***The following is an excerpt from our e-newsletter on 09/15/2016. Please subscribe to get updates delivered right to your inbox.***
Hi everyone,
It’s been a crazy last couple of weeks here at the Orchard!! We’re in the middle of apple and grape harvest, peaches are still being picked, we opened Bent Ladder, and we hosted a Hard Cider Run! I’m kind of surprised we’re all still upright and relatively functional at this point.
Apple harvest is moving along. Our u-pick apples will probably be starting around the 23rd, just in time for our first Fall Festival weekend. In the meantime, we have 9 varieties available that we’ve already picked, including Gala, McIntosh, Jonathan, and Honeycrisp. We’ll be adding to the list with Crimson Crisp, Rubinola, Fuji, and Cortland within the next few days. At the risk of being repetitive, remember you can check our What’s Ripe page for…well…what’s ripe.
I’ve started picking our Encore peaches, which is our last peach variety for the year. We’ll have them for the next few days until they sell out. It’s a little bittersweet. I’m going to miss having peaches, but I’m pretty happy I’ll have 10 months before I have to pick any more of them.
Fall Festival Weekends
Our Fall Festival Weekends this year will be the last weekend of September and the first two weekends of October: Sept 23-25, Sept 30-Oct 2, and Oct 7-9.We’ve got a ton of activities lined up. U-pick apples will be open for all three weekends (unless we get picked out), and u-pick pumpkins will be going for at least the two October weekends. We have music lined up, adoption days for the Wayne County Humane Society, food trucks, demonstrations, appearances by Johnny Appleseed, fruit carving, wagon rides, and so much more.
I thought about including a list of activities here in the newsletter, but I decided that would make my already long newsletter beyond unruly. So instead, you can click on the button below if you’re interested, to go to our Events page.
Also speaking of events, mark your calendars for our Pumpkin Patch Party on October 15th. Pumpkin picking, decorating, balloon entertainers, and acclaimed children’s author Conrad Storad will be doing two book reading/signing sessions!
Bent Ladder
I just sent out our first newsletter for Bent Ladder yesterday morning. I don’t want to repeat everything for those of you who subscribe to that newsletter also, so I’ll just include a link. You can see our first Bent Ladder newsletter here.It’s a separate newsletter (even though at the moment, I’m writing both. *ahem*), so if you want to find out about all the cool stuff we’ll be doing on the beverage side of things (or just can’t get enough of me), you should subscribe here.
But for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I’ll mention just a couple of the highlights. Our tasting room is open now on Saturdays from 12 – 9pm. We currently have our Original and our Heirloom cider on tap, with hopefully another one being added by this weekend. We’ll be expanding our hours and flavors as we go. Alright, I’m getting too repetitive. You really should read and subscribe to the other newsletter if you’re interested.
One thing I did forget to mention (I’ll blame the lack of sleep here) was our “under 21” policy for the tasting room and Bent Ladder grounds. To summarize, before 5pm, we welcome guests of all ages. Children must be supervised and remain with their parents. But after 5pm, all guests must be 21 years of age or older.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, we have a website over at bentladder.com. I’ll be adding a lot more functionality in the coming weeks, now that we have ciders finished and things are getting up and running.
Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for reading and for your interest in our farm, and I hope to see you soon!
-Chris
I had one of your new “mystery” apples and it was the BEST apple I have ever had!!! Coming back today hoping to get a bunch of them!!!
I’m glad you liked it so much! The reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive. I might see about growing some more trees of it…I wish I had more!