A Midwest Magic Maker – Good Fruit Grower

“Twenty years after the first seedling that would become MAIA1, the apple marketed as EverCrisp, was planted in a quiet, quirky Indiana orchard, growers have planted more than 1.7 million trees in 728 orchards across the United States. 

Those orchards range from large companies with high-density investments to the small, farm market growers the Midwest Apple Improvement Association’s founders had in mind when they launched their breeding and evaluation efforts — and where MAIA1 found its first success.

The EverCrisp program’s business model — building a groundswell at the farm market level and hoping demand rises from there — contrasts strongly with the Cosmic Crisp model, where the Washington state industry used its combined marketing muscle to introduce the variety at scale on grocery shelves across the country. 

The contrast looks even stronger when you realize where the EverCrisp originated: a tiny orchard in Wabash County, Indiana, tended by a grower whose methods and mindset might be called the antithesis of cutting-edge.”

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