BETTER THAN EXPECTED

Very good turnout for our opening weekend – saw lots of familiar faces.  We toured the orchard yesterday and saw there are still good Macintosh – especially on the  83 year old trees.

We also saw that there were more Honeycrisps , Cortlands, and Macouns that we thought – SO, this weekend (September 16 & 17) we will open up for picking these varieties as well as the Macintosh and Galas.

With the reduced crop from the freeze, this will be your main chance to get some Honeycrisps  – not as plentiful as most years, but still some out there – especially inside the trees.  Pick the ones with the most color.

The later ripening Crimson Crisp crop also looks better than we thought and we now plan to open them for picking on both September 23’rd and 30’th weekends.  The last September 30’th weekend will also have some Northen Spy’s and Golden Delicious.

So come come see us and help get the crop picked  – the donut crew will be cranking out donuts and there is cider and maple syrup.

OPENING WEEKEND Saturday & Sunday September 9 & 10

Looking forward to seeing lots of you this weekend – still reduced crop but there are more Macintosh than we thought, especially on the 80 year old trees nearest the road.  There are some Galas and Ginger Golds as well.  The few Honeycrisps out there will not be ripe until Sept 16 & 17 weekend or possibly later.

We will have Havoc Hill maple syrup and Dutton’s cider.  We fired up the donut machine today and made a test batch – the carpenters working on the red house renovation project declared them as good as ever.

Those of you who came last year saw the old red farmhouse jacked up on blocks ready to be moved back on the lot.  The move is complete and a new kitchen/master bedroom addition replaces the old shed on the back.  The windows are all installed, red siding is due soon, and the old shutters with the apple cut outs will be reused.

The photo shows Sylvia’s latest quilt – the “Red House Quilt celebrating 50 years of red house life with our children and grandchildren”.  You can see some good looking Macintosh on the old trees.

So come help us celebrate – pick some apples and get some donuts.  A few showers need not keep you away.

OPEN FOUR WEEKENDS IN SEPTEMBER

As we have been working in the orchard, it appears that there is  a bit more undamaged fruit than we initially thought – SO we plan now to be open four weekends in September – Sept. 9&10, Sept. 16&17, Sept. 23&24 and Sept. 30&Oct. 1.  Quantities will still be less than a normal year.

We plan on making donuts each weekend.  We hope to be able to have cider from Dutton’s and will have Havoc Hill Maple syrup.

We have been hand thinning freeze damaged fruit to allow remaining apples to  grow larger.  Continuing rains have kept us very busy trying to keep up with mowing.  Grape vines and morning glory are growing vigorously.  We continue to remove the ever present grape vines – Janey our new puppy thinks the grapevines are a great toy.

Picture shows some Ginger Gold trees with a few apples – some Ginger Gold trees have a bit more fruit.  The old Macintosh  trees have the most apples.

We look forward to seeing you this fall – wish that it could be for a full harvest – the views are as beautiful as ever.  Hopefully next year we will be back to a full crop.

UPDATE – no flood and very limited crop

We have been getting lots of “Are you OK” questions with the publicity about the flood damages in Vermont.  Fortunately we had several inches of rain but no water damage.  So we are fine, but could make do with a bit less rain.  Unfortunately lots of folks elsewhere in Vermont are dealing with major problems.

Our big challenge is dealing with the 90% crop loss from the freeze on May 18.  We will probably be open for two or possibly three weekends in September but not during the week because there will be so few apples.  We will definitely not be open Labor Day weekend September 2 & 3 because there are no Zestars, our earliest ripening apple.  We plan to have cider donuts on the limited weekends that we will be open.

As we get to the end of August we will know more about our schedule.  The most fruit is on the 80 year old Macintosh trees up near the road ,which have some apples – the cold air runs down hill where there are very few apples. Besides Macs, there are some Galas up near the road, and some late-ripening Crimson Crisp and Northern Spy’s.  What would have been a very good Honey-crisp crop essentially disappeared – the crows will probably get what is left.

There are two types of damage 1) many fewer blossoms set apples and 2) a lot of fruit that did set has frost rings and damaged fruit.  We have been using small clippers to thin the damaged fruit so the remaining apples can grow to better  size.

Fortunately the trees are all healthy (as are we) and we hope to have a good crop next year.  Hope all of you who suffered flood damage are finding your way forward.

Watch the web and Facebook for updates – be sure to check when we will be open before you come.

 

 

 

 

MAJOR FREEZE DAMAGE

Unfortunately the 27 degree temperature early Thursday morning froze more than 50 % of our fruit buds.  We have been cutting open fruit buds from all our varieties and most show heavy damage.  The old Macintosh trees may have less damage than the the others.  We will be evaluating what fruit has survived over the coming days.

So this is not happy news – fortunately we and all our family are in good health and we will see all three daughters and sons in law plus all our grandkids for Memorial Day weekend.

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