Did You Know?

• 10 – 12 billion apples are harvested in Washington State each year. Each Washington apple is picked by hand. There are no harvest machines to pick apples.

• If you put all of the Washington State apples picked in a year side-by-side, they would circle the earth 29 times.

• About 2,500 known varieties of apples are grown in the United States. More than 7,500 are grown worldwide.

• Last year, the average U.S. consumer ate 19 pounds of fresh apples.

• Apples are the largest agricultural product grown in Washington State.

• Apples originated in Kazakhstan and were carried east by traders on the Silk Road.

• The only apple native to North America is the crabapple.

• Apple seeds are like people; you will never get the exact same type of apple from a planted seed.

• The Red Delicious apple began life as a chance seedling on an Iowa farm. A chance seedling is a viable apple variety that grows from a seed.