Planted for the picking, not just the fruit
The orchard was planted across three fields over about fifteen years, one fruit at a time, specifically so a family could walk out at any point in the summer and find something ready. Wholesale was never the plan - the trees are spaced wide enough for a ladder and a wagon, not for mechanical harvest.
We keep a small crew of pickers for the rows we sell wholesale to a couple of local grocers, but the rows facing the parking lot are reserved for u-pick only, even during the busiest weekend of Honeycrisp season.
Three generations have worked these fields, and the ladders in the shed are older than most of the trees still bearing fruit.
