Nothing says fall like a trip to the apple orchard, but you may need to take your trip early this year.
"It's 1st come first serve," says Bill Teichman.
His family runs Tree-Mendus Fruits, a 500 acre fruit farm. They have farmed this land since the 1930's, but it's been an unusual year.
"I've never seen anything like this, it really caught us off guard. We always have plenty, more apples than what we need."
Early warm weather in March accelerated the growth of apples. When cold weather came through again, these trees were in trouble.
"When the frost gets into an open blossom it kills the flower parts, and it can't produce an apple."
On top of that, Teichman says it was not good pollinating weather. "So if the apple was poorly pollinated or not pollinated, it fell off in what we call the June drop. And that's when most of our apples fell off the trees, during the June drop."
The combination meant Tree-Mendus Fruits only had 50 percent of their apples this year.
"It's not an ideal harvesting year, but there's enough apples here for a harvest. We're thankful for that."
U-Pick customers get first dibs of that harvest, even with a 30% price jump. Teichman doesn't think that will defer customers. "I think people come out to U-Pick apples, mainly for the experience and they're just harvesting less."
And these customers agree.
"This is very much a tradition to visit the farm in the fall and have the grandchildren experience the apples and peaches and best cherries...come from here in the state at Tree-Mendus fruit farm," says Graham Schadt.
"We decided this morning to come and pick apples. We love this," says Antonio Euvias.
Apple picking season may be cut short this year, but the experience will be just as enjoyable.
For information on the amount of apples available before you make a trip, you can call Tree-mend us Fruits' Ripe and Ready line at 269-782-7101.
