e first toddled around the packing
she wears the banner of apple
a
now
By JOYCE BUPP
Staff correspondent
YORK - She’s been sor
ting and helping with apples
ever since she was old
enough to toddle around the
packing house on the family
farm near Leader Heights.
With a background like that,
it was almost inevitable that
Sandy Markey would some
day wear the crown and ban
ner of the Pennsylvania Ap
ple Queen.
Pretty and slender, Sandy
is the daughter of Ronald
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Isaac W. Martin, Owner
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Ephrata, PA (717) 733-7968
and Marilyn Markey, Indian
Rock Dam Road. The
Markeys operate a
vegetable, fruit and poultry
family marketing business
with Ronald’s parents, the
Kenneth Markeys.
About 100 acres are crop
ped in apples, peaches,
apricots, strawberries,
sweet com, potatoes, and
other fresh market crops.
The flock of 3000 laying hens
provide eggs for the retail
sales, too. Produce is sold
through four-day-weekly at
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tendance at two popular
York area farmers’
markets, the Eastern
Market and downtown’s Cen
tral Market.
Sandy won her crown dur
ing the state Horticultural
Association meeting at Her
shey, held in February. With
blossoms just now bursting
into bloom across the East,
she began her promotional
activities this week at the
Shenandoah Apple Blossom
Festival in Winchester, West
Virginia. Thirty-four
princesses and horticulture
queens participated in the
annual festivites, which in
cluded parades, luncheons
and the coronation of a
youthful celebrity as
honorary queen.
A 1976 graduate of
Dallastown Area High
School, Sandy is employed in
the installment loan depart
ment of the Commonwealth
National Bank of York.
Presently pursuing courses
with the American Institu
tion of Banking and with
York College, she is eyeing a
career in the agri-business
loan field.
Naturally, apples appear
regularly in many forms on
the Markey dinner table, but
there’s still one unbeaten
family favorite.
“Pies,” grins Sandy when
questioned how she most
often uses apples. “We bake
them as a family and usually
make eight or 10 at a time.”
Although the excess pies are
frozen for later use, the
Markeys always bake them
first and then simple reheat
or thaw them in a
microwave oven as needed.
Staymans or Jonathans
are Sandy’s favorite apple
varieties, because she opts
for a slight tartness in
flavor. She maintains a
good-humored feud over this
choice with her dad, who
prefers the Red or Golden
Delicious as his apple
favorite.
Applesauce also comes in
for heavy use during meals
at this farm home. Marilyn
and her daughters prepare
gallons of the sauce at a
time, freezing the excess for
instant menu additions. Ap
ples are never peeled for
saucing; instead the stems
are removed, the fruit is
quartered and cooked until
soft, and then the resulting
pulp is run through a food
mill. Apple skins left on dur
ing the sauce cooking pro
cess will add a pink color to
the finished product.
Sandy and her younger
sisters, Karen, 17, and
Joyce, 15, have been working
members of the farm opera
tion since they were small
children. All three girls can
often be found helping to
pick the fresh market crops
and the family spends many
evenings together packing Transforming apples into pies is a labor of love
produce for market the performed often in the kitchen of Sandy Markey’s
following day. Sometimes, home,
they take turns behind the
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house
queen