Farm location means good apple crop this year

Posted at: 09/03/2012 5:49 PM | Updated at: 09/03/2012 7:00 PM
By: Kumi Tucker

Tweet

REXFORD - There are acres of apples at Bowman Orchards in Rexford, Clifton Park.  People can pick their own McIntosh, Blondies or Galas, to name just a few.

They bloomed about a month early here, after a warm winter.
While many places lost apples after being hit by frost, Bowman's escaped because of its elevation.

"We're number one, very windy, and so frost didn't settle, but also because of the high elevation, the coldest air sinks to the lowest spots, so the cold air went away from us," said owner Kevin Bowman. 

As for the drought, Bowman says they actually like dry years because they can irrigate and it tends to make the apples sweeter.

These orchards also happened to be missed by the hail storms that damaged other apples in the area.

"Hail is a funny thing, it's kind of hit and miss," said Bowman.  "Usually you don't get a widespread hail event.  We're kind of sitting in a triangle this year. They have gone just to the north of us and just to the south of us.  We've been very fortunate."

Bowman Orchards is celebrating its 60th anniversary.  They have about 100 acres, 70 of which are fruit, and they turn out some 25,000 bushels a year.

"As much as we may not have liked the hot, humid summer, the apple trees just loved it and it tends to concentrate the sugars within the fruit and so the fruit and the cider tends to be sweeter," said Bowman.