Rosh Hashanah food. Photo: Deror Avi.

The apple and honey tradition on Rosh Hashana will see Israelis consuming 15,000 tons of apples during the month of September, an increase of almost 50 percent from average consumption during the rest of the year.

Harvested from August through November, this year’s apple crop has been noted for its excellent size, color, and taste. “This summer’s relative cooler temperatures, especially at night, helped produce a higher quality of crop,” Levin said.

Nearly all of Israel’s apples – approximately 95 percent – are grown in the hills of the Galilee and the Golan, because apples require cooler weather to grow best. The apple orchards are located on hills that are 600 meters up or higher, and cover 42,000 dunam (10,500 acres).

More than 100,000 tons of apples are sold in Israel each year, with the apple market valued at NIS 700 million annually, which serves as the core for the local economy in the Golan Heights. In addition to the local production, about 7,000 tons of apples are imported into Israel from the U.S. and Europe.

While Israel typically exports few of its apples abroad, this year the country exported 18,000 tons of apples grown by Druze farmers living in the Golan to Syria, in coordination with the Plants Production and Marketing Board, the IDF, and the Red Cross.

This year, the apple industry also attracted a number of university students from across Israel who were interested in learning more about agriculture and helping out Golan apple growers.

Sapir college student Yotam Eyal told Tazpit News Agency that he and his friends have been picking apples for the past month.

“It’s good to see where a fruit like an apple, that you buy in the supermarket, comes from,” commented Eyal. “Picking apples all day in the orchard is hard work. But it has made us appreciate dipping the apple in honey that much more this Rosh Hashana.”