Honeycrisp apples are popular worldwide. Some WA growers hate them

TONASKET, Okanogan County — Ever since Eve bit the forbidden fruit, apples have held a certain mystique.

They say that one a day keeps the doctor away. Billions per year keep Washington farms hopping. And “if each person ate 2.5 more pounds of apples” per year, said fourth-generation farmer Kait Thornton, “you could save the apple industry” in our state.

In Washington, more than 5 billion pounds of apples were produced this fall by an industry that “generates over $8 billion in economic impact for the state of Washington and supports almost 70,000 jobs,” per the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. Some 1,200 commercial apple growers in the Evergreen State produce about 70% of the country’s apples — and 4% of the world’s crop.

The industry has grown steadily in the last decade. We l