Environments - POMOLOGIST
What
Apples?
Muntries and a new apple
Upple! What it's story?
Bee
Brokers and Pomologists
Cost
of Producing Fruit
Other activities
within On the Job about Fruit
Primary
Middle 
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Critical and creative thinking
Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
Teacher
- Worksheet
here [Word doc]
1. Using the worksheet provided, in pairs or individually, you are to photograph one apple of each variety you can see at the green grocers, or supermarket.
2. Record the prices of each variety and fill in the table. Ask the person looking after these apples: "Which apples are the most popular?" "Least popular?" and record their answers.
3. Compare the apples you found with the following Aussie Apples website. Are the apples found here the same as the ones you found?
4. Record which apple you like best. Collect the recordings of each student in your class. Create a pie chart showing the apple varieties that the class likes.
Is this result the same as the answer from the person looking after the apples? (most popular, least popular).
5. Read the following article and answer the following questions:
|
The Granny Smith The Granny Smith is a tip-bearing apple cultivar, which originated in Eastwood, Sydney, Australia in 1868. It is named after Maria Ann Smith [Granny], who propagated the cultivar from a chance seedling. The tree is thought to be a hybrid of Malus sylvestris, the European wild apple, with the domesticated apple Malus pumila as the polleniser. The first description of the origin of the Granny Smith apple was not published until 1924. In that year, Farmer and Settler published the account of a local historian who had interviewed two men who had known Smith. One of those interviewed recalled that, in 1868, he (then twelve years old) and his father had been invited to Smith's farm to inspect a chance seedling that had sprung near a creek. Smith had dumped there, among the ferns, the remains of French crab-apples that had been grown in Tasmania. Another story recounted that Smith had been testing French crab-apples for cooking, and, throwing the apple cores out her window as she worked, had found that the new cultivar had sprung up underneath her kitchen windowsill. Whatever the case, Smith took it upon herself to propagate the new cultivar on her property, finding the apples good for cooking and for general consumption. Having "all the appearances of a cooking apple," they were not tart but instead were "sweet and crisp to eat." She took a stall at Sydney's George Street market, where the apples stored "exceptionally well and became popular" and "once a week sold her produce there." Smith died only a couple of years after her discovery (in 1870), but her work had been noticed by other local planters. Edward Gallard was one such planter, who extensively planted Granny Smith trees on his property and bought the Smith farm when Thomas [Granny's husband] died in 1876. Gallard was successful in marketing the apple locally, but it did not receive widespread attention until 1890. In that year, it was exhibited as "Smith's Seedling" at the Castle Hill Agricultural and Horticultural Show, and the following year it won the prize for cooking apples under the name "Granny Smith's Seedling." The apple was so highly successful that the following year, many were exhibiting Granny Smith apples at horticultural shows. (Source: Wikipedia) |
a. What is the likely story of the origins of the Granny Smith?
Secondary
-
How do you think this could be check scientifically?
b. Does your family eat Granny Smiths?
c. Do you like them? Why? Why not?
Primary
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Critical and creative thinking
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
1. You are to become a Pomologist and create a new apple using an Australian indigenous apple called Muntries.
Muntries or kunzea pomifera - a
small native Australian apple
(Source:
ABC News)
Common Names: Muntries, Emu Apples,
Native Cranberries, Munthari, Muntaberry, Monterry
Scientific Name: Kunzea pomifera
Synonyms: None
Family: MYRTACEAE
Muntries hold significance in the traditional diet of the Narrindjeri people of the Coorong in the southeast of South Australia. The fruit were eaten both fresh or alternatively formed into a dried paste that could be traded with other tribes or stored for consumption over winter. Early European settlers also incorporated the berries in pies, jellies, preserves, chutneys and relishes. Interestingly, Kunzea pomifera was one of the earliest species from Australia to be introduced into cultivation in England in the late 1800s.
Propagation is typically done from cuttings, but they
can also be grown from seed.
