But changes in temperature, water access, disease, pests and seasonality, as well as more extreme weather, concern cider-makers and people who facilitate the supply chain on both sides of the mountains.
Growers in Wenatchee lost light-sensitive varieties like Red-Flesh apples when temperatures hit 114 degrees during the June heat wave, but even coastal growers felt the burn. Some of Lynden-based Bellewood Farms & Distillery’s cider trees sunburned “so badly that they couldn’t even be used for juice,” says Blake Abel, farm operations vice president, who estimates the farm lost 10% of total apple yield. Bellewood typically produces between 950,000 and 1 million pounds of apples annually.
Sunburn is the top reason for fruit loss in Washington, and it can have delayed impacts. Just as how sunburns can develop into cancers in humans many years into the future, cell damage doesn’t always show up immediately in apples. Fruit that seems fine going into storage might spoil, or bruise easily.
Heat stress hurts nonapple ingredients, too. Estimates show each cidery on average relies on three to four different orchardists and farmers for ingredients, from stone fruits to botanicals, Markenstyn says. Finnriver’s Byers sources apples alone from six different orchards and a number of hobbyist growers, and gets other ingredients from at least six other farmers. He wanted to buy 1,000 pounds of organic black currants from Nettle Grove Farm in the Okanogan Valley, but the crop failed in the heat wave.
Apples don’t seem to be susceptible to the “wildfire smoke taint” that has damaged grapes and hops. “Those bins can smell like a barbecue, but when you bring them in, the fruit itself tends to be pretty good,” says Larsen of Snowdrift Cider in East Wenatchee.
