It has been said that love doesn’t grow on trees. But anyone who has bitten into a nice juicy apple or tucked into a warm slice of apple pie — the first of the fall season, may be tempted to disagree.
Apples are sweet or tart or a luscious bit of both.
And now’s the time to pick them.
When Labor Day rolls around and the morning air develops that brisk little hint of fall to come, the apples, the earliest ones, are ready in the orchard.
Some “you-pick” operations around Maine are already open. Others will open on Saturday. It’s a long weekend and a great time to pack up the kids or the grandkids or your sweetie and pick enough for a pie, the lunchbox or a few jars of jelly.
“This year is amazing,” Ellen McAdam of McDougal Orchards LLC in Springvale said. Unlike last year, the weather this season has meant a good, sizable crop. “We have lots and lots of apples,” she said.
Over at Gile Family Farm in Alfred, Ann Boucher said the Ginger Gold, early Cortland and Paula Red apples are ready for the Saturday opening of their upick orchard on Shaker Hill.
She’s hoping the stretch of pleasant weather will continue.
“You never know what the weather will bring,” she said.
For Boucher, one of the tastiest early apples is Ginger Gold — in a pie or an apple crisp.
“They hold their shape, and have good flavor,” Boucher said.
After the early varieties come Honeycrisp, McIntosh, Macoun and so on.