Azure's apple and pear harvest is in full swing, and everyone is getting a little fruit crazy.
We have all the pears in Kimberly picked as well as the Bartlett and Asian pears at the Dufur Organic Orchard. With all the fruit being picked and the timing of each, it gets a little crazy in Dufur this time of year because the fruit picked in Kimberly is coming into the farm to be stored and packed by the same crew that picks the Dufur crops. Thankfully, Zechariah Stelzer does an excellent job coordinating the receiving, picking and packing.
Due to our limited storage space in Dufur the packed fruit is sent to the warehouse in Moro, Ore., shortly after it is boxed. The warehouse has a pretty good supply of apples and pears at this time of the year, so we keep a couple of refrigerated trailers handy in Dufur to keep the packed fruit extra cold for better keeping. This keeps it fresh. Already this year, we've had Galas, Honeycrisp and Ginger Gold apples plus D'Anjou and Asian pears packed and ready for sale. To find out what fruit is available now, visit Azure's produce page.
The craziness continues in Kimberly, too, as we are picking Red Delicious and Empire apples. Soon the Cameo apples will be ready and later the Fuji, Braeburn, Granny Smith and a few other varieties such as Pinota, Melrose, Golden Russet, Pink Lady, Winter Banana and Ambrosia. In his first season at growing fruit, Dan Pogue is doing an excellent job of harvesting the Kimberly Orchard.
Zephaniah Stelzer is really busy in Dufur guiding the crew in the orchard and packing line as the organic fruit fresh from the farm comes through the doors. They have a few more apple varieties yet to pick in Dufur, including the September Wonder Fuji apples, which normally ripen a month earlier than the regular Fuji that we have in Kimberly. We also have Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Spitzenburg apples plus Hosui (Asian), Concord, Bosc, D'Anjou and Comice pears in Dufur yet to pick.
So I wasn't kidding. It's getting a little fruit crazy, and we're all smiles about it!
Cleaning & Packing Organic Apples & Pears
Though picking the fruit occurs at both orchards, the packing is all done in Dufur. In the old warehouse, we have cold storage and a somewhat automated packing line. The apples are lowered and dumped under water in the dump tank and are elevated out of the water on a wide belt and rinsed. There is a short sorting section to handpick out the cull fruit, or fruit that is badly rotten, pecked by birds or super misshapen, and then it moves onto rolling brushes that help clean and polish the fruit.
After that is a long sorting table where six to eight people standing on both sides sort fruit into three categories based on quality. The #1 category is the best of the best, a perfect piece of fruit. In the Washington apple grading system, the #1s are Extra Fancy. The #2 fruit – the Fancy fruit – are put on a separate belt, and the #3, or canning and juicing fruit, are moved to another belt. The culls are put on a belt under the table to be sent to compost.
Each piece of fruit is photographed to determine its volume (size), color and surface quality. Next, each piece passes over a scale to determine its weight. The packers then put the sized fruit into boxes, where they are weighed, transferred to pallets, put back in the cooler and shipped to the Moro warehouse as soon as possible.
How the Weather Affected the Azure Orchards
Our fruit this year is maturing much earlier than in other years due to the extreme fluctuations in temperature. We have been picking on average three weeks earlier than normal. Of course, our trees started their season very early as well. The warm winter, except the early freeze last November which I will allude to later on, and the warm growing season (especially the warm nights!) has contributed to this early harvest. This weather has impacted the fruit sizes and has caused many varieties that were planted at specific times to alleviate congestion during the harvest to ripen instead at the same time as all the others.
And while it’s been hot, it’s also been dry. In Dufur, we have only had about 25 percent of the irrigation water needed to keep the trees alive. When the State Water Master cut all the irrigation water from Eight Mile Creek, it put a huge strain on Zephaniah to divert every little stream and any drops of water on our property into the orchard's irrigation system. The summer squash and cucumber crops were sacrificed to help save the fruit trees. And just like the warm weather, the water shortage impacted the fruit size. Thankfully, we are getting more water now, but we did lose some younger weak fruit trees and a little bit of the fruit.
However, the most damaging weather-related problem we had was from the freeze last November. The rapid temperature drop from 50 degrees to around zero on the fruit trees that weren’t quite dormant damaged a lot of the green tissue around the fruit buds that form during the growing season. This took away all the cherries in Kimberly and reduced the peach crop. Some of the apples were affected as well, but apple trees are hardier and able to withstand cold snaps. In Dufur, the weather was actually below zero, which greatly affected the apricot and peach trees. The apples in Dufur were also affected and maybe more so than Kimberly. The cherries were already mostly dormant, but even then, there was concern that the cherry harvest would be affected come the summer. But we still had some cherries, and they were as delicious and nutrient-rich as ever!
All in all we have survived the excitement – and the challenges – of this fruit season. Mother Nature has a mind of its own, so we always have to be ready to respond no matter what happens. And we pray for a great season next year.
Enjoy the “fruits of our labor” this year! They are of the highest nutritionally dense fruits we have ever grown, and they’re absolutely delicious.