Designer Apples Offer Food For Thought

For a generation that loves its vanity license plates and trademark tennis shoes, Jerry Haak offers a tasty alternative - the personalized Washington apple.

Haak of Zillah, Wash., is one of several orchardists who this year plan to shade words, pictures or company logos into an apples’ skin as they ripen.

The growers hope the labor-intensive process will help them make their mark in the enormous Washington apple industry, which produces 90 million boxes a year.

The process usually is done on Fuji apples, and has been a popular practice in Asia for many years.

Haak last year grew 4,000 Fujis inscribed with “Merry Christmas.” A decal was attached to each apple prior to harvest, blocking the sun’s ripening rays and forming the greeting in white letters on the apple’s skin.

Garfield Marshall, a British Columbia distributor of decals for apples, said the fruit could be sold to companies such as Boeing, which could order apples with their company name or logo.

“Anything you can use to make your product special is valuable,” he said.

, DataTimes