Follow the fruit

IU Dining Services is, for the second year, serving apples grown only miles away from Bloomington. Inside tracked an apple from the orchard to your order.

The Apple Works, a farm 35 miles northeast of Bloomington, supplies IU’s dining halls with crisp apples every week.

Director of Dining Services Sandra Fowler says the Apple Works is the only farm capable of supplying the quantity of apples the school needs for its students.
“We continue to look for local food and local produce,” Fowler says, “but sometimes it’s difficult for local farms to provide us what we need.”

The Apple Works has been able to keep up with the demand. IU purchases between 40 and 100 bushels each week, keeping in mind leftover stock. The bushels hold about 90 apples, but that depends on the apples’ size.

The Apple Works co-owner Sarah Brown said she thinks the University cares about the food it distributes and is catching on to the “buy local” trend.

“The fact that these are local means they’re going to be as fresh as they can be,” she says.


TASTE TEMPTATION

The apples are picked, washed, and graded for size, then stored in a chilled (33-34 degrees) room. Every Friday, IU places an order and the Apple Works employees pull and box the apples. The University selects two varieties each week from among Molly’s Delicious, Ginger Gold, and Gala.

On Wednesday, Brown’s husband and co-owner, Rick Brown, loads a van with bushels of fruit. Rick drives the apples to RPS Food Stores, an IU warehouse on 10th Street, before 2 p.m. so workers can distribute the fruit.

When the apples reach the warehouse, they are stored at 66 to 68 degrees for no longer than a week, says Ancil Drake, the executive chef and associate director for production.

Next, the dining halls and kiosks order what they need for the week, and the apples make the journey from the warehouse on IU trucks.

Once the apples reach the residence halls, apple lovers can purchase the fruit with meal points or money and crunch away.