Mad Tom Orchard

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

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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

Sunday September 28 was our last day for the 2025 season – four good weekends,  but not enough apples.  For already picked apples go to Duttons Farm Stand on Rt 11 & 30 in Manchester.  For pick your own apples try larger orchards like Champlain Orchards in Shoreham or Wellwood Orchards in Springfield.

Our daughter Laura came up from North Carolina to help at the start of harvest. Our daughter Lisa and husband Jan were here every weekend helping in the barn, setting up flower displays at the barn and renovating flower beds at our house.  Daughter Jennifer and her husband Frank were also here every weekend – Jennifer and Sylvia made 8000 donuts and Frank ran operations in the barn – they will be taking over the orchard sometime before we are too far into our 90’s.

Glad we were able to see so many familiar people and quite a few new ones.  It was nice to have such beautiful weather.  Look forward to a bigger harvest next year.  Tom & Sylvia.

Lisa & Jan

Jennifer & Frank

Tom & Sylvia

It will be a scavenger hunt this weekend for apples.  The most fruit available is Macintosh at either end of the old orchard.  There are good Macintosh drops and some drops of other varieties.

They are making donuts now and we still have cider and syrup.  Looks like good weather – come get a few more apples.  Tom