Today, I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about how we pick our apples. We do not allow pick your own at our orchard – the trees are just not planted in way that is conducive to pick your own so we decided not to pay for insurance coverage for that on our orchard.

Back to the story:  we have two main pickers - Frank and Jared.  What they do is keep an eye on the apple trees that are coming close to being ready.  They do this by taking an apple, biting into it to taste it and then checking the seeds.  If the apple tastes goods and the seeds are brown or turning brown - it's time to start picking.  Now, they don't just go and pick all the apples off that particular tree. They go through first and pick the largest apples with the best color. Then they wait a few days and pick the largest apples with the best color and repeat.  At some point - for instance, if the apples are starting to drop - they'll go in and just clean the apples off the tree. 

Most trees take 3 to 5 picking sessions for the apples to be completely picked off and others, like the Honeycrisp, will be picked from throughout 10 visits.  By doing this - we're helping control the quality of the fresh apple making its way to you and your home.  This is also the reason some varieties may run out for a day or two.  We pick what is ripe, when it's ripe.  If we sell all the ripe ones we still have to wait for more apples to ripen before we pick them.  
We do our best to keep a consistent stock but it can be difficult with certain varieties.  Now that we've started the Macintosh and Cortland apples we will ALWAYS have these in stock.  We have enough trees that even with select picking we can keep up with demand  of the Macintosh and Cortland. We appreciate your patience with this and I really do try to keep you all as informed as possible daily on the orchard's Facebook page.  Also - if you're concerned about a certain variety - don't hesitate to call us before heading out for the visit (608-635-4780).