As we drove to our friends up on top of Blue Mountain we passed several orchards. One was on the sideroad where it was safe to stop for pictures, so I bring you a report on the apple harvest. We saw the farmers and the team of apple pickers, probably from Jamaica, just wrapping up for the day.
This was not one of the largest orchards, but still a good size, with rows and rows of densely planted younger trees stretching off onto the distance.
There were some very young trees, but they still had a good crop.
We were surprised at how densely laden the trees were; it's a good illustration of the crop to be gained from high density planting - and so much safer and faster for picking.
They were using a lot of the new plastic apple crates, but still had some of the traditional wooden ones filled. It looked like a good crop to us.
These crates are all standardized for easy handling in the apple processing plant. Many farms have an on-farm store, but the bulk of the high quality apples are marketed to grocery stores and the rest for juice. Most of the apple pickers are migrant workers from either Jamaica or Mexico, and most come back to the same farm year after year, so that they become like a seasonal family. The season starts in late August and is mostly over by the end of October here.
A splendid sight to behold. We have a few orchards left around here but haven't met any of the pickers on my travels, ours usually come from Eastern Europe.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of apples.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful rosy red apples, a delight to see all those rows. Down here the strawberry farms are struggling to find enough pickers, with Covid 19, and people not coming into our country, there are not enough pickers. Guess the locals don't want to work so hard for such little pay. In my eyes, any pay is better than NO pay.
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed at the number of apples on each tree!
ReplyDeleteThe orchards aren’t open in our area yet. I hope they didn’t suffer much damage from the sub tropical storm which went through the last day. Last year the damage from Dorian was significant.
ReplyDeleteThe old orchards with full-sized trees are fast fading from the scene as orchardists adopt dwarf varieties grown on wires to ease picking. Soon there will be robots picking those apples and putting many people out of work. Last weekend we picked several bushels of apples at a local orchard that still has full sized trees. It's been so dry here that our tree dropped all its apples weeks ago as did other nearby apple trees.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of apples. Around here we love any dessert made with them. Well, actually we love any dessert.Period.
ReplyDeleteI love apples and just finished a wonderful Fuji. :-)
ReplyDeleteThose apples look good!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post!
ReplyDeleteWe have a farm down the road. They had such issues getting their workers here.
It's too bad we have to import labour. Our farmers have written that they rely on the expertise of their farm hands.
That is awesome! I can't believe the crop on those small trees! The apples look unblemished too which is amazing. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Memories of picking apples for a local farmer as a young teen-ager still remain with me. Cold crisp late September mornings climbing a wooden ladder up into the trees with a basket in hand. I will always remember the sweet smell of the apple orchard as well on those crisp autumn mornings. I also remember how cold the apples were first thing in the morning and my hands would be freezing.
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I think the way the trees are trained is so very interesting. Seems much more efficient.
ReplyDeleteWe grow a lot of apples in this part of our state. Our weather is good for it unless the early freeze takes off the blossoms.
ReplyDelete