A Journey From Orchard to Table

The Journey from Orchard to Table Brought to you by:

Finding out about you! Do you live on a farm? Do you have relatives who live on a farm or know someone who lives on a farm? Have you visited a farm? Have you read any books about agriculture? Did you eat today?

Relating Agriculture To Your Life Can you think of something related to agriculture? SOME HINTS: Athletic shoes Baseballs Batting glove Cotton & wool clothing Golf bag Lipstick Paints Paper Soccer balls

The idea of the Food & Fiber System Agriculture is more than just growing food. There are many steps involved in getting the food from the farm to your table. All of these steps together make up the Food & Fiber System. Where do you get your food? Where does that place get the food?

The Concept of a System A system is made up of different parts that work together and are dependent on each other. Let’s think about another example of a system. Do you know about any other systems? How about an ecosystem? What are the parts of an ecosystem? There are many different parts that depend on each other: sun, trees, soil, water, grass, insects, rabbits and many more!

The Food & Fiber System The food & fiber system is all the parts from farms to you! Why is it called a food & fiber system? Let’s think about what is grown in New York. What does fiber mean? What do we grow around here? Do you know what a commodity is?

We’re going to follow an Apple through the Food System Apples are an example of a New York State commodity Have you eaten an apple grown in New York? Do you think a lot of apples are grown in New York? Do you think we grow the most apples in the USA? Do you think NY is second? Third?

New York grows about 1 BILLION pounds of apples per year! That’s about 3 billion medium sized apples or about 24 million bushels of apples. Each person in an average classroom would need to eat 1,000 apples a day for the next 100 years to eat up 3 billion apples.

How many jobs are involved from the orchard to your table? Let’s see…

Where do we start? Science!

Plant Breeder Develops new varieties of apples.

Entomologist Studies insects and ways to keep apple trees free from pests.

Plant Pathologist Discovers ways to cure plant diseases.

Pomologist Learns the best way to grow and take care of the Apple trees.

Cooperative Extension Agent Teaches the farmer about what the scientists have discovered.

Nursery Where the farmer buys the trees. Apple trees don’t grow from seeds, they are grafted or budded.

Grower/Farmer Operates machinery Cares for the trees Mechanic Businessman

Apiarist (a-pee-air-ist) Beekeeper For a flower to become an apple, cross-pollination must take place. An apiarist brings bees to the orchard to do this work.

Apple Seasons Spring Apple trees blossom Summer Bees pollinate the apple blossoms

Apple Seasons Winter – Apple trees are pruned. Pruning allows the tree to produce larger, better quality fruit. Fall – Apples are picked

Harvesting Bushels Bag

Decisions Fresh Fruit  Farm stands  Grocery stores  Bakeries  Candied apples

Decisions Processed Products Apple

Storage Transport the apples to the refrigerated storage facility. Manage the storage environment and inventory.

Processing Machinery & equipment operation Labeling and packaging Quality assurance Inventory control

Marketing Artists Sales

Retail - Selling Restaurants Supermarkets Farm stands Bakeries Demand fulfillment Logistics

Consumer Purchases the apples and apple products! Apple Butter

Apple Facts What apple is grown the most in New York State? McIntosh!

Apple Facts! How many years for an apple tree to make fruit? Three years for small trees! Five years for large trees! How long can an apple tree live? 200 years!

The Number “5” How many seeds pockets will you find in an apple? Apples have seed pockets or carpels. If you cut an apple in half you will find a star shape! How many points will the star have? FIVE How many petals are on the apple blossom? 5 5

Apple Facts How many apples does it takes to make one gallon of apple cider? 36!

Apple Fact Nutrition How many calories an apple has? –Only 80! And they’re fat free too! Do you know? How many grams of fiber one apple has? –5 grams! Fiber is important because it helps us digest our food. What vitamin apples have a lot of? –Vitamin A! This helps our vision!

Apple Facts! How many different kinds of apples are grown in the United States? 2,500! Empire Golden Delicious Red Rome Gala

New York Farm Bureau Foundation For Agricultural Education, Inc. Photos: Courtesy of New York Apple Association © New York Apple Association Music: Created by Jan Mankita