Mad Tom Orchard

Great opening day today – saw lots of repeat customers who picked some very nice fruit on a very pleasant day.  Plenty more fruit available.

Our daughter Jennifer and granddaughter Katie fired up the donut robot for our grandson’s wedding last weekend,  so we know there will be DONUTS this  Saturday and Sunday.

The red wagons got a good workout today.  Photo shows the wagons reappearing today at the end of a beautiful day.

Weather forecast for both Saturday and Sunday looks good.  Come see us and take home some great apples, some Dutton’s cider, Zecher’s maple syrup AND a few donuts.  Good supply of Mad Tom hats, Tshirts and sweat shirts on hand as well.  Tom & Sylvia

Our 2026 season will start On Friday September 4 with some very good Zestars and Ginger Golds – both are great for eating – Zestars are a great baking apple as well.  There will be some tart Macintosh and the some of the Galas are ripe.

it will be a good crop this year – more fruit than last year when rain kept the bees away during bloom.

Donuts will be available Saturday and Sunday.  Come see us – Tom & Sylvia

Four more weeks – looks like it will be a good crop – more apples than last year,  but freeze on April 20 will keep it from being as big as 2024.

First to ripen will be Zestars, Ginger Gold and some Premiers.   There will be some tart Macintosh – less tart a week later.  We are putting in stock of maple syrup from Zecher’s Havoc Hill Sugar house and Dutton’s cider.

In addition to getting ready for apple harvest we are busy finishing preparations for a grandson’s  wedding at the orchard on Saturday August 29.  Donut machine will get fired up for the guests.

With the renovation complete on the original Red Farm house, our daughter Jennifer and her husband Frank have been able to spend more time up here helping as they take on more of the orchard operations.

The photo shows three year old Janey enjoying the shade under one of our now 86 year old Macintosh trees.  We hope she will be able to curb her excitement in the barn this year  to greet customers during the week.

Look forward to seeing you.

We finished up our pruning at the end of April.  Son-in-law Frank was a BIG help spending ten days up here helping get it done.  Then we spent ten days getting all the piles of brush picked up and run thru the chipper.

We hope to have made it thru a 21 degree morning on April 20 without a big crop loss when the buds were starting to open on many of the trees.  The cold weather has slowed down the bloom development, but now flowers are opening late on many varieties – the last photo shows many flowers on some small Honeycrisp trees.  Now we need some sunny weather for the bees to come out.

Sylvia and I are staying healthy and looking forward to seeing you in the fall.

this next one is supposed to be a video of brush being chipped – click on the 5109 link

IMG_5109  

Every one is in good health, fortunately, and trees are all doing well with plenty of fruit buds.   Lots of steps to get to harvest time.   We need more sun and less rain during bloom than last year.

Pruning was slow with so much snow in January and February – photo shows we are making headway.  Pruning goes much faster without the snow.  There are several hundred more trees to prune and then we need to feed all the brush thru the chipper.

Put us on your fall schedule – we look forward to seeing you – Tom & Sylvia