The fruit is fleshy, more or less spherical, 8–12 mm in diameter, deep red
to purple or black when mature. The berries produced by these plants are
about 1 centimetre in diameter, green with a tinge of red at maturity and
have a flavour of a spicy apple. Crunchy in texture, muntries contain up to
four times more antioxidants than blueberries and provide natural waxes that
are good for skin nourishment.
2. You are to become the Granny Smith of the 21st Century and create a new and tasty apple. You need to cross the muntries with a current apple.
Look at the Aussie Apples website to see the range of apples available.
3. Which current apple would you use? Why?
4. Create a poster about your new apple using Canva or Poster My Wall, or Piktochart.
Name your new apple
Draw your new apple.
List its qualities.
List its price. How did you arrive at this cost?
Market this new apple to your class by creating a 20 - 30 seconds presentation!
(Information from Wikipedia and Dengarden)
Primary
Middle Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Critical and creative thinking
Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Intercultural Understanding
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability
Priority
1. You are to view and take notes about the following
episode of
Landline 1 November 2020
a. What are the important facts?
b. What is the name of the family and how long have they been growing apples?
c. What brought them to this new product? Explain what they did in a timeline to produce this product.
d. What do you think will be their next new product?
e.
Secondary
- Do you
know why they didn't use the core?
2. Using your notes, share with a
partner. Have you now got the full picture?
3. Go to the Upple
website
a. Look at the products. How have they marketed these products? Appearance? Information?
b. What is clever about this marketing?
c. Go to the Supermarket and price the Upple.
Now price an apple - either the Pink Lady or the Granny Smith. What is the difference? What is the mark up?
d. Does the Upple last in the fridge longer than an apple in the fruit basket? Is there any preservatives in Upple? List if any.
e. Taste Test.
Get one of the Upples. Taste it and note down -
i. smoothness
ii. sweet/sour
iii. whether you like it or not
iv. would you buy it.
Get one apple - Pink Lady or Granny Smith. Eat it.
i. Describe the flavour
ii. the crispness
iii. did you peel it or leave it whole?
iv. do you regularly eat apples?
4. Upple are looking into a new product to use their apples - the whole apple (minus the core).
With a partner you are to create a new product. How would you market it on the Upple website?
Primary
Middle Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
1. Read the story from the ABC News 30 June 2020
The beekeepers supply their hives to the Bee Broker who pays them money to have their bees driven to different locations where the bees are needed. Bee Brokers are the organisers of the hives going to the Pomologists (growers of fruits and nuts).
2.
What did you learn? Discuss with a partner.
3. "I think it'll up around 130K hives that'll come into the district".
Find out from the article
a. how many hectares will be covered by this amount of hives
b. the cost to the Pomologists to have this many hives come.
c. if you were the manager of a big corporate growing almonds over 10,000 hectares, how many hives will you require and calculate the cost to the company if the hives were charged at $130, $147, or $159 per hive.
4. Look at the statistics from Australian Almonds -
Almond Board of Australia. Find out what was the total Australian almond
exports and its worth for the previous year.
5. Is it worthwhile to have the hives come to the Almond growing district in Qld? Discuss.
Primary
Middle
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
1. In pairs, look at the following table.
[Source: Dept of Primary Industries & Regional Development WA]
| Job | Nectarines | Apples | Mandarins | Oranges |
| Fruit thinning | 350 | 100 | 60 | 0 |
| Pruning | 350 | 200 | 50 | 50 |
| Harvesting | 300 | 300 | 450 | 200 |
| Packing | 300 | 150 | 150 | 100 |
| Fertilising | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Irrigation | 80 | 80 | 20 | 20 |
| Pest Control | 30 | 30 | 20 | 20 |
| Pest Monitoring | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
2. Calculate the number of labour hours for each fruit type.
a. Which fruit is the cheapest to produce?
b. Which is the most expensive?
3. In November 2021, the Fair Work Commission ruled that all farm workers were entitled to take home the minimum casual rate of pay of $25.41 an hour.
a. What is the cost of each of the fruit to produce?
Other activities within On the Job about Fruit
Horticulturist |
The women behind our famous apples |
Beekeeper |
Let's do the maths for the Almond Industry and the Bee Brokers |
