Sennett, NY -- When the apples are ready for picking it usually means the start of school is right around the corner. But not this year. Apples are being picked this week and school is still a month off. "I started picking my Jerseymacs today,' Owen Orchards owner Gordon Tripp said Wednesday. "And they look great." Like many other...
Dave Tripp, a co-owner of Owen Orchards in Sennett, Cayuga County, said apples are two weeks early this year. His workers began picking his first variety, Jerseymacs, on Wednesday.Sennett, NY -- When the apples are ready for picking it usually means the start of school is right around the corner. But not this year. Apples are being picked this week and school is still a month off.
"I started picking my Jerseymacs today,' Owen Orchards owner Gordon Tripp said Wednesday. "And they look great."
Like many other crops in Central New York, apples are running 10 days to two weeks ahead of their normal picking schedule.
While Tripp picked Wednesday, Dennis Ouellette at Ontario Orchards in Oswego town will be picking today, Warren Abbott at Abbott Farms in Lysander will begin this weekend and Peter Fleckenstein at Beak & Skiff in LaFayette said picking for apples going to grocery stores will begin next week.
The warmth in April got the trees off to a good start, followed by a hot, sunny summer with plenty of rain that plumped the apples and filled them with sweetness. Growers said the only problems this season were two frosts one in late April, the other the second week of May.
Temperatures on those days dipped below freezing and as low as 27 degrees in some places.
Peter Gregg, speaking for the New York Apple Association, said ill effects from the frost were "sporadic and arbitrary," with some growers reporting significant losses while others having little to none.
Growers in Central New York were out in force with smudge pots, wind machines and whatever else they could find to keep the precious apple flowers and buds from freezing.
"We lost nothing," Ouellette said. "We are close enough to the lake (Lake Ontario, which provides insulation). We're very fortunate."
Tripp said he lost about 50 percent of his Ginger Gold variety, but all of his other varieties are fine.
Abbott said his apples came through the frost unscathed, but he lost nearly all his cherries and most of his Italian prunes.
"The apples are excellent," Abbott said. "They had water, sun, heat."
Of the 61 days in June and July, only six in Central New York were considered not sunny or at least partly sunny, according to the National Weather Service website.
The large amount of sunshine also will make the apples sweeter than in past years, growers said. "The flavor is excellent. The sugar levels are higher than normal," Fleckenstein said.
Gregg and Fleckenstein said prices this year will be about the same as last year. Fleckenstein said Beak & Skiff sold apples for about 78 cents a pound last year.
"We don't think the consumers will see a fluctuation in prices," Gregg said.
Harvest of early season varieties, like Jerseymacs, Tydemans and Ginger Golds begins this week in Central New York followed closely by Paula Reds. The McIntosh harvest, considered the traditional kick off to the apple season, will begin in mid-August in most regions of the state.
Apple numbers
The five-year official crop numbers in New York:
2010 27 million bushels (an estimate)
2009 32.8 million bushels (a record)
2008 29.8 million bushels
2007 31.1 million bushels
2006 29.7 million bushels
2005 24.7 million bushels
New York grows apples on 50,370 acres. It ranks second in the nation in apple production behind Washington state.
Source: New York Apple Association
Contact Debra J. Groom at dgroom@syracuse.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586.