If you have lived here long enough, you knew the rain would end and the July heat would take over.  At this point, it appears that our crop will resemble last years.  It is also now obvious that the die off from winter kill was much worse than we had previously thought.  Some trees like the Honey Crisp, though not dead, have an almost non-exsistent crop.  This appears to be true of orchards though out the state.  The buds just could not take the cold and turned black, which means they froze.  Other trees or parts of trees died outright and will have to be pruned out and replanted.
     The trees that did flower and produce fruit are doing fine.  With a month or so left to go before we can start picking, I can tell you that State Fair will be our best producer of the year.  This will be one of the first apples to ripen, so watch the web site and I'll let you know when they are ready.  The season will start early and most likely end early.  The majority of apples that we will have this year are of the early to mid season variety.  These include State Fair, Sweet Sixteen, Wealthy, Snow Sweet and Zestar.  There is a reason why we planted so many different kinds.  It's for years like this.  We don't really have alot of any one variety, but we have enough different kinds to make up for it.  Watch the web site and I'll keep you posted.
  

  Summer is well under way and things seem to be going fine for the moment.  As it turned out, the winter injury to the trees was worse than I previously thought.  Extended periods of really cold temps did quite a bit of damage.  The buds turn black and when I open them up, they are all black on the inside.  They froze!  Although it doesnt hurt the tree too bad, they should be fine by next spring.  The ones that took the brunt are Honey Crisp.