Cashmere, Washington — Orchard Ended Up in a Candy Box

Cashmere found a way to put its orchard economy in a candy box.

Armenian immigrants Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban settled in the Wenatchee Valley and established Liberty Orchards. They adapted a confection related to lokum, or Turkish delight, using local fruit and nuts: apples became Aplets, apricots became Cotlets.

The candies turned perishable crops into products that could travel far beyond central Washington and became identified with Cashmere for generations.

That makes the confection less of a roadside novelty than it first appears. Cashmere remained tied to irrigation, fruit growing and packing; Aplets and Cotlets simply translated orchard economics into powdered sugar.