Apple harvest is about two thirds finished. Peaches, blueberries and some of our apple varieties are harvested and consumed. How time flies…. I meant to write more throughout the summer, but time has escaped me once again. The growing and swimming season have come and gone. I’m sad swimming season is over, but I’m happing to be eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
Some of our long (1,000 feet long) rows are empty and others are filled with fruit still ripening. As the U-Pickers continue to come, the apples become a little farther away from the beginning of the row. Many apples are hidden down low or on the inside of our trellis. Send the kids to look for the treats down low. Even though we are nearing the end of the apple harvest season we still have many varieties left to pick. I like to think of our harvest season in three sections: early season, mid-season and late season. We grow 34 different varieties of apples and we begin harvesting around August 15th and continue as varieties ripen until about November 15th. Slowly, the orchard is being emptied of the apples and they are being stored in our cold storage to be sold at our store or made into many other treats including cider
, pies, turnovers, applesauce, dumplings, apple slices etc. 
By the time we complete the apple harvest we will have roughly 10,000 bushels of apples picked. That’s about 400,000 pounds or 1,000,000 apples give or take. Only about 35% of those apples are sold at our U-Pick. The others are sold through our store, used in cider, pies, etc. or sold to other local farmers and markets in our area. Close to 2,000 bushels are pressed into cider specifically for Wolffer Winery to make into hard cider.
When trying to figure out the best time for apple picking consider the apple varieties you like to eat. Check out our website for a complete list of our apples and when they are ready. Often times even if your favorite apple isn’t ready or has already passed we can provide you with something very similar and maybe it may become your new favorite.
A few of the varieties I would like to highlight in this blog are from the Cornell University Breeding Program, which is one of the largest apple breeding programs in the world. There are a lot of new and exciting varieties coming from this program including SnapDragon and RubyFrost. Our business was asked, along with many other growers in New York State, to be a cooperating grower to test some of the new varieties. Currently, we have 25 test varieties on our farm. SnapDragon and RubyFrost are included in those 25 varieties. Some of these varieties have proven to be spectacular, while others didn’t fare too well. While growing these new varieties we were able to see how the tree grew, the apple it produced, and to taste all these new combinations. A few sparked our interest, so we asked if we could grow them. In addition to growing SnapDragon and RubyFrost we are now growing six other unnamed varieties from the Cornell program. We have found their flavors are amazing and the later season varieties have storage qualities to keep them in cold storage for many months. The six unnamed varieties are listed on our apple variety list as “Milk Pail” with a number. Milk Pail 95 and Milk Pail 25 are early season apples and have since been harvested and consumed.
We currently have Milk Pail 24 at our store with Milk Pail 49, Milk Pail 50, and Milk Pail 35 coming soon.
Even though it seems to be the “end” of the season we will have 12 different varieties available at our U-Pick Orchard this weekend including Milk Pail 49 and Milk Pail 50.
Here’s an opportunity to try a new variety. Keep in mind as apple harvest continues many rows in our orchard will be empty. Those apples have been offered at the U-Pick earlier in the season, and we have also picked the remaining to sell at our store. Apples cannot stay on the trees forever or else they will drop off and become uneatable. Don’t be dismayed because our late season varieties are just coming into their prime, and we will have apples for picking most likely into the first weekend in November. Also, don’t forget many of our late season varieties store very well in our cold storage.
Even as the winter months set in and our apple trees lose their leaves and go dormant we will still have apples available at our store, Milk Pail fresh market, on Montauk Highway in Water Mill all winter long.
Happy snacking!!!
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