“Steve Jobs never did consumer research,” Barritt said. What Steve Jobs is to Apple, Bruce Barritt is to apples. He then repeated the crucial question he asked in Wenatchee in 1988: “Why can’t we have a nuanced attitude about apples, the way we do coffee, marijuana or wine?” “I don’t criticize other apple varieties,” said Barritt, who critiques the Red Delicious’ “soft, chewy, not juicy” shortcomings.
Consumers didn’t know any other apple, and growers didn’t want to spend money and time - $70,000 per acre, decades waiting for saplings to fully mature - investing in another variety.īarritt sympathized with these concerns, but didn’t agree with putting growers before consumers, particularly with an “inefficient” Red Delicious. It was a safe investment for everyone, growers told Barritt. One of the few commercial apples grown in America, the Red Delicious had a monopoly on tree branches and grocery shelves. Dozens and dozens.”īarritt might as well have visited only one. So I started by spending a year visiting every orchard I could. “They told me to do ‘horticultural research to help the industry,’” Barritt said. Then in 1985, he moved three hours west to the university’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, where research opportunities revealed the stagnant state of America’s apples. For over a decade, he worked at Washington State University, conducting general research on all fruit. in pomology, the science of fruit growing and breeding. In 1969, Barritt graduated from Cornell University with a Ph.D. He saw the growth and production of new apple and cherry varieties, and was inspired to pursue apple research.
Cosmic crisp apple how to#
Both his father and grandfather were gardeners, and Barritt grew up with “two green thumbs,” he said, but didn’t know how to use them until a college internship in the nearby Okanagan Valley. The Cosmic Crisp story began decades ago in Kelowna, British Columbia, where Barritt was born and lives today. The Cosmic Crisp’s “fabulous taste,” long storage life and popularity in Washington orchards - where two-thirds of America’s apples are grown - means “it will be one of the next big apples” for years to come, Bair said. It’s bolstered by household names like Red Delicious (which made its commercial debut in 1874), Gala (1965) and Fuji (1962), and a wave of emerging stars: Honeycrisp (1991), Snapdragon (2013) and more.īut the market is preparing for a new top variety, said Jim Bair, president and CEO of USApple, the regulating body of the United States’ apple industry.
“It’s a Tesla amongst old Chevrolets,” he said.įrom breeding and growing to marketing and selling, the American apple industry is valued at $20 billion. The trademarked, Washington-bred “Cosmic Crisp” that Barritt shows now achieves this feat and more. “So, that’s crispness,” he says.Ĭrisp, firm, juicy, sweet, tart: They’re the “big five” characteristics the now-retired fruit breeder spent 40 years attempting to pack into a single, baseball-sized, 100-calorie apple. Barritt wipes his mouth with a bony hand, juices still dribbling down his chin, and recedes again from his close-up.
Cosmic crisp apple skin#
The 78-year-old, sinking his teeth into an object he calls his “child,” is showing off decades of his work: a crimson apple, its skin speckled with white dots resembling the cosmos, freshly removed from Barritt’s kitchen freezer after a 10-month stay - around the average time an apple is stored before hitting grocery shelves. “Yes? You heard a crack?” Bruce Barritt asks, backing away from his screen and spitting a mouthful of white, juicy flesh off-camera. WA 38 is moderately susceptible to mildew and fire blight but is not prone to sunburn or bitter pit*.“Did you hear it?” The Zoom call eclipses into an all-crimson canvas and resounds a noisy crescendo - something akin to striking thunder, or an ice cube splintering. Pedicel is long, averaging 25.7 mm the pedicel cavity is acuminate in shape and has an average depth of 2.3 cm.
Fruit skin is smooth and russet has not been observed. Lenticels are numerous, small, round, and smooth with the skin. Skin under color is from the red group with overstreak from the grayed purple group. At harvest, fruit has a conspicuous bloom. Fruit is large, similar to ‘Fuji’ and larger than ‘Gala’ and round conical in shape with an average equatorial diameter of 8.4 cm and axis length of 7.9 cm. The fruit ripens from late September to early October in Wenatchee, ≈4 weeks after ‘Gala’ and 3 weeks before ‘Fuji’, in ‘Red Delicious’ season. Both surfaces of the sepals are yellow–green, with tips highlighted red–purple. Petals are white with red–purple highlights. Cosmic Crisp® brand WA 38 trees come to full-bloom five to seven days after ‘Gala’ and ‘Red Delicious ’ bloom periods are shorter than ‘Red Delicious.’* The number of blossoms per bud ranges from four to six, with individual flowers large in size (53.9 mm in diameter).
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