The scoop on apples today:
Plenty of Honeycrisp left to pick, especially on the inside of the tree hiding in the leaves.
A decent amount of Gala left if you are willing to walk to the last 1/3 of the row. I have a few Gala trees in the older part of the orchard behind the shop if you don't want to go so far also.
Ruby Mac and Smoothies are getting slim but you will find a about 10 loaded trees of each if you are willing to walk to the last 1/4 of the row. Still very high quality apples. Ask us for a Gator ride to take you down there if you want!
Been trying to wait to post until the Jonagold were ready but they are still just stalling a bit. We have 9 rows of Jonagold. I would say 1 of the rows is actually ready if you pick and choose the redder apples on the outside. They still need to sweeten up a bit...the greener ones at least. That being said, if you plan to store these, then by all means come pick because they will last longer if picked a bit early and they will ripen in storage. If you want Jonagold to eat or for pies, I would recommend waiting until you hear from me again on the blog. I will let you know when we open up more rows.
In other news, it is still awhile off but I wanted to mention we are having our 2nd annual apple festival on Saturday, Oct 18 from 10-2 so you can mark your calendars! We will have apple tasting of all the varieties, applesauce to try, crafts for the kids, apple tours for all ages and maybe a little more up our sleeve. It is a low key day for some free family fun.
Farm Happenings:
We have all our crops harvested now except for corn and of course apples! Such a relief to almost have the crazy summer season over. I mean don't get me wrong, harvest is a great time that shows the "fruits" of your labor but it can be crazy! It is such a relief to get all the crops in so there is no more question of possible weather/pest/disease damage, etc. Just a large sigh happens around here. Maybe that is why we are so cheerful during apple season! Ha!
Now we are starting to plan for next year already, like what crops to grow again and what to stop, how we will care for the crops differently next year, and we do a big final budget to see how each crop produced. Very time consuming but gives us real information to help us make good financial decisions.
Fun stuff:
Some great people I got to meet so far this year!
Thanks for letting me take your picture! Beware all of you, I will be asking :)