The scene today is very different from my last post on October 3 – we had 42 inches of snow  in less than 24 hours two days ago on December 17 – the most snow we have seen in a single day in the 21 years back living in Vermont.  Fortunately the snow was dry and light AND I had the snow plow mounted on the John Deere tractor.

We have cleaned up after the accelerated four week harvest, the orchard had its final mowing , the equipment has all been put back in the barns and some pruning is started.  More pruning will have to wait until enough snow melts so that we can shovel out a gate to get into the orchard.  There appear to be a good number of fruit buds on the trees and we are looking forward to growing our 20’th crop since reopening the orchard and seeing you in the Fall.

We will be doing Zoom Christmas gatherings with our kids and grandkids – all the packages are mailed and appear to have arrived.  Fortunately everyone is healthy and we are as well.  We are looking forward to a better year in 2021 as vaccines become available and family visits can resume.  Hope this finds you and family well and that you are able to enjoy the Holidays.

We will not be going into the old barn for a while

The old Macintosh trees are holding up well

Thursday we wound up the 2020 harvest completely picked out.  Most years the season lasts for six weeks – often thru Columbus Day weekend.  This year the size of the crop was good, but not our largest crop – BUT the number of pickers was 50% more than prior years, since everyone was looking for a safe family outing.

We had to make a number of modifications in how we operated, but we feel fortunate that we were able to get our crop picked.  We think we were able to have a safe environment, since almost everyone practiced social distancing,  wore masks as they entered and checked out AND most of the time everyone was outdoors.  Many businesses have not been as fortunate during the prolonged lock down.

You can find excellent already picked apples as well as a wide variety of fruit and vegetables at Dutton’s Farm Stand on RT 11 & 30 in Manchester.  Check the web site at www.vermontapples.org for other orchards in Vermont that may have pick your own apples available for a couple weeks longer.

So again – thanks for your support this season – Sylvia and I wish all of you a happy and healthy winter.

The photo shows the “social distancing” mums at this year’s revised entry.  We found that when we left the gate open – a lot of good folks came in.

Pickers on Tuesday will find a small crop of Blondees and Crimson Crisps now available. We hope for better crops of both next year, when Honeycrisps will probably want to take the year off after the big crop this year.

Pickers this week will also find good Empires and Cortlands down the hill, and still some Macs on the old trees along the fence line. Other varieties are picked out.  There are also scattered drops.

This will be our last three days and we will end an extra busy harvest season on Thursday more completely picked out than ever before.

Photo shows Blondees on new trees and some fall color starting.

We continue to have very large number of pickers and are getting almost picked out.  There are NO Honeycrisps on the trees – there are moderate amounts of McIntosh in the old orchard, as well Cortland, Gala and Macoun in the new orchard.

We tasted the Empires again this evening and we will start them tomorrow Sunday September 27.  With family help, we made 1700 donuts today – tomorrow will be the last day for donuts this year.

We will start a small crop of Crimson Crisps and VERY small crops of other late varieties on Tuesday September 29.

There are relatively small amounts of drops available for several varieties at half price.

OUR LAST DAY WILL BE THURSDAY OCTOBER 1’st – we will be completely picked out by then, if not before.

So thanks to everyone for making it a great season!!

Cortlands and Macoun are now ripe.  McIntosh and Gala are still good, away from the barn uphill by the fence.  As of Thursday afternoon, there are still Honeycrisps way at the bottom of the hill below the three Cortland rows – they will probably be picked out sometime on Saturday.

There will be donuts Saturday and Sunday – they run out periodically and completely by mid-afternoon.  Cider has been resupplied, but it will run out also.

October 3 & 4 weekend will be our last weekend – we may be open a couple days into the following week, but we will run out of apples before Columbus Day weekend. Empires will start Friday Oct 2 or a day or two earlier.

Come Friday (tomorrow) to avoid the crowd or early in the day on the weekend.  We thank (almost) everyone for wearing masks and practicing social distancing to keep everyone safe.

Photo shows some nice Cortlands (on the three rows just above the Honeycrisps).