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Apple of their eye

May freeze cut into this year’s fruit crop

By Holly Claycomb 7 min read

NEW PARIS -- The leaves are changing, the nights are cooler and thousands of trees in Bedford and Blair counties are heavy with more than 30 varieties of apples, ranging in taste from sweet to tart.

This year, not only did the local orchards have to contend with a late freeze and rather dry summer, but COVID-19 and the subsequent cancellation of most fall festivals -- including Bedford's famed Fall Foliage Festival -- had orchard owners worried.

"We had a pretty good freeze in May," said Jackie Sleek of Sleeks Orchards in New Paris.

While the freeze hurt the numbers "a little bit," Sleek said, it could have been worse.

"I'm very grateful for what we have, considering the weather conditions," she said. "It was not an ideal growing year."

Business brisk

Sleek and other orchard owners said they've seen a good customer turnout, despite COVID-19.

"I think more people are out and about because there is nothing else to do," she said. "We've had a pretty brisk business."

Sleek reported that the orchard lost about 40% of its regular apple crop.

"It went down to 24 degrees, and we were in full bloom," she said. "It froze all the plums, and we only got about 40 percent of our peach crop."

"It was scary," she said. "All in all, 60 percent (of the apple crop) ... I feel fortunate."

"What we do have is pretty nice," she added.

Area orchards are family owned and operated, with each having its own roadside stand.

Sleeks sells the majority of its produce at a stand located just off Route 96, along Wentz Road, and it also supplies other small markets.

"We're not a big orchard," Sleek said. "But, big enough for our family. It keeps us hopping."

Just a few miles further along Route 96, in the heart of New Paris, Boyer Orchards has seen a good turnout for business, too, maybe because more people are staying home.

"I think people are canning, doing more at home," Janet Boyer said. "They're making their own cider for something to do," she reported.

Festivals canceled

Bedford's Fall Foliage Festival normally draws more than 20,000 visitors during each of the first two weekends in October. Those visitors provide an economic boost to both Bedford and Blair counties as many stay in the local hotels, eat at the restaurants, shop at the small businesses and travel the countryside, stopping at the roadside stands.

"We were worried when Fall Foliage was canceled," Janet Boyer said, "but very pleased with the number of people who have come out."

"People have their traditions, and when the leaves change color and the nights get cooler, people get apples," she said.

This year has been strange, Janet Boyer said, noting Boyer Orchards usually holds its own fall festival, and that was canceled, too.

"We've had many phone calls to ask about it," she said. "We can't give out samples or tastings. ... We canceled kids' games."

Janet Boyer said the orchard usually makes three 25-gallon kettles of apple butter each year. But as jars were hard to find, production was cut to just two batches.

"Again, because more people are preparing their own canned goods," she said.

The spring frost caused Boyers to lose nectarines, peaches and plums.

"In May it snowed," Janet Boyer said, noting hail and freeze affects the trees -- freeze will kill the blossoms, while hail will pit the fruit.

Apples tend to be a bit hardier, and Boyers figures to have about 80 percent of the crop this year.

"We're happy with what turned out," she said. "We lost 90 percent of the peach crop. We have some pears, but lost about 80 percent of the pear crop, too, including all of the Asian pears."

What Boyers doesn't sell in their shop, the business ships to Hess Brothers Fruit Co.

"We'll get through this year and hope next year's better with everything,"Janet Boyer said.

Apples 'sweet from the sun'

"In agriculture, it's either feast or famine," Lois Boyer of Ridgetop Orchards said.

Ridgetop Orchards, located in Fishertown, just over the ridge from Boyer Orchards, is owned and operated by the Dan Boyer family. Dan is the brother of Matt and Bruce, who own and operate Boyer Orchards.

The "devastating freeze in May" hit all the orchards hard, Lois Boyer, Dan's wife, said. "It took about half our crop" of apples, she added.

Ridgetop is the largest of the Bedford County orchards and is unique in that it has its own packing facilities, she said, noting packed apples are sent to Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh and Giant Foods in Carlisle.

Other apples are sold on the "front porch" of the packing house, where visitors can pick and pack their own bags.

The apples are a nice size this year, despite the freeze, Lois Boyer said. "They're good and sweet from the sun," she said.

An upside of COVID-19 has been a higher demand for apples, she said. "We've noticed apple sales have increased" despite so many event cancellations.

Overall for the year, "we're optimistic. It could have been a lot worse," she said.

"We were worried through this whole COVID-19 thing. ... We wondered if people would still come out," but sales over the past weekend were "great," she said.

In the Morrisons Cove area, Peach Hill Orchard was also hit hard by the Mother's Day frost, said Marlene Martin, whose family owns the business.

The orchard's namesake fruit suffered a pretty big loss due to the May frost. "We lost over 75 percent of our peach crop," Martin said via an email.

While the market doesn't grow its own apples, they are supplied by local orchards -- Bridenbaugh and Hinish -- and they press apple cider once a week to sell by the gallon and half gallon.

Martin, like Janet Boyer, has also noticed that canning jars and lids are in short supply and thinks that might account for a drop in bulk raw/unpasteurized apple cider used to make apple butter.

"As far as (other) sales, I would say they're about the same" as other years, she said, noting that gathering restrictions probably also factor into the number of people making apple butter.

Following guidelines

October is the busiest month in the local orchards, not only for business but for workers who are out picking the fruit, because when the apples are ripe, they need to be harvested quickly.

While Sleeks, being a smaller orchard, picks their own apples with a help of a few workers they've had on the payroll for years, Boyer and Ridgetop rely on migrant workers who rotate through the states following harvest times.

There was some worry that COVID-19 would hamper the workers' ability to come in to pick, but that hasn't been a problem, Lois Boyer said. Working outside is a plus, and workers in the orchards are naturally spaced apart.

"We've implemented the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, employees wear masks, and we take temperature checks every day," she said, adding that "we want employees healthy. We need them to come to work."

Overall, growers said that between the weather and the pandemic, it's been a challenging year.

"It's a strange world right now," Janet Boyer said. "I hope it gets better."

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