Folks today (Thursday July 7) got some very nice berries.  There are more ripe berries, so we will be open tomorrow (Friday July 8) 9:00 to 5:30.

Depending on how many people come, it is likely we will  have enough berries to be open both Saturday and Sunday.  There are a lot of berries still to ripen and the hot weather is helping speed up the ripening.  I will post picking status every evening.

As always, best picking is in the morning, so come early for better picking and avoid the afternoon heat.   Berries at the end of the three long rows in the lower field are especially plentiful.

The hot weather has accelerated the ripening of our raspberries.  First day will be Thursday July 7 – we open at 9:00 .

Picking is ALWAYS best in the morning.  Forecast is for hot weather and possible thunderstorms in the afternoon, so come early!!

Schedule for days after Thursday is not clear at this point – it depends on how fast more berries ripen and how many pickers come.  I will post each evening on whether we will be open the following day.

I have not had time to put up the signs yet, but boxes will be in the little raspberry house.    Come get some good berries and restock your freezer.

Raspberries are ripening – warm weather this week will help them ripen faster.  It is hard to predict when we will open, but right now it looks like it may be by Saturday July 9.

I will post on Thursday July 7 with a better estimate.  We often get picked out the first day and then need a couple of days for more berries to ripen.

There will be no cherries this year – the hard freeze in April took them out.

Watch the web or Facebook for latest info.  Look forward to seeing you soon.

The good news – it looks like the raspberry crop will be ok this year.  There are green berries on the bushes now – there were lots of bumble bees pollinating a few days ago – if you look closely, you can see a bee – they are hard to get in the photo.

Berries will probably be ripe in about two weeks – estimate July 8’th – I will post a few days ahead when we have a better idea.

Now the bad news – the apple crop overall will be about 20% of a normal crop – about 80% was lost due to the hard freeze (5 degrees) on April 5’th.  Some varieties managed to produce quite a bit of bloom, but the flowers were very weak and if they did get pollinated and set fruit, it was very small and most has dropped off.

The fruit set is very uneven – varies a lot tree to tree and variety to variety.  The Galas appear to have the most fruit – the picture shows a lonely McIntosh on one of the old trees.  There is a small crop of Honeycrisp and other varieties.

It is disappointing to have such a small crop this year – the first time in 15 years that we have had this much crop loss.  Fortunately the trees all survived the winter well and we are glad the our crop last year for the orchard’s 75’th anniversary was so bountiful.

    Lots of green raspberries

Find the Bumble Bee

 A lonely McIntosh

Our UVM fruit specialist says “there is haggard/erratic bloom all over the place this year”.   We have found that the McIntosh, Cortland, and Ginger Gold were hit very hard by the 5 degree temperature on April 5’th and the crop on these varieties will probably be 10% of a normal crop.

Gala, Honeycrisp and Macoun which bloom a little later all have many more flowers.  We still need to see how many of them pollinate, but there MAY be a reasonable crop for these varieties, but not like last year.

We are grateful that the crop for our 75’th anniversary celebration was so bountiful.  The bumble bees are out working.  We have also finished planting 500 more Nova raspberries.  The existing raspberries are forming flower buds, so we hope to see fruit in July from them.

Another growing season is underway  – we will post updates as we learn more.

Bumble Bees in the old orchard

 Some bloom on Honeycrisp

Planting raspberries