2023 PYO Updates

Our farm and orchard look a lot different this year. At this time of year, the fruit trees should be filled, ready to be picked. Two major weather events that took place earlier this year caused a record loss of PYO fruit for this year. In February 2023, the farm experienced record low (negative double digit) temperatures that effected our entire peach crop. None of our peach trees were able to sustain and as a result, we lost the entire crop. The trees are fine and will produce a crop for next year. All of New England was effected by these record temperatures. Following that event, on May 17th and 18th the nighttime temperatures in our orchard dropped below freezing for a sustained period of time, killing most of the just formed fruitlets. Within a day after this weather event, a majority of the apples growing on the trees were dead and the inside flesh was starting to brown. We experienced a substantial loss along with severe heartbreak!

Different areas of our orchard experienced colder temperatures and will most likely not have any fruit or very little at best. Other areas have lots of beautiful fruit on the trees. Some trees have ugly, discolored and misformed fruit. Mother nature is impossible to tame and can be a tough pill to swallow sometimes. As a result of this event, we are offering a substantial pricing discount on PYO apples this year in the form of ‘Orchard Cleanup’. Our staff can point you to where to pick and even drop you off when you take the hay ride into the orchard. Please keep in mind that this PYO season will be abbreviated and limited. The important thing to remember is that although this years crop is not what you have come to expect from us, the trees were not damaged in any way and we will bounce back from this event moving forward. Our goal continues to be producing top quality fruit.

We are not alone as many orchards in central NH, VT, northeastern Massachusetts and Maine were similarly affected. Some may have a limited Pick Your Own season like we are offering this year. Orchards that fared better than others are helping to provide apples and support to orchards that were hit hard by these weather events. The farming community works well together!

So, what now? Our number one business philosophy has always been to build relationships with our customers, our employees, fellow farmers and others like suppliers and providers of the many things that we require at the farm. We have a full offering of events scheduled this fall that we encourage you to come and check out. We will continue to support our community any way we can and look forward to celebrating the fall season with you. Please let us know if you have any questions, we will be honest and up front as always. We are already planning for 2024 and 2025 and hope that it will be a bit kinder to us. Thank you for your support this season and as always and we look forward to seeing you soon!