Mad Tom Orchard

We start CORTLAND, BLONDEE, MACOUN & HONEYCRISP this weekend Saturday September 18.  The are also still lots of good Macintosh and Gala and some Ginger Golds.  Read this post all the way to the end for extra info about availability.

I am resupplying the cider today and the donut crew will be making more on Saturday & Sunday.

A strong thunderstorm yesterday afternoon dropped an inch of rain,  BUT fortunately no hail.  Weather this weekend looks good, especially on Sunday.

If you have a really good story along the lines of “my grandmother is getting married tomorrow in Las  Vegas and I have to fly out there tonight “ we will consider letting you pick Honeycrisp Friday.

Honeycrisp ripen in stages so the trees have mixture of red (i.e. ripe) and green (not yet ripe) apples, – pick the red ones.  Photos show a Honeycrisp tree and some sunflowers where we outsmarted the woodchuck this year.

Our season is off to a good start.  Weather forecast looks good for Saturday and reasonable for Sunday.

We have opened up the Macintosh & Gala rows – Zestars  & Sansas will probably be picked out by the end of the weekend – good Ginger Gold crop.

Cider is resupplied and more donuts planned for Saturday &Sunday.  The Macs & Galas have a bountiful crop – come now while the trees are full of good fruit.

Photos show Macs & Galas near the barn.

We saw LOTS of happy customers this weekend.  They picked 2/3 of the Zestars, most of the Sansas, and maybe 1/2 of the Ginger Golds.

This morning we moved the red tape and put up the signs to open up the Macintosh and Gala rows.  Macs are tart – probably ripest on the 81 year old trees.  As always, fruit with the most color is the ripest.

Come see us while the early varieties are still available and the Macs & Galas are the most plentiful.

Photo shows a Ruby Mac tree framing a view of Green Peak – someone has to suffer with the view – why not us.

We are busy getting everything ready for the start of our 20’th apple harvest, since we restarted the orchard in 2002.

Crop looks good overall – hurricane Henri stayed east of us and caused no damage  – only .2 inches of rain.  Warm weather is ripening the apples faster – looks like temperatures next week will be cooler.  First weekend we will have good Zestars, Ginger Golds, and Sansas – see pictures at the end of this post.  We are setting up the donut kitchen again and plan on donuts for opening weekend and all the following ones as well.

Barn will be set up the same as last year with one way entry thru the gate and exit for those paying thru the barn – if someone else in the group is paying, you can exit thru the side gate.  Please limit to five customers in the barn at one time.  Outside in the orchard no masks needed – in the barn please wear your mask and practice social distancing.

Look forward to seeing you !!

Summer is rolling along rapidly – apples are growing well – 9 1/2 inches of rain in July is making the fruit size up well – some varieties approaching 1 1/2 inches. It has been a challenge to keep up with the grass, the morning glories and the grapevines.# Zestar, Ginger Gold, Sansa, Macintosh, Gala, and Crimson Crisp all have a lot of fruit – there are more Honeycrisp than we initially thought, but still fewer than last year.

We expect to start harvest on Labor Day weekend. We plan to use the same one way entry and exit last system as last year. Fortunately we are in Vermont with low levels of Covid infections. Unfortunately even though we were vaccinated in February & March, I, like a number of other people treated for cancer have not developed antibodies so we need to continue to exercise caution. The overall good news is that the cancer treatment has worked.

We look forward to seeing you this fall. Pictures show some good Macintosh and Zestars.