A seasonal worker reaches for a juicy red apple as harvest time is upon us in the Okanagan Valley.

With more than 30 kinds of apples grown in the Okanagan Canada, there's plenty to choose from, and a nice long season of availability. Fall apple varieties are the Okanagan fruit season finale. Fall apple like Honey Crisp and Swiss Gourmet apples are delicious in favorite apple recipes and will keep well into the winter season! Traditionally, fall apple harvest season in the Okanagan Valley begins in early September. In the South Okanagan, apples (as well as other Okanagan fruit may likely be availabe a week or two earlier than the Central and North Okanagan. Fall kinds of apples include Honeycrisp, Empire, Golden Delicious Apples, Ambrosia, Spartan apples, Mitsu, Jonagold, Ida Red apples, Fuji and good old Granny Smith apples.

Apple Picker in the Orchard at 2400 Longhill Road in the Glenmore District of Kelowna - September 15, 2010.

Fruit production is a hallmark of the Okanagan Valley today, but the industry began with difficulty. Commercial orcharding of apples was first tried there in 1892, but a series of setbacks prevented the major success of commercial fruit crops until the 1920s. But until the 1930s, the demand for shipping fruit and other goods did drive a need for the sternwheeler steamboats that serviced Okanagan Lake: the S.S. Aberdeen from 1886 and then the S.S. Sicamous and S.S. Naramata from 1914. The Sicamous and Naramata survive as a tourist attraction in Penticton.

__________________________________________________________