Picking away across the Champlain Valley
Apple-picking season is back in Vermont, and orchards across the state are starting to come alive with visitors — and apples.
The Other Paper checked in with three orchards across the Champlain Valley to see what their owners think about this year’s fall fun.
Shelburne Orchards
Shelburne Orchards Owner Nick Cowles to the “door” of the Apple Room
For Nick Cowles, running Shelburne Orchards is a family affair. His dad ran the orchard, and Cowles took it over after his father almost sold the place in 1974. His daughter, Moriah Cowles, is set to take over from him, and he’s excited the orchard will stay in the family.
Cowles is optimistic about the apple season at his orchard this year. About 90 percent of the orchard has been set aside for folks to pick their own apples. This year marks what’s known as a bumper crop, he said, or an unusually large harvest. It comes from a successful growing season with plenty of rain and warm temperatures, he said.
“This year is a big, big year,” he said. “It’s crazy when you drive to the orchard to think that all these apples are gonna get picked. I mean, they’re just row after row after row.”
Along with about 8,000 apple trees, the orchard hosts a band each weekend and offers cider by the glass and doughnuts to go along with it. People who might want to visit by horse will find a special treat: a free apple for their equine friend.
“It’s a wonderful place to bring the kids,” Cowles said. “They’re coming for the apples, but they’re also coming just to get out in the orchard and have something to do.”
Out of all the apple varieties, Macintosh is the clear winner for Cowles, and he even recommends using it in apple pies.
Something to try this fall is the orchard’s brandy — known as Dead Bird Brandy — that Cowles has been making out of apples that drop to the ground. He started this project in 2009, and it takes eight years for the brandy to age.
“It’s the kind of thing that takes numerous generations, really, to make a really good brandy, and we’re feeling pretty good about how it’s all unfolding,” he said.
Yates Family Orchard, Hinesburg
In the Hinesburg-Monkton area, Jessika Yates has been running Yates Family Orchard since 2008. She started out with 2 acres and now manages four times that amount.
Yates thinks this season will be good for business. Her orchard boasts 28 kinds of apples that ripen throughout the fall.
Jessika’s overall favorite? Northern Spy.
“This season is tremendous,” she said, looking out into the trees on a recent afternoon. She expects to have trees full of fruit all season.
One of the main events at Yates Family Orchard is a concert every Sunday through mid-October. Local bands play on the deck overlooking the orchard while guests pick apples, relax at picnic tables and enjoy cider doughnuts.
At the concert Sept. 11, two of Yates’ longtime friends, Margaret Urban and Betsy Brown, came to listen to the Allman Brothers tribute band Soulshine Revival.
Urban said they come back each year because “my community is here.”
Community, and community-building, is important to Yates and part of her orchard’s mission. One way she goes about fostering making that happen? The “dreamee,” a cider doughnut topped with a creamee. It’s become something of a famous offering among locals.
“One of the things that we as a family really enjoy is … that little moment of being able to make someone’s day,” Yates said.
A bag of apples in one hand and a dreamee in the other can do just that, she said.
Golden Apple Family Farm, Charlotte
What would become Golden Apple Family Farm was a feral orchard for years. When Heather and Ramsey Herrington took the land over in 2017, they found rows of neglected trees, and they’ve been locked in an uphill battle trying to save them ever since.
“We’re not quite where we want to be with the trees,” Heather said. But folks can still come taste the orchard’s other goods or have a picnic amid the swaying trees and cooing chickens — and in doing so support the Herrington’s mission to use regenerative agriculture to bring the land back to full health.
The method refers to a rehabilitative approach to farming. There isn’t one clear definition, but it usually involves focusing on the health of the farm as a whole by paying attention to plants, soil and other forms of biodiversity.
For the Herringtons, this looks like mixing wood chips from dead trees into the soil and using grass clippings for mulch. The couple has turned to pigs, chickens and sheep to tackle soil health, too. Instead of using a machine, they rely on pigs to till the soil and sheep to chew down weeds. Compost from the chickens feeds the land.
They have also been helping the trees by pruning them.
“Over a series of years, we take the dead wood out,” Ramsey said. “It gives you a lot of vegetative growth and reduces production in the short term.”
They are also removing dead wood and clearing branches in the center of the trees, which helps bring in sunlight and leads to more fruit.
All this work on the land acts as “a real connector to the property,” Ramsey said. “It’s the place, and the people, and the living aspect of the farm that are seamless.”
Despite the lack of apples, they invite people to enjoy the land and see the historic trees while they work to bring them back into production.
More Orchards
Burtt’s Apple Orchard, Cabot
With over 40 varieties of apples, pears, and tart cherries.
283A Cabot Plains Road
Farm Between, Jeffersonville
Organic pick your own apples and other fruit.
3727 Vermont Route 15
802-644-8332, thefarmbetween@gmail.com
Stony Grove, Cambridge
Apple & blueberry farm, nestled in Pleasant Valley just 5 miles west of Smugglers Notch.
1286 Pratt Road
