How about Virginia apples?

The owners of nearly 20,000 acres of apple orchards along the Shenandoah Valley must change the way they operate in order to stay in business in today's global economy. Although the commonwealth ranks sixth when it comes to U.S. apple production, Virginia orchards struggle to find migrant workers to pick their fruit and to gain profits when land costs rise so rapidly. Virginia cannot compete with lower-cost apples grown on huge orchards in Washington state and China. Instead, orchard owners diversify their farms, shifting to agri-tourism with "u-pick" fields and farm markets, or they sell off their land to housing developers.

This site represents the in-depth reporting done as a part of Journalism 356 at Washington and Lee University.
Meet the reporters! Here, you can download our favorite apple recipes and read about our personal experiences with this project.