BY USA RISSER
W. CHESTER (Chester)
Imagine a large, lucious globe
hanging from a tree. You pick it
and savor its sweet, fruity aroma.
You take a bite. Peach flavors
explode in your mouth as juice
runs down your chin.
There’s nothing quite like
harvesting and eating fruit or veg
etables fresh from the vine. Unless
of course it is eating what someone
else has picked only minutes or
hours ago. This is the special
attraction of Highland Orchards
and operations similar to it.
Highland, run by David, Bruce,
and Alan Hodge and Stuart Const
able, has been serving up farm
fresh produce for three generations
now, ever since the Hodges’
grandfather John Webster pur
chased the property in 1941.
The orchard is open year round
with the first of the harvesting
beginning in early May with rhu
barb and asparagus. The harvest
ing ends six months later with spi
nach. In between are cherries,
blueberries, peppers, sweet com,
peaches, grapes, raspberries,
tomatoes, strawberries, and more.
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Year-Round Orchard Provides Nature’s Goodness
and the harvest is all in, customers
frequent the orchard’s retail shop
for goodies such as honeys, jams
and jellies, dried fruits, and nuts. In
addition, there are fruit baskets
available during the Christmas
season, bedding plants, firewood,
and freshly baked breads, pies, and
other pastries.
Big cash crop
Apples are the big autumn crop,
with 27 varieties being grown in
the orchard. “The typical apple
crop is 45,000 bushels with 15,000
harvested on a pick-your-own
basis,” reported David Hodge,
business manager for the orchard.
“Half of all our apples are sold by
November 1, with the remainder
going into cold storage to be sold
throughout the winter. The variet
ies that don’t keep as well are sold
first.”
Those apples picked by the
orchard employees are sold to
retailers, made into cider, or sold in
the retail store fresh or as baked
goods.
The apples are sorted according
to size and condition with the most
bruised apples going into the cider.
“Some blemished fruit, however,
is sold cut price,” said David. The
' . „
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kssMhis
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Three of the four operators of Highland Orchards take a bite out of apples—one of
the orchard’s biggest cash crops. From left, Stuart Constable, Alan Hodge, and David
Hodge. Not pictured Is Bruce Hodge.
idea being that housewives will
use the fruit in cooking and baking.
The blemished and fallen apples
intended for cider are washed and
have the leaves removed in prepa
ration. They are cmshed by a
machine into what resembles a
thick applesauce. Next they are
piped onto cheesecloth layered on
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racks. Then they are crushed furth
er by a press that applies up to
1,800 pounds of pressure per
square inch.
“The pressure has to be applied
slowly,” warned Stuart Constable,
production manager. “Fast pres
sure bursts the cheesecloth and
then the applesauce flies!”
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The juices that are squeezed and
filtered through the cheesecloth go
into a storage tank and from there
is bottled with no further filtering.
“Our customers want thicker cider
rather than something that looks
like thin apple juice,” explained
David.
(Turn to Pag* A 27)
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