Opening Day Saturday August 13th - August 5th

We will be opening for the 2011 season on Saturday August 13th at 9:00am. We thought that the apples might be ready by this Saturday and the Vista Belles are ready but we only have four trees. Customers would be disappointed as they do not have much size to them. Jack will have Vista Belles at the Sanford Farmers Market this Saturday (in Central Park for Summah Daze).

Opening weekend Jerseymacs and plums will be ready.

So what have we been doing lately? Trying to get everything in order for opening day. The crew has been doing a lot of weeding lately. It sure seems like the weeds are really growing well this year. Jack was talking to Marvin about invasive plants the other day. Marvin mentioned how the frost last year killed some of the invasives you see along the highway. So, did the frost kill the weeds last year? It sure seems like we have a lot more weeds this year than last year or do we forget how bad the weeds are as we start picking apples. Eventually the frost kills them off at the end of the season anyway. Maybe those weed brain cells die off too.

Jack has been working on Fairy Village and should have things in order by next week. Signs will be going up next week in the orchards after we mow them. The animals haven't shown up yet but we expect them any day now.

There will be donuts but the Donut Shack will not open until Labor Day weekend. Cider and hay rides start Labor Day weekend also. The corn maze needs to grow another foot or two and some rain would help.

We wanted to get this out today and Jack will start his weekly updates on "What You Will Be Picking" next week. We hope to see you this season.

Apple season - next weekend!

Open Farm Day (not opening day) - July 22nd

Come visit us on Sunday July 24th for Maine's Open Farm Day. This does NOT mean that we are open for the season. From 10:00am to 2:00pm stop by and say hello. There will be cider donut samples and self guided tours. Should we get enough people stopping by we may run a few hayrides. There are plenty of trails if you would like to go for a long hike. Bring some bug spray though. It is forecast to be cooler on Sunday.

Jack was out earlier in the week cutting the corn maze. Graph paper is used to mark out the maze. The area, just under an acre, is marked off with fiberglass poles so he can follow the graph. The corn is up about a foot before he proceeds. What sophisticated tool does he use to cut the maze? A weed whacker and his ability to keep the graph paper oriented correctly!

It took about 6 hours to cut and he came in covered in green, weeds and corn stalks, and dirt (mud), due to the little rain shower we had earlier in the week. He swore that the next day the weeds were up in certain areas of the cut. Did they duck when he was going through with the weed whacker OR due to the dirt and green he just missed them? He thinks they ducked.

Try to figure out what he spelled this year.

Opening in a month? - July 7th

Lately the weather has been more summer like. A few hot and humid days sprinkled among some really nice days. Which makes the apple trees very happy. Of course we need a few days of showers to make the trees even happier.

We have a very heavy set of fruit on all the apple trees including stone fruits (nectarines, peaches and plums). The crew is out in the orchards right now hand thinning the trees. The apple trees go through a "June drop" where the tree drops some of its fruit. The fruit we are talking about is the size of your thumbnail. The tree is limiting itself to the number of fruit it can support. The tree naturally wants to produce as many seeds as it can, survival.

With a heavy set of fruit, even after the June drop, the tree still has too many apples. If we do nothing the tree sends nutrients to all the fruit and we end up with a lot of small apples. A lot of fruit can also overburden branches to the point of breaking. The tree can exhaust it self trying to supply all the fruit with enough nutrients and could affect the fruit set next year.

Hand thinning is removing fruit so that there is one apple every 6 inches on a branch. This can vary with the variety and the age of the tree. On recently planted trees all fruit is removed so that the tree can focus on growth and strength.

So thinning lets the tree focus the same amount of nutrients on less apples which should give us a crop of larger apples. Larger means a normal size for that variety. Taking all the apples off, say, a Crispin tree, except for one, would not mean we would end up with one 40 pound apple at harvest.

SWEET CHERRIES! Ellen picked some yesterday for Jack to sell at the Springvale Farmers' Market. He should have some for sale at the Saturday's Sanford Farmers' Market in Gowen Park.

