It’s taken more than a decade to develop, but Washington State University has unveiled a new raspberry variety, Cascade Premier.  WSU Small Fruit Breeder Patrick Moore has been working on varieties at WSU’s Puyallup Research Center for 31 year, and he calls this the best one year.

 

“Cascade Premier has better Root Rot tolerance than Meeker does.  It’s much larger, it machine harvests very well.  It, you know, has excellent flavor, that’s one of the big [selling] points of it. “

 

Moore noted that that excellent flavor allows growers several post-harvest options.

 

“It could be used for fresh market, but the main thrust of the Washington industry is processing.  So, it would go into individual quick frozen raspberries, or it would go into, juice puree or jams.”

 

Moor added Cascade Premier is an early variety berry, allowing farmers to grow blueberries later in the same season.  Washington is the #2 state in the U.S. when it comes to raspberry production, with the Evergreen state growing about 80% of the nation’s processed red raspberries.  Currently, 50% of Northwest growers use the Meeker variety, which was developed by WSU and released in 1967.

 

 

 

 

 

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