Tuesday marks the first day of fall, and some orchards that were hit hard by spring frost are happy to be open.
Trees full of apples are a welcome sight to the owner of Sweet Acres Orchard.
Earlier this year, he thought they’d only have enough apples for a one-day event with their antique cider press.
Freezing temperatures in April hit their orchard hard.
It didn’t look like they would be offering apple picking this fall, and that wasn’t due to lack of trying.
“We went out about two in the morning. Me, my wife, my two kids, and we each took a little section of the orchard and set the bills on fire. And kind of sat back and waited to see what was going to happen,” said Sweet Acres Orchard owner Wesley Roberts.
At first, it didn’t look promising.
“That week, I went out and started cutting buds open, and they didn’t look that great, and they kind of confirmed it,” Roberts said.
With fire and prayer, perhaps what visitors now see and taste are the fruits of their labor.
“A lot of our customers have been coming here for, some of them, 60 years they’ve been coming here. And it’s good to see them come back,” Roberts said.
They have some Cortlands, a lot of Empires and a good amount of Northern Spies. It’s enough for them to open for apple picking.
Sweet Acres Orchard is open but closed on Mondays and Tuesdays this year.