All Apples Harvested

   We've now harvested all remaining apples, ahead of the predicted freeze of 17 F early tomorrow morning.  My husband Bill and I spent most of Wed., Thurs. and today harvesting apples.  So our pick-your-own apple season ended a few days early this year.
   We now have about 2000 pounds of apples in our coolers, 95% of them 'GoldRush'.  We also have about 70 pounds of 'Enterprise', almost all 2nds, and about 50 pounds of many different selections from my apple breeding program, again almost all 2nds.  We should have 'GoldRush' apples for sale until about March or April 2019.

I harvested these 'GoldRush' apples Thurs. morning from the tree at rear and other nearby trees. This morning Bill and I harvested all remaining apples.

   Last year at this time we had over 14,000 pounds of apples in our coolers: about 10,000 pounds of 'Enterprise' and 4000 pounds of 'GoldRush'.  This year's 'Enterprise' crop was greatly reduced by the April 16 freeze, and we had many pick-your-own customers this year.
   Small amounts of harvested #1 apples cost $1.30 per pound + tax.  A 20-lb. box of #1 apples costs $25.00 + tax ($1.25 per pound + tax), which saves $1.00 off the per-pound price. 2nds apples, with small cracks, cork spots, hail damage, or other surface damage, are great for baking, slicing for salads, or for making applesauce or apple butter.  Usually 95% to 99% of each fruit is still usable, but they're 70% or less the cost, at $0.93 per pound + tax for less than 20 pounds and $0.88 per pound + tax for 20 pounds.
   I also harvested as many fall red raspberries as I could late this afternoon, after finishing harvesting the apples, since the freeze will end raspberry harvest.  We now have plenty of red raspberries in our freezer for Bill to make jam, which we sell.  He's also made lots of apple butter in the last couple months.
   Bill was able to start harvesting some early-ripening pecan selections from his pecan breeding program on Oct. 28 and 29.  He dried these for a week, since the moisture content was quite high at harvest after all the rain we've gotten, then he's cracked them in small batches over the last few days.  Rain has precluded further pecan harvest for the last 12 days, but Bill hopes to harvest pecans again in a couple days.

These selections from Bill's pecan breeding program, like all our pecans, have large, thin-shelled nuts and excellent flavor.

   We now have some cracked pecans for sale in 4-pound bags.  Each bag is the equivalent of 6 pounds of in-shell pecans, since our high-efficiency pecan cracking machine blows out most of the shells.  Each bag contains over 75% pecan kernels and less than 25% shell fragments, so when you pick them out, you get over 3 pounds of pecan nutmeats.  Each bag of cracked pecans costs $16.67 + tax.  Our pecan crop was also reduced this year by the April 16 freeze, so we'll sell out of pecans much earlier this year, maybe in late Dec. to mid-Jan. 

The 'Brandywine' red maples I planted around our sales building 7 years ago still have beautiful fall color, after other trees have lost their leaves already.

   We're still open our fall hours, shown in the sidebar at left, until Nov. 30.  You do not need an appointment in fall.  Our phone rings in our house, so if you call during the day, I won't get your message until I come in from working outside or in the sales building.
   For payment, we accept cash or checks (from any state); NO debit cards or credit cards.  Please bring your checkbook or enough cash to cover what you'll buy.  Thanks.