I started harvesting 'Querina' apples a couple days ago and have some for sale, but I just planted the 'Querina' trees 5 years ago, so they aren't bearing too many apples yet. Like all our apple varieties, 'Querina' is immune to apple scab disease, so we don't have to spray for that disease, so we can put on 1/3 fewer fungicide sprays than if we grew scab-susceptible apple varieties such as 'Jonathan'. 'Querina' tastes similar to 'Jonathan' but better, and is firmer.
I just planted 'Querina' trees (right) 5 years ago, so these young trees aren't bearing many apples yet. 'Enterprise' apples (left) will ripen mainly between Sept. 22 and Nov. 5. |
I harvest all the pears and Asian pears, since they're tricky to pick and we need ladders to reach them. (We do not ever allow customers to use ladders to pick fruit.) Our European pear crop was greatly hurt by the 6 frosts during bloom, so we'll have very few European pears for sale this year, only about 5% of a full crop.
I'm still harvesting some 'Shinko' Asian pears. The fruit remaining on the trees are all up high, so I took this photo from high on the ladder before picking some of these. |
I give taste samples of all our apple and pear varieties. See the previous blog post for apple and pear prices.
We have harvested apples and Asian pears for sale in late mornings and afternoons. From Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, as the sidebar at left says, we're open our fall hours: Mon. to Sat. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. only.
Many early mornings I apply herbicides around fruit plants, and I can't see or hear cars come in the driveway while I'm spraying. Some weekday early mornings I'll deliver apples to schools, or may have a dentist appointment. So if you want to come before 10 a.m., please phone 620-597-2450 the day before you come and leave a message saying the day and time you'll come, so I can look for you. Thanks.