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Washington's Fruit Place Visitor Center

Washington's Fruit Place Visitor Center is an educational center for the Washington fruit industry. Through hands-on exhibits and displays, students discover what makes Washington state a leader in fruit production and why the area is one of the greatest agricultural regions in the world. Students will learn what steps the fruit growers must take all year long to ensure an abundant and fruitful harvest.

Hands-on exhibits help visitors understand the story of the fruit industry.

A five minute introductory video offers an informative look at the fruit industry and the many tasks involved with the changing seasons.

During the spring growing season, warm daytime temperatures and clear cool nights can create an inversion. This weather phenomena causes the ground to lose heat very quickly, resulting in a rapid drop in temperature at tree level. The warmer air rises and sits above the layer of cool air. This condition is ideal for creating frost in the orchard. Since the cold air is heavier than the warm air, little mixing occurs. Flower buds frozen on a cold night means no fruit at harvest time. While burners and wind machines are effective in preventing frosts, the costs of fuel and maintenance are a concern.

With our touch-screen computer game, you are challenged to test your skills managing an orchard faced with the common problems of frost, insects and rain.

Some kinds of fruit trees are picked only once during the season. But others can be picked several times over a few weeks. Cherries, nectarines, peaches, apricots and some varieties of apples and plums ripen at different times during the harvest season. Fruit near the top of the tree, getting more sunlight, ripen first. Fruit lower down on the outside may ripen next. The fruit on the inner branches, getting the least sunlight, ripen last. If the fruit is identified and picked first, the still ripening fruit will be available later. Trees can be picked 3 to 8 times over several days. This extends the season of availability for this delectable fruit. This process called Selective Picking ensures that tasty, ripe fruit is in the market for a longer time.

It's not easy being a pest in the orchard is it? Orchard Managers use the techniques shown in this exhibit to reduce the amount of fruit lost to insects and other pests. Managers measure each threat and use several methods to control the pests. Their goal is to do it in a way that keeps the environment and the fruit healthy. The technique is called IPM or Integrated Pest Management. IPM depends on knowing how pests affect the orchard as well as current research on their control.

The secret to success in the apple industry is a combination of years of experience, new technology, and precise tests that tell us exactly when to harvest our fruit at the peak of perfection - season after season after season.

How can a grower tell precisely how sweet fruit is? He uses a Refractometer in the orchard to accurately determine sugar content. It's one way technology is used to deliver consistency apple after apple. Sugar content plays a key role in determining the Washington harvest, because it tells the grower exactly when the fruit has reached maturity. It is this perfect timing that makes Washington fruit consistently delicious. A grower squeezes a few drops of juice from the apple onto the glass slide, then holds it up to the light to read the numbers that indicate sugar content.

The Refraction Demonstrator uses a laser beam to show the principle behind the Field Refractometer. We can measure the sugar content of fruit by passing a beam of light through its juice. When sugar is present, it causes the light to bend, or refract, like eyeglasses do. Thanks to the Field Refractometer, strict sugar standards and ultimately, the human taste test, we ensure that fruit from Washington orchards will be the sweetest you'll ever taste.

When you bite into a perfect Washington apple, it has a delightful, desirable crunch. That means it has just the right firmness, or pressure, as growers call it. In Washington, we use a Pressure Tester to meet our state's strict pressure standards - the only pressure standards in the apple industry. As a result, perfect crunch comes packaged inside every Washington Apple.

This machine sorts apples by weight. The cups are programmed to drop the fruit according to weight at specific places along the line. Sorting can also be done by color and size. At an actual packing plant, the sorted fruit goes to the boxing area. Some machines box the fruit in huge bins that serve as store displays. Fruit is out of the refrigerated area for only a short time. One more way to keep the fresh taste alive!

Who eats Washington fruit? Washington tree fruit is prized for its quality throughout the world.