Connecticut Orchards are Applelicious

It’s fall, apple-picking season; and local farmers say this year’s harvest is particularly large, particularly juicy, and particularly delicious.

“My, we have had a bountiful crop this year,” said Ardem Teveris of Woodland Farm, member of the Darien Farmers Market.

Following the record spring rains that fell through mid-July was a six-week run of balmy August days and cool summer nights. It’s the warmth that gives the fruit its dappled red and yellow color; and the cool that improves the apples taste, as it helps convert natural starches to sugar. The result, Teveris and other local growers say, is a bumper crop of large, juicy fruit. 

“Have you seen the Mutsus?” said Chris Seifrit of Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel. “They’re huge. They’re gorgeous.”

The same is true across the country. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture annual apple forecast, over 240 million boxes of apples are projected for the 2009-2010 growing season, up four percent from last year.

Supply and demand drive prices for the apple market, but Teveris says that the surplus won’t affect the price.

“I tell my husband: at the grocery store, when the ounces go up the price goes down, but a bushel of apples tends to stay the same,” said Teveris.

Seifrit said that word of the bounty has been a real draw for customers. He added that the economic climate has also helped his apple-picking sales, as more families are taking “staycations,” and cooking at home.

Teveris and Seifrit say that while demand is high, growers won’t run out of apples anytime soon. Apple season runs through the beginning of November.

You can buy local apples from Woodland Farm and others at the Darien Farmers Market, every Wednesday from 11 a.m.–6 p.m., right across from Goodwives Shopping Center.