Newsletter | Bishops' Orchard

APPLE NOTES '24

Producing the 2024 Crop

We ended our 2023 u-pick sales in the third week of October. We then focused on picking our hard cider apples. We were plugging along at a leisurely pace, picking the different varieties as they ripened. Then the weather reports began to show an arctic air mass moving in, with overnight lows in the teens and low 20's by the end of the month. This spurred us into action, with all hands on deck to finish up before the apples froze. The final apples were gathered by tractor light on October 27. That night, the temperature dropped to 24, followed by 16 and 18 the next two nights... and so ended harvest 2023.

The inquiring mind might ask, “why all of the panic about getting the apples in before the freeze; couldn’t we just use the wind machines in the orchard to chase the cold air away?” Actually, no; the wind machines are very effective for dealing with inversionary frosts, but not so much dealing with arctic air blasts. Inversions form when a warm day is followed by a cool night. In such cases, the air warmed by the sun through the day raises at dusk, replaced by cool air that follows, settling at ground level. When the wind machines are activated, they mix the warm, upper-level air with the cool, ground level air, thus boosting the air temperature at tree level. In contrast, when an arctic air mass moves in, it pushes all of the air out of the area, replacing it with cold air straight off the tundra. This is why we don’t bother with wind machines when arctic air blasts occur.

During the winter months, we busied ourselves repairing machinery, pruning, and getting ready for the spring rush. As you may recall, the 2023-24 winter was relatively mild, as was the spring. For sure, there were nasty days, but there were also many mild days. For example, there was a long string of days in the mid-50's and 60's. We were grateful for the mild weather, and spent a lot of time in the orchard. Flower buds on the apple and pear trees began to stir right on schedule, the grass turned green, and all was well. Then came the early morning hours of April 17. The frost alarm woke us just after midnight with its irritating, high pitched squeal. We piled out of bed and hustled out to start the wind machines. Once they were up and running, we returned to the house and settled down for what we thought would be a long, uneventful night. About an hour later, we realized the wind machine in the new, west orchard had come to a stop. We worked until 3:00 a.m. attempting to restart the thing, all to no avail. We were able to pin-point the problem as being somewhere in the propane fuel delivery system, but being hours away from any replacement parts, we accepted the reality that the blossom buds were on their own. By then, the temperature was closing in on 17° and the damage had been done; in those two hours, we lost about half the crop in the new orchard. It was truly an interesting experience coming to terms with the fact that there was nothing more we could do but pout. We did get the wind machine back online as soon as the final repair parts arrived a few days later; the wind machine now sports an entirely new propane fuel system.

The experience with the wind machine failure led us to revisit the possibility of using electric-powered machines. Back when we acquired our first machine in the 1980's, we had considered the option of going electric. At the time, there was nothing reasonably available to provide adequate coverage for our orchard. After the April 17 fiasco, we discovered there is now a machine on the market that would provide coverage superior to that provided by our existing machines, and we learned of a Federal grant program that would cover up to half the cost to replace our existing, propane powered machines with electric. We were pretty excited when we learned this but, after putting pencil to paper, we realized the switch to electric would be cost prohibitive, even with a 50% grant.

First bloom occurred immediately after the arctic blast incident. Full bloom occurred on May 9, which is just about average for our orchard. The early bloom period was punctuated by pollination problems due to wind and rain, and to pollinator availability. The pears suffered the worst because they bloom before apples; they were mostly pollinated by wild bees and other pollinating insects. Once the sun came out and we had ample bees to handle the pollination chores, we had good fruit set for everything but pears; the pear crop will be limited this year.

Summer was a busy time for us. We were short on labor most of the summer, thus keeping us focused on keeping up with the weeds and maintaining the irrigation system - we had little time to undertake any of the projects we had planned for the summer. The hot, dry summer helped immensely with our weed control efforts, but it also affected the size of some of our apples. The west side of the Summer Red rows in the new orchard took a real beating in the sun, leading us to wonder if we should install shade netting in the Summer Red block next year to provide them with some relief from the sun.

As of this date in late August, we are thankful for the crop we have. It certainly isn’t the biggest we have ever had, but there should be enough apples and cider for everyone. The McIntosh on trellis look especially good, as do the Cortlands in the far north trellis block. The free-standing Cortlands in the south side of the new orchard will be limited, as will the Wealthy and Empires, but the Liberty apples are looking good as of the date of this writing.

Opening day

We expect to open for picking on September 7. The Summer Reds will be the first apples ready, followed quickly by the Wealthy. Next in line after Wealthy will be McIntosh and others. Pears should come on about the same time as the McIntosh, but the pear crop will be small. Please see the “Harvest Schedule” page for more precise information regarding the harvest schedule.

