Tried Green Apples?

If your idea of an apple harvest is gathering crimson-skinned beauties in the crisp fall air, you’re not alone. And that helps explain why until relatively recently, California was not real big in the apple game.

In California, temperatures during the traditional apple harvest months--September and October--are as likely to be in the 100s as in the 70s. And apples picked in that kind of heat may be many things, but they will not be red. It takes a certain number of hours of chill to bring the blush to an apple’s cheeks.

All that said, this year California is the No. 3 producer of apples in the country. And within the next couple of years that could improve to No. 2. What’s going on?

New varieties of apples that bear perfectly well in hot weather are being planted as quickly as they can be. Pacific Rim apples, these travel under names such as Gala and Braeburn (from New Zealand) and Fuji (from Japan), are planted in warm-weather orchards in the San Joaquin Valley from Marysville to Arvin.

Either solidly green or green with red streaks, these join old favorite Granny Smiths (which actually weren’t planted in California until the mid-’50s) to give California a solid summer apple crop.

The numbers are impressive: this year some 5.2 million boxes of Fuji apples will be harvested. In 1980, the first year commercial statistics were kept on that variety, there were less than a half-million. Galas have increased from 50,000 boxes five years ago to a projected 800,000 boxes this year.

Galas, in particular, have been making their presence known in the grocery stores. The apple is naturally small (while it may take an average of 88 Granny Smith’s to fill a 40-pound carton, it will take almost 125 typical Galas), the growers of the Galas are accentuating the positive, putting the fist-sized apples in plastic bags and labeling them snacking or lunch-bag apples.

Meanwhile, growers of the old-line California green apple, the Granny Smith, have not been standing still. This year they passed a new maturity standard, requiring that apples reach relatively high maturity (measured in amounts of starch converted to sugar) before picking. The standards are among the toughest in the nation and may mean that Granny Smiths will be harvested later than they have in the past. But they will be sweeter and crisper. “We’d like to feel that the first apples received in the marketplace are an apple people will take a bite of and say, ‘Hey, I want to get some more of them,’ ” says one grower.

* How cheap was fruit this summer? A report by the U. S. Department of Agriculture says prices on their all-fruit index plunged by 22% from June to July and were 56% less than last year. Lower orange, peach, grapefruit and strawberry prices were the leaders.

* The same can’t be said of vegetable prices, which were up almost 5% from last year and almost surely will be even higher for August. That’s not likely to improve any time soon. Broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, cucumbers and onions are among those with the highest prices these days. On the other hand, carrots and tomatoes are good bargains.

IN GROWERS MARKETS

At the Sunday Hollywood market on Ivar Street, just south of Hollywood Boulevard, Kosmo Ranch in the Cuyama Valley (near Ojai) has Royal Galas. Weiser Family Farms from the Lucerne Valley has Galas. Sherrill Orchards near Arvin has Gravensteins, Hi Early, Honey Gold, Golden Supreme and Galas as well as super-sweet Clapp pears. Tenerelli Orchards near Little Rock has Parkindale Beauties and Red Delicious.

Off the apple beat, Beylick Farms from Fillmore has red bell, sweet Hungarian, jalapeno and Anaheim peppers. Barnard Ranches has Valencia oranges, pink and white grapefruits and green turkey figs. Acosta Table Grapes from Delano has Thompson and Red Flame seedless grapes as well as huge, seeded Globe grapes. The Briar Patch from Kingsburg has light-purple Chinese eggplant and an all-white Chinese eggplant called Casper, as well as Armenian peppers and two kinds of Asian pears. John Xiong from Atwater has Thai peppers, singqua squash, Asian onions, Thai basil, bok choy and lemon grass. Tutti Frutti Farms from the Santa Ynez Valley has yellow, orange and red cherry tomatoes and yellow, purple, orange and green bell peppers.

There are also some wonderful prepared products: Orachorn Singleton with a delicious spicy Thai peanut sauce; Mia and Mara Iaconi with Zia Mia-brand biscotti (the crumbly, rather than crisp, kind), and Judy Rogers with Konstantin Russian Mustard as well as Susanne’s Country Jams made by her sister-in-law in Mendocino.