Orchard

Spring Orchard Update

Aside from a hopefully short-lived cold spell, normal Spring weather is here and the apple trees, and the farmers, are doing their normal things. Most apple varieties passed through Silver Tip stage to ½” Green to Tight Cluster in the past two weeks. Notably, the small block of plums next to our pressing barn is in full bloom. If you didn’t get a chance to sample last year’s plum-infused seasonal, rest assured we’ll have it back!

Aside from dusting off equipment stored for the winter, the crew is busy keeping up with the trees. The faster they grow, the more they need to be covered with fungicide protectants, so the air blast sprayers are humming. The Spring digging of the tree nursery happened this month and the trees were moved to the cold room at the barn to keep them dormant until conditions permit planting. Unfortunately, some very serious rabbit damage was noticed over the winter, so some nursery stock won’t be making it to the orchard this year. While there’s always plenty that can go wrong between now and harvest, we remain optimistic that this year’s crop will maintain the level of quality that we require for our ciders.

Apple tree at Tight Cluster growth stage.

Various plum varieties are in full bloom.

Late season pruning of the plums in full bloom.Set featured image

The tractor is used with a front implement to dig the nursery. The crew follows behind and puts them in bins until planting time.

Rabbit damage to many of the nursery trees. I know they’re cute, but really?

Orchard Update: Early Spring

Welcome to Spring! Well…sort of. While we are starting to feel summer already in Houston, in New York, where the apples are grown, there isn’t yet much sign of the new season. Yes, the snow has finally melted and there has been an occasional high in the upper 50s, but mostly highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s are the norm for March and even early April. As that is the case, winter activities will continue. The most important of these activities is pruning. While not the most glamorous of farming work, pruning is essential to consistently produce quality fruit. Pruning helps encourage new growth, opens the tree canopy for better sunlight penetration and air circulation, and helps optimize the shape of the tree for improved production. The cuttings from the tree fall to the ground and then are chopped up with a tractor and a chopping implement. This organic matter decays and returns to the soil.

Over the next couple of weeks, the guys will start pulling the mowers, sprayers, and tractors from the winter storage barns in preparation for some actual spring weather. While most people in the area are eager (to say the least) for warmer temps, the apple growers will be praying it doesn’t get too warm too soon. If blossoms start to push early, it can leave them susceptible to freezing from a late-season cold snap, which can be catastrophic for the year’s crop. Fingers crossed!

On the cider side of the operation, we continue to push towards the goal of having all the fruit pressed and fermenting by the end of winter. We believe that the apples benefit from a little time in cold storage but not a lot. We are very close to achieving that goal as there are only a few stacks of apple bins left in storage! As the juicing activities slow, we pivot our attention to the evaluation and blending of our many experimental and production batches. While we are very proud of our current products, we are constantly looking to elevate our game with new yeast strains and different apple variety blends. Expect some new amazing orchard blends and seasonals to show up at the taproom in the coming months.

Pretty soon the orchard will burst with blossoms and we are excited to share these images with you.

Experimental blends awaiting evaluation.

Last stacks of apple bins at our cold storage alongside some totes of juice ready to be shipped to Houston.

The final bit of snow in an orchard block that was pushed out last fall.

Orchard Update: Early Winter 2022

It’s been far too long since our last update! Harvest came and went, and before we could celebrate, it was time to get started turning those apples into precious juice and begin fermentations. I think what stands out most from this harvest was actually how smooth it went due in part to having a big enough picking crew and getting started earlier than usual since the growing conditions were so good. Picking went so well that the crew took a few days off from picking to replant some rows of trees that had to be removed the prior year because of a disease called Fire Blight (more on this devil another time!).

Once the harvest was complete and our storage chalk full of hundreds of bins of apples, we started pressing right away. It’s our goal at City Orchard to get all of our apples pressed and fermented before the end of winter. We believe that while apples benefit from a little time in storage, the quality deteriorates from too much time. Yes, it would be a lot easier to use concentrates with indefinite shelf lives, but that’s just not what we do! Real apples, real cider!

We use a belt style press manufactured by Kreuzmayr in Austria. A bin of apples gets loaded into the tipper with our forklift, and then dumped into an agitated bath of water to rinse the apples. Then, up the elevator and into the grinder. The fresh milled apples then fall into the press hopper where they get squeezed between the belt and several rollers. The juice is collected in a basin and pumped into a series of 275 gallons totes that then get shipped via 18 wheeler to our location in Houston. The spent pomace is collected at the back of the press and hauled away.

The crew planting trees by hand. Once the trellis was erected from the original planting, it’s impossible to use the typical planting equipment.

Harvest is in Full Swing

As evidenced by the number of flat bed trucks hauling apples and bins up and down Ridge Rd and Rt 104, harvest is in full swing. To date, we have picked Gala, McIntosh, Cortland and Empire dessert varieties, as well as two of our favorite English cider varieties (Yarlington Mill and Chisel Jersey) on 5 year old trees. Each week decisions are made as what varieties are ready to pick and to which buyer they should go. The day before empty bins are trucked to the orchards from the bin barn, and using either a smaller orchard tractor or “bin buggy”, bins are dispersed into the orchard. Picking crews are shuttled to and fro, and after the full bins are pulled out the orchard, they are loaded onto an eighteen wheeler and hauled down the road, well that is except for those reserved for the cider press.

It’s exciting to have our inventory of apples growing in the new cold storage building! Some apples are going into the big room at 32 degrees F, while others will spend a couple weeks sweating in the 50 degree F room. The sweating process is crucial for maximizing the potential flavors and overall cider quality in some of our varieties. As we make final electric and plumbing connections to the press, we are getting even more excited to start tipping bins the week of October 4th.