Hours

Our hours for the 2024 harvest will be:

Thursday, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., picking only

Friday, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., picking only

Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., picking and cider

Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., picking and cider

All other days and times we will be closed to allow us time to complete our day-to-day orchard chores, and to pick apples for the cider operation. PLEASE NOTE, THE CIDER PRESSES ARE AVAILABLE BY RESERVATION ONLY, AND ONLY ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. We are not open on school holidays or week days other than Thursday and Friday. If you look up our orchard hours on any internet site other than our website or our Facebook page, you may not receive the correct hours or days we are open. We will not be able to accommodate anyone coming to the orchard other than the hours specified above for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Cider making

CIDER MAKING WILL BE BY RESERVATION ONLY

THERE WILL BE A TWO GALLON MINIMUM

We will begin taking reservations for cider making on September 9. The first day of cider making will be September 14. Cider making will be available on Saturdays and Sundays only, and will run until we are out of cider apples. To request a reservation, email your request to bishopsorchard@completebbs.com. We will not consider any reservation requests by telephone because of the difficulty in keeping track of telephonic requests. All requests must include all of the following information:

1. The number of anticipated cider-makers in your group;

2. The number of gallons you anticipate making;

3. Your preference for a date and time; and

4. Your contact number in case we need to contact you with last minute scheduling changes.

This information allows us to schedule enough time for you to make your cider. If your request for a reservation does not include all of the information requested, we may not be able to schedule you in, and we may not have time to contact you for the missing information. There is a two gallon minimum. If you find you have enough time to continue making cider after completing the gallons you estimated in your request for a reservation, you should feel free to continue making cider until your allotted time is up. Please try to be on time for your scheduled time slot. If you arrive late, we probably won’t be able to adjust your allotted time.

The reservation system has worked fairly well the last two years. However, we still have folks who email and ask “what times are available on such and such day,” or “how does the schedule look for such and such day.” If we don’t know what your time preferences are, it is pretty hard to answer those questions and we may not respond.

Due to the demands on our time, it sometimes takes one or two days for us to respond to reservation requests. If it happens that you request a reservation, then don’t hear from us after two days, please don’t hesitate to call (509-635-1276) and leave a message; we will then look into the matter. We never intentionally ignore anyone (after all, we are in the business of selling what we grow) but, please remember, we are a one horse operation and, like anyone, can get overwhelmed when suddenly everyone wants to make cider on the same day at the same time. This is especially so when folks make a same day or late night request for the next day - in such cases, we often don’t see the request until after the fact. Also, if you schedule a reservation, but then discover you can’t make it, please let us know as soon as you can. Otherwise, we will probably take a dim view of your future requests for a reservation unless you have a pretty good reason for not letting us know.

Cider making safety

You will need to remember to bring your own jugs and containers for the cider - we don’t have any spare jugs. Jugs and containers should be clean. Like any natural fruit juice, cider can become contaminated by harmful bacteria. Using good food preparation habits while handling cider is a must to minimize the risk of bacterial contamination. The biggest risk of contamination comes from those handling the cider, an important vector being unwashed hands. To reduce risk of contamination, ALWAYS wash your hands before you begin making cider, and keep them clean until you are done and the cider is in the jug. You will be responsible to assure that your cider is free of bad bacteria. The only practical method that we know of to completely eliminate the risk of bacterial contamination is pasteurization. Pasteurization is a relatively simple process; it involves heating the raw cider to approximately 160° F, then quickly cooling and storing it in good, clean containers. By no means should you boil the cider - boiling destroys the unique flavor of cider. Once pasteurized, the cider should be refrigerated and treated with the same care as any other food.

Pest control

It used to be that each edition of the Apple Notes newsletter included update on pest control. The early days of the orchard (1970's and 80's) were marked by endless battles to control harmful pests. Codling moth, apple scab, and fire blight gave us our biggest challenges. In those days, we relied heavily on conventional, toxic pesticides to control codling moth and apple scab. Codling moth is the pest that gives us wormy apples during the growing season. By the time harvest comes along, the worms have left the apples, but leave behind unsightly holes in the apples when they emerge as adults. Apple scab is a fungus that causes scabs to develop on the surface of the apple, rendering them very unappetizing. The development of curative, “soft” chemicals to control scab, and the development of technology to accurately predict the incidence of scab infections has drastically reduced the number of spray applications needed for effective scab control. We adopted these developments in earnest in the late 90's, allowing us to control scab to the point where it is now mostly a minor pest problem.

