Brace’s Orchard has been in existence since the mid 1800’s growing apples, peaches, pears and plums. After all that time they have things figured out pretty well. I went up there earlier in the week and bought a small basket of Honey Crisp and a gallon of cider. They pasteurize their cider to be able to supply grocers which is a state requirement. It’s busy there on the weekends having wagon rides for parents and kids. It’s a weekend tradition for some families. I forgot to mention that they also grow sunflowers and pumpkins. It’s a great place. Got any local orchards? I’m sure you do.
I have a couple of small orchards for our personal use. I have a friend who has a much larger commercial orchard, and they have cider pressings every fall in order to allow those of us with small orchards to press our own apples into cider. No pasteurization here, but my wife has to heat hers in order to drink it. We also have cherries and a plum tree.
I'm not aware of any orchards around the Houston area, though I suppose they exist. In south GA where I was raised, pecan orchards and peach orchards are very common. Our farm had several fruit trees (pears, peaches, plums), many pecan trees, but no "orchard" to speak of. The driveway to our house was lined with pecan trees where my mama and I spent many fall days collecting nuts for "Christmas money."
You know, for as much agriculture as there is here, the only orchards I've seen are grape orchards. The wine industry in this state is surprisingly significant. Apparently we are the 6th largest growers of apples in the country (which may translate to not much at all), most of it appears to be west of me.
I thought grape fields are called "vineyards." Are they called orchards in VA? We had grapevines (muscadine) on the farm but usually just referred to them as the grape vines.
There are lots of blueberry "places" around here, too. I don't see how enough stuff survives the deer & the bear to make it worthwhile. I was gonna plant fruit trees, but they would get decimated. Some of the wineries have begun to offer hard apple cider. I forget what the flow of product is (grower, presser, distiller, seller.) It's rarely "field-to-mug" at one spot. I was surprised to hear how the various stages are outsourced.
My nephew is a big-time farmer and he has acres of blueberries for market. I love to be there when the berries are picked. I talked to my sister today and she said they are harvesting late peanuts this week.
We called them Muscadines. Always had them growing wild in N.Ga along with crab apples, pecan,pear,blackberries, plums just to name a few. It was a wonderful life. They turned it inot a sub division years ago. Like the song says " they paved paradise and put in a parking lot".
We are surrounded by apple orchards. To say they are everywhere would only be a mild overstatement. They number in the hundreds.
South Australia grows allot of Stone and citrus fruit in an area we refer to as (the Riverland) it’s a huge area of several towns. Many grapes are grown for the table as well as wineries. The area is approx 3 hour drive east of the city of Adelaide https://www.pir.sa.gov.au/aghistory...t/development_of_stone_fruit_production_in_sa I only have a tiny block of land on which our house stands however I have 3 apple trees / 3 apricot / 1 Plum / lemon and a mini nectarine
This brings up childhood memories again --- trips to Michigan peach and apple orchards to pick from very low-hanging branches (for me). My favorite summer 'fieldwork' was gathering blueberries from bushes that were just about my height, and crouching to pick strawberries by the bucket. I wasn't so crazy about all those other berries, that had thorns and too many seeds for my liking. My mom didn't can, though I'm sure she knew how, and just froze everything except the apples for winter use.
My dad had a small family orchard with, as I remember, five apple trees all of different varieties, including one that grew what were known as winter apples that were still on the tree (unless picked) even after the leaves had fallen, and there was also a cherry tree. We would get cherries from the cherry tree perhaps three out of four years because every few years, the webworms would encase the tree seemingly overnight, and we were always in competition with the birds for the cherries.