The growing season was no less than ideal in 2021. Plenty of sun and warm weather coupled with the occasional drenching rains throughout the season has led to some very wonderful looking apples. My initial read is that sugar levels will be down slightly this year due to the overall size of the apples, but that flavor is exceptional. Only time will tell whether that translates through to the cider. We always rely on the quality of the fruit to yield the finest award winning ciders.

Image 1: We use an iodine solution developed at Cornell University specifically for use on apples. The iodine reacts with carbohydrates and turns the apple flesh dark. As cider makers, our goal is to press and ferment the apples when no carbohydrates remain, as they have all been converted to fermentable sugars and the apples are at peak ripeness!

Image 2: The first bin of apples harvested contained Kingston Black from two and three year old trees. This apple is considered of vintage quality and has an acid, sugar and tannin balance suitable for a single varietal cider. Expect a very special small release next year!

Image 3: Our first load of Rhode Island Greenings makes it to the barn! One of first harvests of the season is the Rhode Island Greening. For those Mr. and Mrs. Green fans, expect our first fermentations of these single variety ciders very soon!

Image 4: Our barn has three cold rooms. This allows us to dedicate one or two of them as sweating rooms. The process of sweating involves keeping the harvested apples at 50 degrees F for a couple of weeks to allow them to completely ripen off the tree. This is an ideal treatment especially for some varieties that ripen unevenly throughout the orchard.

Image 6: Empty bins are deployed into the orchard in preparation for the harvest crews to arrive.

Image 7: A bin trailer is used to get the apples from the orchard to the cider barn or to a place where the big truck can be loaded.

Image 8: When 56 bins are ready, the truck gets loaded. The crew will pick and truck up to 300 twenty bushel bins per day, each carrying approximately 840 pounds of

apples.

The Calm Before Storm

The crews have been working all summer keeping the orchards clean of pests, summer pruning to get as much sun on the apples as possible, building new harvest bins, weeding, mowing, repairing equipment, etc. The growing season has been quite good for apples along Lake Ontario with plenty of precipitation, sun, and warm temperatures. While the crop may be a bit light this year, especially for some of the varieties we prefer for cider, the quality should be high. Harvest in the area will begin the week before Labor Day with the picking of Gingergolds, a fresh eating apple (not used in any of our ciders.) Harvest lasts for approximately two months and culminates with one of our favorite American cider varieties, Golden Russet, in the first week of November. It is an incredibly busy time of year! It’s a bit of a whirlwind getting 300 bins of apples a day out of the orchard and delivered to storage, the packing house, or the press. But for now, we’ll just have to take a few deep breaths, and cross our fingers that the crop will yield great cider.

At City Orchard, we’ve been making final preparations for what to do with all these apples that are coming! How much of what do we want? It’s a very hard question to answer these days, as we’re still in start-up mode, and planning how much of what product you all want to consume is a tricky endeavor. Fortunately, this year we have a bit more flexibility with our operations as we’ve commissioned a new apple cold storage right in the heart of the orchards. This new facility will also double as the home of our apple pressing operations. We are grateful to have roots in apple country which allow us to bring you orchard-based cider at an urban cidery located in Houston, TX.

– See you at harvest! Matt.

Enjoy some pictures from our orchard upstate in North Rose, New York.

This guy thinks it’s spring!

Harvest bins getting prepped for harvest. Each one holds approximately 20 bushels or 840 lbs of apples.

An experimental apple we are growing with red flesh. The anthocyanins that cause the deep red color are also found in beets. We might just have enough of these this year to make a red cider from just apples.

A couple of new Ospreys in the old Elm Tree.

Golden Russets in Block 50. One of our favorite cider apples because of its high brix, high acid, and rich aromatics.

Block 50, where many of our cider-specific apple varieties live.

Orchard Update: Springing to Action!

Spring is in the air at the orchards in western New York, and this marks the beginning of the year-long process that results in your favorite ciders being poured into a glass. The apple trees in the orchard know it’s time to get to work. Some varieties are at the Silver Tip stage where their buds are swelling and developing a fuzzy grey surface (picture below). Some varieties are showing the start of a Green Tip, and others are even more anxious to get into your glass with tight clusters of what will be blossoms. In the next few weeks, some of these buds will grow into bunches of leaves and the start of new branches. Others will bloom into flowers that will pollinate and eventually become the fruit goodness that is the fundamental building block of our entire City Orchard operation.

As the trees begin the transition to Spring, so do the farmers. Once the ground is dry enough, the crew will dig the nursery and plant new orchards. Once the new trees are planted, posts must be installed forming the base of the trellis wire to which the trees are attached to help them grow straight. The trellis will also help the smaller dwarfing apple trees carry a heavy crop. Calm, dry days are great for spraying fungus and mildew protectants. When you add to that some mowing, Spring becomes a very busy time for those on the farm.

Silver Tip represents beginnings. In agriculture, it represents the start of the growing season. For us, it also represents the creation of City Orchard. We named our first commercial cider and gold medal winner, Silver Tip, after this development stage. And now, we look forward to the reintroduction of City Orchard to the Great State of Texas as we reopen. Now, there’s a reason to celebrate with a cider!

Other near stages following Silver Tip are Green Tip, ¼” Green, ½” Green, Tight Cluster, Pink, Full Pink, King Blossom, and Petal Fall. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of the fruit development and orchard activities throughout the year in our monthly updates.

Regards, Mat Smith Team City Orchard

The Apple Trees are Blooming in NY