The development of mating-disruptive pheromones in the early 1990's allowed us to completely break away from toxic pesticides to control codling moth. The female codling moth gives off a particular pheromone to attract males for mating purposes. The pheromone is a chemical marker that leads males to female moths. If male moths cannot locate female moths, there is no mating and, of course, no babies! By saturating the orchard with the pheromone, males become confused and frustrated and eventually quit responding to the pheromones altogether.

Fire blight is a bacteria that develops when temperatures and moisture are optimal over a specific amount of time. Fire blight is endemic throughout North America. Some varieties are resistant to the disease, and some regions can successfully grow certain, susceptible varieties because of their specific climate. Back when we planted our first apples, we were advised by the Agricultural Extension folks that Washington had no fire blight problems - in those days, the most common apples produced in the major apple growing regions were Red Delicious, which is resistant. We quickly found that, in our orchard, that advice was inaccurate, and we have learned to identify and avoid fire blight susceptible varieties. This has worked well for us, with respect to our u-pick and sweet cider apples and this is why we no longer grow Jonathans and have only a limited number of Gravenstein and Jonagolds, and no Gala apples ever. However, this approach has not been quite so successful with respect to our hard cider-specific, English apple plantings. When we planted our first block of English apples, much of the information about the apples came from England, where growing conditions and climate are different then here on the Palouse. We learned the hard way that the information then-available from the English experience did not necessarily translate to our orchard. Two varieties in particular have proven to be very susceptible to fire blight when grown in our orchard, namely, Michelin and Chisel Jersey. Both are very fine apples but, because we have lost so many of them to fire blight, we are hesitant to replant them. Nowadays, with hard cider having become popular in this country, there seems to be a wealth of information available regarding English apples that are susceptible to fire blight.

Other pests we battled in the early days include certain species of mites and scale. We early-on adopted integrated pest management (IPM) practices to promote a healthy population of predator to control some of the harmful mite species. We also adopted the practice of routinely applying dormant oil to control other mite species, as well as scale. Dormant oil is highly refined mineral oil, and is considered organic. Scale is a tiny insect that attaches itself to small branches and, sometimes, apples. Once attached, the scale build protective covers to protect against harm (including pesticides). San Jose scales produce covers that resemble tiny, conical hats. Oyster shell scales produce tiny, oyster shell-shaped covers. Thankfully, we have never seen San Jose scale in the orchard but, in the past, did have problems with oyster shell scale outbreaks. Once we fine-tuned the timing of our dormant oil applications, oyster scale ceased to be an issue - that is, until this year. While hand-thinning Golds in the Gold/McIntosh block in the new orchard, we encountered large numbers of scale on some of the Golds, primarily in the north part of the western-most row. Scale in small numbers on apples are not a huge issue because they can easily be rubbed off but, in large numbers, scale can be nasty. Why we are seeing scale at all this year is a mystery to us, and why only on Golds is baffling. It is these types of situations that reminds us not to become too complacent when it comes to pest control. To counter scale next year, we may consider two dormant oil applications, 10 to 14 days apart.

Apples for hard cider

If you are interested in pressing apples to make hard cider from some of our hard cider-specific apples, please contact us ahead of time so we can advise what varieties are offered, and when they may be available. The hard cider apples that may be available include Michelin, Golden Russett, Roxbury Russett, Dabinett and Browns.

Tasting room

Our apples provide the basis for many of the hard ciders produced by Liberty Ciderworks in Spokane. These ciders are sold throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond, and have earned a solid reputation in the world of artisan ciders. We are quite proud of the contribution our humble apples make in the production of Liberty’s very excellent ciders. The climate and soil of the Palouse have the potential to yield world-class hard cider. We will continue to host Liberty’s seasonal tasting room at the orchard to showcase some of its ciders, which will provide an opportunity to experience another dimension to our apples.

Prices

Apples, pears and prunes will be $.50/lb. Cider apples (excluding English apples used for hard cider production) will be priced at $8.00 per gallon of juice pressed.

Some final thoughts

We encourage you to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy at one of our picnic tables or under the shade of an apple tree in a secluded corner of the orchard. You are welcome to wander around and explore the orchard, and you can sample the fruit - we won’t be asking you to step on the scales on your way out. We also invite you to rest your weary feet and sit on one of the benches scattered through the orchard. Please do not enter any outbuildings unless specifically authorized to do so.
Please don’t climb the trees; the limbs are very brittle, climbing breaks off fruiting spurs. Besides, falling from a tree is not cool and could result in serious injury.
The orchard floor has sticks and windfall apples - please watch your step to avoid falls.
Please remember not to park in front of the homes across the street from the orchard.
And finally, please have fun when visiting the orchard!