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Although Tanners Orchard will still be closed to the public for a few more months (ugh!), spring marks the time of year when we get back to work, caring for the farm. Our apple trees that were dormant over winter begin to perk up in March and April; that means it’s time to start pruning and prepping our trees for the coming growing season!
Apple trees take a lot of dedicated care and attention to ensure a proper bounty of delicious apples can be picked come late summer and early fall. As such, the team at Tanners Orchard has to be incredibly knowledgeable about apples, apple trees, and the growing season. Over the years, we’ve learned some incredible facts, history and highlights related to apples; growing, picking, or otherwise! Here are some fun bits of knowledge you can take with you to hopefully tide you over before Tanners Orchard’s start of season:
When Tanners Orchard started, it was some time before we were actively producing a consistent harvest of apples and had our doors open to the public. Much had to do with the fact that it wasn’t “prime time” yet for our first batch of apples! When first planted, an apple tree can take between 8 to 10 years to fully mature and bear fruit. While some dwarf apple trees can start bearing fruit after 2 or 3 years, standard-size apple trees don’t start producing until almost a decade after planting.
Once an apple tree is fully grown, we’re off to the races! Believe it or not, the yearly apple yield for a single apple tree can be quite high. While harvests will vary due to factors like temperature, tree age, size, ongoing weather conditions, etc., the average amount of apples one tree can produce is somewhere between 10 and 20 bushels per year. This translates to 450-900 lbs. of fruit, or about 1,200 to 2,400 apples. Now, consider that Tanners Orchard has more than 11,000 U-Pick apple trees, and you’re looking at anywhere from 13 million to 26 million apples a year. That’s a lot of apples!
Red apples, green apples, sour apples, sweet apples, apples for cooking, apples for eating; there’s an apple for just about every occasion. In fact, there are over 7,500 unique varieties of apples! However, that doesn’t mean we can easily grow or consume every type. Of the 7,500 plus known varieties of apples, only 2,500 are grown in the United States, and 100 of those varieties are grown in mass quantities. At Tanners Orchard, we grow 17 unique varieties of apples, including the U.S.’s most popular: Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, and Fuji.
Don’t you just love that sweet, delicious taste of Tanners Orchard’s farm-fresh apple cider? We do, too! However, you wouldn’t BELIEVE the amount of work and product that goes into producing just one gallon of our apple cider. The process entails grinding up several bins’ worth of apples, placing the processed apples on individual trays, and pressing the trays to extract the juice. All in all, it takes between 30 to 40 apples (one-fourth to one-third a bushel) to produce a single gallon of apple cider.
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times before: an apple a day keeps the doctor away! This little phrase has been around for a long time and has gone through many iterations. The original phrase originated in Wales in the 1860s and was more of a mouthful: “Eat an apple on going to bed and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.” But, for as long as the expression has been around, is there some validity to it? Yes and no. Ultimately, some health conditions are too serious not to let a doctor intercede. However, generally speaking, because apples are a rich source of vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and other vitamins and minerals, they help boost your immune system, thus potentially leading to less need for prescription medications.
Of course, there’s plenty more to learn and share when Tanners Orchard opens for the new season! As the growing season starts, we’re already counting down the days until we can finally open our doors once more. If you’re interested in a visit to Tanners Orchard and everything a day trip to our farm entails, call us at 309-493-5442 or learn more by reading our blog.