FoA 333: Farm Labor Challenges in Specialty Crops with Mike and April Clayton of Red Apple Orchards

<p>Visit our sponsor: <a href="https://www.sound.ag/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.sound.ag/</a></p><p>April Clayton Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/AppleApril111" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/AppleApril111</a></p><p>April the Apple Gal YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DOJG_0BOYGv00KAw-CuxQ/videos" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DOJG_0BOYGv00KAw-CuxQ/videos</a></p><p>April on “Real Food, Real People”: <a href="https://realfoodrealpeople.org/april-clayton-002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://realfoodrealpeople.org/april-clayton-002/</a></p><p>April on “The Farm Traveler”: <a href="https://thefarmtraveler.com/2020/04/22/podcast-episode-53/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://thefarmtraveler.com/2020/04/22/podcast-episode-53/</a></p><p>April on “What The Farm”: <a href="https://farmercitygirl.libsyn.com/144-april-clayton-organic-orchardist" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://farmercitygirl.libsyn.com/144-april-clayton-organic-orchardist</a>&nbsp;</p><p>I’ve been following April Clayton on Twitter for a while, she is @AppleApril111, and she puts out some great content about their life and work at Red Apple Orchard, where they grow organic apples and conventional cherries. She also has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from my alma mater UC Davis, so she’s actually Dr. April Clayton farm. Her and her husband are the second generation on their Washington fruit orchard.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>A recent exchange on Twitter with April prompted me to reach out to her for this interview. She shared a video of a block of organic apples that she said they were considering not harvesting, due, in part to the labor situation. I wondered, just how expensive does labor have to be to make it not worth it to harvest certified organic fruit? Or was it that the labor was simply non-existent? Or were there other factors at play here I wasn’t aware of? I also wonde