A New Season

The air is brisk this morning; fifty-seven degrees, and the angle of the light seems a little more acute.  The first leaves on the maples across the road have started to show an orange tint, although the tree still hangs proudly onto its leaves, as I onto the last days of summer.  The apple harvest is here again.  Yesterday I put on the picking bag for the first time this season, harvesting Galas and Honeycrisp up at West Haven Farm. The last of the peaches are still clinging to the threes, but the tops of the Galas are awash in a full blush.  We are doing the first color pick on the Galas, taking most of the tops and skimming an outer layer of the trees.  The Honeycrisp are a little slower to come on and less uniform.  With ninety degree days predicted for the first part of this coming week, the Galas will probably be off the trees by Labor Day. 

On Monday I will start working five days a week at Cornell Orchards.  I am ready to be out in the orchard and my excitement is almost uncontainable at times.  A good friend and fellow picker from Moose Hill has come to stay in our home and has already begun to pick.  In this past week I have lived vicariously through the little snippets of her day that she shares.  I look forward to having my own stories to tell.  Happy picking!