Mad Tom Orchard

We saw lots of happy customers this past week – they found new homes for ALL the Honeycrisps.

We will start the bright red Crimson Crisp on Saturday September 20.  They have an excellent sweet tart flavor – good for eating and baking – keeps very well.

We almost certainly will not have enough apples to be open for Columbus Day weekend October 11 & 12.  We hope to have enough apples to be able to be open thru October 4 & 5 weekend.

You can see in the photo that there are good Macintosh on the old trees – moderate amounts of Cortlands and Macouns are down the hill.  There are still a few Galas.

We have a good supply of maple syrup – cider will be picked up today – AND more DONUTS will be made on Saturday and Sunday.

Weather looks good for the remainder of the week and thru the weekend – put us on your schedule.

Tom & Sylvia

We are off to a good start for the 2025 season.  Good Macintosh and Gala continue to be available.  There are some Ginger Golds and fewer Zestars still ready for picking.

On Saturday 9/13, we will open up the Honeycrisp rows – many will get picked this weekend – there probably  will be some available the following weekend.

Also on Saturday picking will start for Cortlands and Macouns – this weekend they will be on the tart side – they will be riper the following weekend.  The  crop is large enough for Cortlands and Macouns  that they should be available thru September and possibly into October.

Cider and syrup have been resupplied.  The DONUT crew will be back in action on Saturday and Sunday.

Photo shows  artistic use of bushel baskets around the barn for container gardens put together by our daughter Lisa – photos encouraged.

Look forward to seeing lots more familiar faces.

Tom & Sylvia

The  ripest apples will be Zestars, Ginger Golds and Premiers.  There will be tart Macintosh, especially on the 85 year old trees.  Galas will be riper next week, but some with good color will be ripe this weekend.

Honeycrisp may be ripe next weekend September 13 or may need to wait until September 20.  We will make the decision by Wednesday September 10.

The photo shows our granddaughters Sylvia and Katie decorating more purple alligators to be this years “Charlies” out in the orchard on Saturdays and Sundays.  Go madtomorchard.com/charlie for details.

Syrup from Zecher’s Havoc Hill Sugar House has been delivered.  I will pick up cider from Dutton’s tomorrow.

Check out our restocked shirts and hats with our logo – we have added more colors and styles.

AND – Sylvia and our daughter Jennifer made a perfect trial DONUT run last weekend and will be making donuts again every weekend.

Look forward  to seeing you.

Tom

As I indicated in my last post, we have a smaller crop than last year.  That said, we will still have good apples, cider, syrup and donuts (on the weekends) plus some new clothing items and more note cards.

Since there are relatively few of the early ripening Zestars and Ginger Golds we will not be open Labor Day Weekend, but we plan to open weekend of September  6 &7  for those early varieties plus Macintosh and hope some Galas will be ripe.  We will be busy the next three weeks mowing and getting the barn set up.

The picture shows some Macintosh on the old trees that already have good size.

Come see us and help us make 2025 a good season.  Look forward to seeing you !!

Hope everyone has had a good winter – ours was long with a lot of snow and ice, but our pruning is done and all the brush is now picked up and chipped.

After the huge crop we had last year,  the bloom this spring is only moderate and the very wet weather has  made pollination difficult.  It will be a couple weeks until we can see how much fruit has set.  Barring hail storms, we should have  a reasonable crop this year but not as big as last year.

Crimson Crisps, Cortlands and some of the now 85 year old Macintosh trees had the most bloom.

Put us on your fall schedule – probably starting Labor Day Weekend.  Look forward to seeing you.

The old Macintosh trees are a mainstay.