Bumper apple crop keeping producers and sellers busy
Photo by Linda Gallagher
Despite the summer drought, a bountiful apple crop is keeping area fruit producers like Vince and Tim Cooper, of Elk Rapids, busy picking a wide variety of apples. Above, Vince is shown with a sampling of apples grown in the family's 10-acre orchard.
REGION – Business was brisk last Thursday afternoon at Farmer White's farm market south of Elk Rapids.
Inside, customers browsed the fresh produce, canned goods and homemade bakery items, while others were busy outside choosing their fall pumpkins.
Several of those customers were examining the different varieties of apples available for sale, and throughout the building there was the heavenly scent of homemade apple pie in the air.
It's apple season in northern Michigan, and once again – despite uncertain weather conditions – Mother Nature has been generous.
Experiencing more than a month without any rain last summer, Farmer White's has a good crop of apples this year, according to Vince Cooper, who with his brother Tim grows a wide variety of table and cooking apples in the farm's 10-acre orchard.
"We didn't get a lot of some of our early varieties – like Early Blaze and Jersey Mac apples – because of the lack of water," said Vince Cooper. "We don't have irrigation, so it was pretty dry for us. But the rain came just in time."
In fact, too much precipitation is now a concern as the harvest of later-ripening apple varieties goes into high gear.
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