Frost damages this year's apple harvest
Apple trees in a tiny orchard on the sunny south side of the Sandias are loaded with fruit, but for the first time in decades, another small orchard just a few miles north has none at all, thanks to a May frost. Other fruit farmers around the state are reporting no apples or a smaller crop as well.
The owners of Dixon's Apples fall into the latter category, having saved much of their crop by flooding their orchards one cold night in May. Their Web site said to call Sept. 15 to learn their opening date, so I did, and those who called Monday heard that this year's much-anticipated harvest will start Sept. 26 -- but with a smaller crop and fewer bottles of cider to sell.
"Our crop is smaller this year because of spring freezing to our blossoms," Becky Mullane says on the recorded message. "Therefore, cider will be limited in supply, as well as our Red Delicious apples."
Dixon's will open with its Champagne apples, "our best survivors," according to Dixon's Web site.
Dixon's fared better than many. Ken Hayes, who has 550 apple trees on seven acres at Hays Honey and Apple Farm in Bosque Farms, told the New Mexico Independent he would have no apples because of freezes May 2 and 3, when temperatures dropped to 26 degrees Fahrenheit. Hays, who is president of the Albuquerque Growers Market and the New Mexico Beekeepers Association, decided earlier this year he would concentrate on selling honey and vegetables and he planted a "huge garden" with lettuce, spinach, carrots and other truck garden crops. He said apple farmers "all over here and up north" suffered losses from the frost.
Growers near Alamogordo suffered a double whammy this spring and early summer, with some growers reporting both freezing temperatures and elk damage as the animals foraged in the lowlands because of drought.
Dixon's, located near Peña Blanca, will be open every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Sept. 26, and harvest season ends "when the last bag is sold."
The New Mexico Apples Web site lists four growers in Belen, Velarde and Dixon who have apples for 2008. A full list of New Mexico Apple Council members who have Web sites can be found here.
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