Mad Tom Orchard

Lots of good Honeycrisp.  Donuts Saturday & Sunday.  More new cider.

The wooden  apple is out in the orchard.  Find it and win an iPod

Sylvia has made an orchard map to help you find where the varieties are located – mounted on the water tank

We will open Honeycrisp, Cortland, Macoun and  Fuji for picking on Friday Sept 15.  There are plenty of good McIntosh and Gala as well.   The photo shows nice looking Honeycrisp on trees we planted in 2014 – they are off to a good start.

Honeycrisp unlike most apples ripens in stages, so pickers need to choose the reddest apples and leave the others to ripen next week or the week after.  In commercial orchards the Honeycrisp trees are picked three times .

The crop this year (including Honeycrisp) is a good one and we need your help to get it picked.   There will be cider and donuts on Saturday & Sunday – donuts run out, so come early.

Best picking of the year for McIntosh and Gala is early in the season – the orchard is full of beautiful fruit.  Sansa and Ginger Gold are also available, but not as many as last weekend.

I picked up cider this afternoon, so we will have cider all week.  Mrs. Murphy’s  donuts will be here Saturday and Sunday – they run out, so come early.

Picture show McIntosh ready to pick.

We start our regular season tomorrow Friday September 8 and will now be open daily 9:00 to 5:30,  except closed on Mondays.  McIntosh (ripest  in the old orchard) and Gala are now ready.  We have a very good crop and picking will be prime.

There are still some Sansa and Ginger Gold that were not picked on early apple weekend.  Zestars were essentially all picked , except for a few small ones.  We have 45 more trees grafted last year over to Zestar, so in a couple more years we will have more Zestars.

Come help us kick off a new harvest.  Pictures show McIntosh and Gala near the barn.

Saturday and Sunday September 2 and 3 will be our early apple weekend for Zestar, Ginger Gold and Sansa.  Weather on Saturday looks better than Sunday, when we get the remnants of Hurricane Harvey.   The recent moderate sunny weather has helped the fruit  gain size.  See the Zestars in the first picture.  They are our favorite pie apple as well as excellent when eaten fresh.

Starting  Friday September 8 we will be open for our regular season – daily 9 to 5:30 – closed Mondays.  We will have McIntosh and Gala as well as remaining early apples.   Honeycrisp will probably start September 16 weekend

We woke this morning to see a full 180 degree rainbow – we take it as a good omen for the season.   Come help us kick off a new harvest.