Vossen said there is a large local demand for organic commodities, especially given Sebastopol's proximity to the Bay Area.

"Our Sebastopol growers do sell into those Bay Area markets. It is a pretty wealthy bunch of people really, and they are willing to pay a little bit more for very high quality," he said. "We do have a number of CSAs (community-supported agriculture operations) in our area and organic apples grown in Sonoma do end up on the menus of local restaurants."

Winegrape grower Joe Dutton of Sebastopol, co-owner of Dutton Ranch, also grows about 200 acres of organic apples that are sold to Manzana and to Martinelli's. Dutton said he is satisfied with his company's decision to transition its apples to organic and became certified in 2008.

"It has been a good decision. Demand has been up for organic apples and it looks like there will be a little higher demand this year," Dutton said. "You get a better price than you would with conventional fruit and more demand, so that is a good thing. It requires a little more work than conventional, but we have things figured out."

(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)