What better way to ring in the fall season than to pick apples. There are a number of orchards and farms in our area. Whether you like sweet or tart, there are many varieties to choose from. For the last installment of Grown in New York, Iris St. Meran went to Abbott Farms to see what makes an apple perfect for picking.
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. -- If an apple day keeps the doctor away then you're in the right place if you make your way to an orchard like Abbott Farms in Baldwinsville.
"We grow 20 different varieties. Some are pretty common household names like Macintosh and Cortland. We also have some weird ones that you never heard before like a brand new variety called Snap Dragon. There's another one called Ruby Frost which is very late on in the season," said Michael Blair, the Abbott Farms production manager.
Not bad considering they started off as a small family farm in 1866. They started by raising chickens, pigs, cows. As time went on the surrounding areas became more developed. With grocery stores popping up around the area, they had to change the way they did business and added berries and other crops as a way to draw people back.
"We offer a lot of educational opportunities. We gear our entire farm around that concept of U-Pick. We try to make it as people friendly as we can," said Blair. He added Abbott Farms has been in the apple picking business for 50 to 60 years. They add a new variety for picking every 5 to 7 days. While it takes mere seconds to pick your apple more time is needed to grow them just right.
"Growing an apple takes an entire year. Next year's crop is actually starting right now. The buds are setting on the tree and those will be the flowers in the spring," said Blair.
And now that we're in the fall season, they're the perfect size for picking. What makes an apple good, Blair said the bigger the better plus a trained eye helps.
"Color is a very, very good indicator especially on a red apple, if it's a really nice, deep red color is what you're looking for. The other one too, most red apples are red and yellow when they're fully ripe," Blair said. "A really good way to do it is to lift it up and if the bottom side is really yellow that means the fruit is ripe all the way through."
In this business you can't prevent an apple from falling to the ground. The ones that do cannot be sold but they don't go to waste. Abbotts actually uses them to make cider.
"Fortunately because of a pasteurization treatment that we do on our apple cider we are able to use our dropped apples. We keep them completely separate from the regular apples; use totally different equipment so there's no kind of cross contamination. Because of that we're able to produce a lot of cider," said Blair.
And there's a core meaning in every bunch, when life gives you a dropped apple you make apple cider. And you can cheers to that.
Abbott Farms offers more than just apples. To learn more about them visit: www.abbottfarms.com.