Mad Tom Orchard

We closed out our freeze -abbreviated weekends – only season today.  Still a small crop, but sales  were better than we expected by a factor of two.  Lots of people made the extra effort to look inside the trees for fruit that was not frost damaged.  Many people made the walk to find good Macintosh on the 83 year old trees in the upper corner of the orchard.

We had a lot of help from our family for the donut making and to  make the sales go smoothly in the barn.

The Vermont Foodbank will glean some of the few remaining apples this week.   The photo shows Sylvia at closing today with time to knit on the sweater I am supposed to get for Christmas.

Thanks for helping us make a shortened harvest better. We appreciate all the great customer support. We hope to have a full crop next year and see you all again.  Tom & Sylvia.

This weekend will finish our season.  There will be limited amounts of Northern Spy and Golden Delicious which will probably be picked out by Saturday noon.  There are still some Galas and a surprising number of Macintosh on the 83 year old trees – minimal drops.  Picking poles will be on a pallet out in the old orchard to help reach the higher fruit.

There is more Havoc Hill maple syrup plus another 180 1/2 gallons of Dutton’s cider AND more donuts – the donut crew made 2500 donuts last weekend and are set up to do it again this weekend.

The weekend weather looks excellent – come help us windup this year’s better than expected harvest.

Really good turn out last weekend.  Honeycrisps were pretty much picked out on Saturday.

Picking will start for Crimson Crisps – one of our favorite late season apples – sweet tart flavor improves in storage – keeps until March or April in your refrigerator.  Because of the freeze, only a moderate number of Crimson Crisps are out there.

Still good Macintosh on the 83 year old trees uphill near the fence.  Some Galas near the barn and Macouns in the last three rows at the bottom of the hill.

We have resupplied our cider from Dutton’s and syrup from Havoc Hill Sugarhouse. Plus the donut crew will be cranking out more donuts.  Come help us celebrate our next to last weekend.

Photo shows some of those bright red Crimson Crisps

Very good turnout for our opening weekend – saw lots of familiar faces.  We toured the orchard yesterday and saw there are still good Macintosh – especially on the  83 year old trees.

We also saw that there were more Honeycrisps , Cortlands, and Macouns that we thought – SO, this weekend (September 16 & 17) we will open up for picking these varieties as well as the Macintosh and Galas.

With the reduced crop from the freeze, this will be your main chance to get some Honeycrisps  – not as plentiful as most years, but still some out there – especially inside the trees.  Pick the ones with the most color.

The later ripening Crimson Crisp crop also looks better than we thought and we now plan to open them for picking on both September 23’rd and 30’th weekends.  The last September 30’th weekend will also have some Northen Spy’s and Golden Delicious.

So come come see us and help get the crop picked  – the donut crew will be cranking out donuts and there is cider and maple syrup.