CUCUMBERS Jack has been selling these for a couple of weeks at the Farmers' Market.

TOMATOES Oh, they are growing and this sun and heat lately has helped color them up but it may be next weekend before we have enough to sell at the Market. Of course we've eaten some already. We don't want them to go bad!

When will we open? Well it won't be the end of July this year. We have already had calls about picking. Saturday August 6th is the earliest for this year BUT it will depend on the apples. A newsletter will be sent advertising opening day.

OPEN FARM DAY Sunday 24 July 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, We will be participating in this event again this year. Jack will be handing out cider donut samples (he may have some for sale). There will be self guided tours of the Orchard Operation.

WOW, almost Apple season!

Full Bloom - May 21st

I was at the Farmers' Market today when the SUN came out. What a beautiful sight. After the market Ellen and I checked out the Main Orchard for bloom and bees. Her new honey bees were more interested in the numerous dandelions dotting the orchards than they were in the apple blossoms. The wild bees and bumbles were working their stingers off pollinating the apple blossoms.

Not all varieties are in full bloom yet, but they are very close. Within the next few days we should be in full bloom.

And then we both mowed the lawns around the house. A guy at the Farmers' Market said "I am so happy to see the sun that I am actually looking forward to mowing the lawn. I get to be outside in the SUNSHINE".

May the SUNSHINE be with us!

Full Bloom (soon)! - May 13th

We are almost 2 months into spring. The weather has gone from cold to cool to a few warm days. The trails have gone from brown with unlimited visibility through the woods to a blanket of green as trees put out leaves and visibility becomes restricted. The hunt for the first mayflower ended and now the trails are awash in patches of them as well as other wild flowers. Ferns are spreading their green wings skyward. Mr. McDougal spotted a Lady Slipper getting ready to bloom the other day. This is a wonderful time of the year as things start to come alive and grow again.

The peach, nectarine, pear and cherry trees are blooming. The lilac tree is slowly pushing it's blossoms upward and soon the fragrance will permeate the air. We thought the apples would be blooming this weekend but it doesn't look like it. Some Paula Reds and Jersey Macs are popping but the rest of the trees are taking their sweet time.

The weather has been pretty dreary this week although yesterday afternoon and toady are absolutely gorgeous. The forecast is for rain or showers from Saturday night through Thursday. This will slow down the blossoms but not stop them. By the middle of the week or next weekend we should be in full bloom. For us this is probably the most beautiful time of the year with all the trees blooming and the light fragrance from the blossom. All the bee hives are in across the road and the bees will be busy pollinating each fruit tree.

If you are in the area swing by and take a look. If you would like to get closer please stop by the house first. We do have electric fence around both orchards and with bloom there will be bees, lots of bees on a sunny warm day.

Looking forward to another harvest season.

Spring is here! - April 8th

The Vernal Equinox is when the sun crosses the celestial equator, zero declination. It also means it is officially spring!

The weather has been pretty crazy. Sixty degrees one day and the next day it's snowing. Eight inches of snow on April Fools Day, what's with that? Yesterday Jack took the plow off of the F350 and took the cement weights off the back of the truck. Is it safe to do that just yet? The snow has vanished in many areas of the orchard but there is still snow in the corners of the orchards and trails where the sun doesn't shine. Jack and the dogs will be on the lookout for the first sighting of a Mayflower.

With the exception of a few stone fruit trees (peaches, nectarines, plums and cherries) and smaller trellised trees the pruning is pretty much done. A good YouTube video on pruning apple trees comes from Mo Tougas from Northborough Massachusetts.

Towards the end of the video he makes a statement that if he put 10 growers out in the orchard the trees would be pruned 10 different ways. Each individual looks at the tree differently but they are all trying to do the same thing, get more fruit by allowing more light and air movement into the tree.

