August is usually just the start of our harvest season. We normally begin picking towards the end of August with the early apples: Transcendent Crab, Sweet Bough, and Victoria Limbertwig and proceed slowly and gradually into picking the later apples. Not this year! We started picking the "early" apples the middle part of July and actually began fermenting the first of August. The rest of the apples appear to all be about two or three weeks ahead of schedule...so now we're starting to pick the mid-season apples...Egremont Russet, Nehou, and all the rest of the crabapples. It's going to be a hectic pressing and fermenting couple of months! It looks like we'll finish up well before Thanksgiving so will still be contending with yellow jackets which are fierce this year in the orchard.
We were so pleased with our new bottling operation; we actually got everything all finished up with the 2015 harvest a couple of weeks ago before starting the 2016 harvest. Lou's new pasteurizer makes all the difference in the world; if you're interested, you can take a look at it during one of our tours.
Speaking of which, we are now offering tours and tastings here on the farm, as well as cider sales. These have been very popular since so many people are interested in the actual making of cider. We are happy to provide private tours and tastings by reservation for groups of folks during the week; the farm and tasting room is open for visitors (weather permitting) "from bloom to picking" every week-end.
We were *THRILLED* to be awarded a silver medal during the Dan Berger International Cider Competition...a great feeling to know our cider style is appreciated by these acclaimed and knowledgeable judges.
We look forward to seeing more visitors in the weeks ahead...be sure to stop in if you're in the area!
Cheers!
musings from the farm...
