As apple pie season approaches, prices for the fruit are heading sky high. Thanks to the smallest apple crop since the

Apple prices are sky high.

1980s – whether was cold in Michigan and on the East Coast last spring, when those apple buds are supposed to appear – prices for all varieties are growing.

Producers are selling to supermarkets – who pass their increases on to you — McIntosh apples for 85 percent more than they were last October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They’re selling Red Delicious apples for 25 percent more, Golden Delicious for 31 percent more and Rome apples for 27 percent more.

So as you’re shopping for fruit to fill pies, consider strawberries. Grown in California where it’s perpetually sunny, supplies are abundant and farm prices are down 11 percent from last month, and 15 percent from last year.

Not incidentally, the government today reported that producer prices are down just a touch (0.2 percent) from a month earlier. Many of them just in time for the holiday of feasting.

Dry pinto beans……….down 9 percent

Celery prices…………..down 30.5 percent

Broccoli………………….down 28.9 percent

Cucumbers………………down 20 percent

and finally

Slaughter turkeys……….down 0.5 percent