We had a lot of snow this year and on our Facebook page I posted pictures of damage done by the snow. The snow was up to some of the lower branches, covering the ends. As the snow melts, it drops or lowers, pulling the branches down with it. The branches either break free of the snows grip or the snow tries to tear them off the trunk. We only had a few trees damaged in this way.

Ellen has a number of tomato varieties already growing. She will start flowers and other vegetables in the proper sequence to get them planted outside as soon as the ground warms up.

Our major project for this year was new roofs on the barn and stable. We took the metal roofing off and replaced it with architectural shingles. We gave all of the metal roofing to two local farmers for them to use. The roofers did the job in some pretty nasty weather. It was cold, windy and on a few days the roofs had to be shoveled off before they could start work. They still need to come back and clean up the mess that was embeded into snowbanks now that the snowbanks are just about gone. We used a magnet to pick up nails in and around the driveway as things melted. We think we got them all! No flats yet!

We hope Spring is here. In another month we will be looking forward to full bloom and before you know it you will be picking apples again!

Happy New Year - January 17th

A lot of people ask us "What do you do this time of year?"

Shortly after Columbus Day the thought of apple picking quickly subsides and so does our business. That gives us a chance to concentrate on buttoning up for the winter. The orchards are mowed for the last time. A urea spray is put on the trees to kill scab spores. All the machinery is winterized.

Then we put it all away. Marvin and Jack got two trucks, two mowers, two tractors and two hay wagons in the barn along with room for three vehicles. The town used one of the hay wagons for the Holly Daze Parade in December and Jack was able to get it out and back in again.

Jack was weed whacking right up until December 4th between the small trees in the trellis down in the Main Orchard. Then Jack and Ellen put mouse guards (~300) around the tree trunks. The mouse guards are plastic tubes that cover the tree trunks from the ground to about a foot above. Why do we do that? Mice can girdle a tree. From Wikipedia - Girdling, also called ring barking, is the process of completely removing a strip of bark around a tree's outer circumference, causing its death. Not good.

During the season piles of paper have accumulated on our desks. We take our time sorting and filing these papers. The plan is "no pile" by opening day. Ellen has gone through all her seed catalogs and placed orders for this years flowers, garden and crops. Ellen started taking a tree census. Counting all the tress in both orchards. We need this information for crop insurance and it also shows us where we can place new trees to fill in some of the holes we have. There are numerous agricultural meetings or conventions that we go to this time of the year. We spent an extra night in Augusta last week due to the snow storm.

The last two snow storms Jack took the snow mobile out and ran around most of the old cross country ski trails to pack the snow for skiing or snowshoes. We try to get out once or twice a day to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of the woods.

I know that this does not sound like we are real busy. This is also a time to relax because before you know it we will be out in the orchards pruning trees. Pruning usually starts mid-February.

Belated Happy New Year. Thank you for being our customer. We look forward to continuing our relationship in the coming year. 

What we offer

• Pick Your Own
• Apples, Nectarines, Peaches, Plums, Pears, Raspberries and Flowers

• In Our Store
• Apples, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and other vegetables
• Honey Bee Mine and local Honey
• G.H. McDougal Goat Cheese, Eggs and pasture raised Beef and Pork
• Apple Gate Deer Farm Venison
• Twin Maples Farm Maple Syrup
• Cider (around Labor Day)
• Capt Jack's Cider Donuts
• Dried Flowers and Fall Mums
• Pumpkins and gourds
• Indian Corn, Corn Stalks and Hay Bales
• Pick, pack and ship a healthy gift of fruit! Or, let us do it for you!
• Ship dounts to a loved one or a friend

• Things to do
• Farm Animal display area, Fairy Village, Corn Maze and picnic areas
• Miles of trails for hiking
• Hay Rides (Labor Day - Columbus Day, weekends and Holidays, 10am-4pm, weather permitting)
• Capt Jacks Donut Shack (open Labor Day weekend, weekends and Holidays)
• School groups and organizations or have a Birthday Party with us
• Geocaches on the property (outside the orchards)