Apple Season Begins and Apple U-Pick

We start apples every year with Paula Reds, Sanza, and now our first crop of Zestar. (oh I had 2 1/2 bushel of Lodi too)These are summer apples that do not store well and they taste great. We try to only grow enough to get us to the fall varieties which keep well and deliver a better all round flavor. The Heirloom apple block has it’s first crop (not many) and I have no experience with these varieties. Last week I noticed the Gravenstiens were large and a few were turning dark red and soft while the rest were firm and green. So we went through them and picked any that had started to turn red. They have a nice flavor but there is going to be a learning curve on how to handle and market this apple. By the middle of last week we began picking our first commercial variety of the year, Ginger Gold. This apple ripens the first week of September and is crisp and sweet. We grow more than we can market ourselves so we picked the first 50 bins(1000 bu) to send to Sparta to the packing house for grocery stores. We have to pick them a lot greener than we like for this market so now we will wait a week or so and then pick for ourselves. At the M88 location we are going to offer apple u-pick on Ginger Golds while they last. Then there will be a luul in the apples until we start McIntosh about the 12 of Sept.
The Bartlett Pears have started to come in too. The field workers hand thinned all of the pear trees last spring so we have good size and we are excited about the quality. Jim had the crew spot pick 100 bushel (spot pick is selecting just big ones to get it started) and we have them in the farm markets and they sold well at the Detroit Eastern Market to the Independent grocers who buy from us there. They are still rock hard but they are sweet so we are going to keep them coming.
The first Prune plums are coming in and they are big and sweet too. We let them hang on the tree longer than some growers do to get them sweeter. We should have them coming in for several weeks.
Peach season is winding down. Today will be the last day for u-pick as they are getting soft on the tree. We will have them in the market for another week or so. Nectarines are almost gone and Apricots are done. Peaches, Apricots, and Nectarines are fun to sell but they are a struggle to get picked and sold. The crew goes over each block at least 3 times selecting just the ripest ones that have not grown soft yet. Most of them are then packed into cardboard boxes for sale at Detroit Eastern Market , Benton Harbor Fruit Market, or to the customers who pick up directly. We can’t sit on them for more than a few days so we do a lot of calling if we have a glut to find homes. It is a pressure packed 3 weeks and it comes just as we are finishing our exhausting cherry season. We always ask ourselves.”what was I thinking when I planted all of these?”. Apple season has it’s perils but they are not so perishable as the stone fruit, and we are not under the same pressure with apples.
This coming week we are going to get the cider press set up, and we will have to make some improvements. We won’t rush into cider pressing until we have several fall varieties in to make a good blend.