Get Ready for the Indiana Great Apple Crunch of 2024!
What is the
Great Apple
Crunch?
Every year the Indiana Department of Education and Purdue University Extension partner to create “The Crunch Heard Around the State!”
On any October date of your choice, Hoosiers come together for a delicious “CRUNCH!” to celebrate local agriculture's importance and fresh flavor. Groups of all ages are welcome!
The Indiana Great Apple Crunch encourages healthy eating and supports farm-to-school and other local food-purchasing initiatives across the state. Each year it is held in conjunction with Indiana Food Day, which also promotes the culinary diversity of our state.
DID YOU KNOW? Other states across the Midwest will also host their own “CRUNCH”, so you are adding to a regional effort to make an even louder impact on local foods!
Hoosier Apples
The Indiana Great Apple Crunch is part of a regional effort known as the Great Lakes Apple Crunch. It is now in its 11th year and includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and Ohio.
It’s a fun way to connect food and agriculture to classroom learning. It’s also an ideal project to introduce more Indiana-sourced foods into your cafeteria’s menu and to expand your institution’s food procurement from area farmers!
Indiana has a special relationship to apples — Purdue’s College of Agriculture is a historical trailblazer in breeding new varieties, including GoldRush, Pixie Crunch, and CrimsonCrisp. Since 1945, its horticulturalists have cultivated nearly 50 new kinds of apples, and the university currently holds several active apple variety patents!
Did you know...
October is National Apple Month in the United States, established in 1973. U.S. orchards grow and sell more than
100 varieties of apples.
9 Top-produced apple varieties
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Cripps Pink/Pink Lady
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Empire
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Fuji
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Gala
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Golden Delicious
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Granny Smith
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Honeycrisp
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McIntosh
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Red Delicious
Source: U.S. Apple Association
Interested?
Sign up!
Once you have registered, we will send you resources to get everyone in your school and community excited about the Indiana Great Apple Crunch!
Then you can choose your day in October, assemble your lesson plans, find where to procure local apples … and PREPARE TO CRUNCH!
Interested in participating in other
farm to school events? Click here.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
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