By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor and Reporter
There was a time when just about every Rhode Islander knew
where “Apple Valley” was.
In the fall, when Sunday afternoon drives were still in
vogue, families would jump into the car and take off for
places like Smithfield, Scituate and Foster, stopping at
roadside stands that offered fresh-pressed cider (before
the days of the pasteurization police), pecks of apples and
at a few locations, amusements for kids. The aroma of fresh
apples in an open air roadside stand is stuff of childhood
memories.
Also in the memory category are promotional events that
surrounded the apple harvest such as a special supplement
in a local newspaper that declared early fall as an “Apple
Valley Festival.”
Today, the vast majority of apple purchases most likely
take place in supermarkets which stock a limited selection
of varieties, virtually all of them trucked from afar not
to mention those imported from other countries.
And the perception is that “Apple Valley” is
no more. After all, the reasoning goes, many farms have disappeared
in the state—doesn’t that apply to apple orchards
as well?
Not quite. In fact Kenneth Ayars, chief of the state Division
of Agriculture, says the loss in apple acreage has been stemmed—today
there are 300 acres in apple production, an amount that has
been consistant over the last 10 years according to federal
data.
In 1976 there were 36 orchards in the state. Today there
are 27 but six of the nine that were “lost” are
in agriculture of another sort. Of the 27 remaining orchards,
eight are new, reports Ayars. Each year the yields change – weather
and replanting standard trees with semi-dwarf varieties are
the biggest factors.
“We do not consider orchard losses since 1976 to be
extreme, especially since acreage and farm numbers over the
past ten years have remained constant, with several new farm
operations,” says Ayars.
He sounds positive and indeed there is a positive attitude
among some of the orchard owners interviewed.
Farming in Smithfield
Chris and Alison Jaswell, a brother/sister team, are the
latest generation to operate Jaswell’s Farm in Smithfield
and they and |
their parents have made major changes in the
operation since the days their great grandparents started
it in 1899.
The farm is about 100 acres of which 60 are under cultivation,
most of it in apples. But the Jaswells have found out that
one has to diversify in the farming business in Rhode Island
and so they have embarked on an array of techniques, most
of them aimed at the retail market. "We have to diversify
to survive,” says Alison who is married and has a one-year-old.
She noted that their grandparents did strictly wholesale
back then. When her parents took over the farm, they gradually
eliminated the animals and started growing more profitable
crops. They built a cider mill in the 1970 and scaled back
on the wholesale operation. The retail operation started
with a roadside picnic bench.
The picnic bench evolved into a roadside stand and in 1997
a large addition was made, converting the original cider
mill into a bakery.
Chris and Alison took over the operation in 1999. Neither
one has formal agricultural education –in fact they
both have business degrees, something that comes in handy
in this day or challenging farm economics.
Alison attended CCRI and then switched to Bryant in business
with a minor in law.
"I hated farming when I was growing up—I had a
great childhood but I also saw all the problems and struggles," she
says. "I always expected that my brother was going to
take it over.”
But she admits when she went to Bryant she decided that
farming was what she wanted to do. "I have a great partner
in my brother. He works outside. I have physical limitations
and I am taking the role of my parents as seller.”
And sell they do. Jaswell’s Farm is probably best
known for its cider which is wholesaled throughout the state
to markets. They have one of the most modern cider press
operations around. A few years ago, new regulations greatly
curtailed the sale of unpasteurized cider. Purists objected
because when cider is heated some of the “fresh” taste
is lost but the flip side is that it has a much longer shelf
life.
The Jaswells invested in new gear for their cider operation
which subjects their cider to 162-degree flash pasteurization
for six seconds. Chris says the process, the only one in
the state, results in cider that has a much fresher taste
than those subjected to normal pasteurization.
The Jaswells’ 1,500 apple trees provide a lot of cider
which is the only wholesale project they produce.
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