Oake Lake Orchard Project for Minnesota Food Shelves

The Honey Crisp trees are still filled with fruit

There is an art to picking apples! Never twist or pull; lift or roll the apples upwards.

The orchard is buzzing with activity

It's been a while since I gave an update on the orchard project. The State Fair is over but there are mounds of residual paperwork left to complete so that project may not be wrapped up for another month. Thank goodness we found a good home for the apples this year because, with our schedules, we would either have failed the orchard terrible or be in the loony bin by now, had we taken it on ourselves.

To date, our friends in charge of getting the apples to the out state food shelves have picked approximately 24 - 40# boxes of Zestar apples, 2 - 40# boxes of Sweet Sixteen and 22 - 40# boxes of Honey Crisp. The Honey Crisp trees are still heavy with fruit so an additional 22 boxes is expected. There are also Victory apples to be picked and then three different types of pears. The pear trees didn't set well this year so there are fewer than anticipated. Those will be purchased and picked by a local orchard keeper with the funds going directly to the organization picking the apples to be dispersed amongst the food shelves.

I think this project is going better than expected for all and my hope is that it can continue for next year. Thanks Bill and all for such a great job!