This May, much of Vermont experienced a-typical freezing temperatures. Casey Darrow, co-owner of Green Mountain Orchards, said his orchard lost 90% of its crop in that freeze. As of early October, the orchard had just crossed the threshold of its 3,000th bushel picked. Typically, a season comprises 50,000 bushels.
Darrow said that despite the early signs of devastation, the crew waited a good long while into the summer before making a call about whether its pick-your-own operation would be able to run this year. Some varieties of apples looked like they might be okay, albeit small and perhaps misshapen. But as summer went on, it seemed less tenable.
“Pretty late in the summer, we finally just said, ‘No, we can’t open for pick-your-own,’” said Darrow. “We’d sell out in one weekend, we’d have to tell people where the fruit is and isn’t, and they’ll be disappointed because they’re small and misshaped.”
Source: thetakeout.com
