This coming weekend will be Thanksgiving at the orchard and we will be open Friday, Oct. 9th, to, and including, Monday, Oct. 12th. Although this has been an extraordinarily difficult year, we do, as we have shared, have a lot to be thankful for. We are now making delicous juice with our ugly apples. The lab tests have come back saying the juice is excellent, so we are going ahead. People are buying the apples for cooking, sweet and hard cider and even eating- these are people who don’t mind the bumps, bruises and scabs.
That being said, we are really looking forward to next year. We are hoping and praying that this year’s hail storms have not damaged the trees and that we will have a normal crop next year. We have heard a number of comments this week from people saying how nice it is that everything has turned out so well this season after such a rough beginning. While we hear the sentiment, we also realize the somewhat stark reality. We are estimating that we are going to make about 10% of what we would usually make on apple revenue in a normal year. This is quite a hit. We continue to feel badly for all our pickers and stand helpers who have lost their jobs with us this year. However, when we start to sink a bit, we remind ourselves that we do, indeed, have a lot to be grateful for and that is what this thanksgiving is going to be all about. Come to the orchard, get your ugly apples, great apples juice, wonderful squash, pumpkins with character, jams, garlic, honey, maple syrup and pottery. 
At the orchard this week
Lobos- at the very end- your last chance- a great cooking and eating apple
Macintosh- come and try some truly ripe Macs- a wonderful treat- good for cooking and eating
Cortlands- delicious for cooking and eating- some wonderful picking in the south standard trees
Spartan and Empire- an easy pick now- lots of them, some badly hit, some not too bad at all- a treasure hunt
Heritage apples- St. Lawrence, Wolf River, Lawfam, Golden Russet-if you haven’t heard of, or tried, these varieties, now is the time.
