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One of the best parts of fall is enjoying delicious, fresh apples from the Central Okanagan's orchards.
But how will this year's apple crop respond to the region's year of extreme weather?
According to BC Tree Fruits, the season started a little late due to the wild weather but 2017's apple harvest will be good as ever.
"Things are looking very good. We're about halfway through the harvest of Gala and Macintosh apples and fruit size, quality, colour is all looking good," said Hank Markgraf, Field Services Manager for BC Tree Fruits.
"We are about three weeks behind because we had a cool, wet spring that started our season off, and although we had a very hot summer that went on for a long time, it never caught up so we're behind where we were last year."
However, there has been speculation in the region about whether all the wildfire smoke that hung low in the valley for days on end this summer will affect the harvest.
"Luckily, smoke doesn't impact the taste of fruit so there will be no ill effects from all those smoky days," explained Hank Markgraf. "On the positive side, the trees actually didn't mind all the smoke because without the smoke cover on all those scorching hot days we would have had a lot of sunburnt fruit out there. "
Markgraf says this year's total tree fruit crop will be slightly larger than 2016's at 4 to 4.5-million boxes.
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