News

APPLE FESTIVAL: Most farmers too busy for fun

Apple grower Jerred Nix loads a bin of apples onto a trailer in this file photo from September 2014.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 5, 2015

Trey Enloe won’t be at the North Carolina Apple Festival. Like most apple growers, he’s too busy.

The apple growing industry is just now ramping into its busy time of year and farmers that aren’t actually selling at the festival — there are just 15 of those — are out picking, packing and selling.
It’s an irony of the apple growing industry. The farmers whose product is honored don’t even get to enjoy the celebration. But for Enloe and others, that does not mean they don’t know it’s here.
“Through our customers we see a lot of folks needing apples” for the festival and roadside stands. Selling the crop —apples that farmers have nurtured from spring blossom to autumn harvest — is the payoff. A bulk seller, Enloe sends most of his apples through Greg Nix’s Apple Wedge packinghouse. The season so far is going well.
Six months ago, farmers were not so optimistic.
Jerred Nix, another young grower like Enloe, said the Easter freeze hurt some parts of the county and some elevations and spared others.
“They look extremely good,” he said earlier this month of his crop at the base of Bearwallow Mountain. “Red Delicious are good, Romes are good, Grannies are good, Stamens are good. The Goldens are light and the Mutsus are light and the Fugis are light. Every grower you talk to has got a different crop” because of the early damage. “It’s the craziest year I’ve ever seen.”
Growers have been picking the early varieties for several weeks. Early is good, pricewise, because North Carolina is the first apple-growing region to send fruit to market. That generally means higher prices for Galas, which were commanding a decent return of 26 cents a pound last week, and other early harvested varieties.
“It always gets busy during the Apple Festival,” Enloe said. “All the roadside stands are open and started to get the ball rolling. We picked Galas, Golden Supremes, Blondies. We picked a few early Fujis, Honeycrisp and Ginger Golds.”
Sweet and juicy, Honeycrisp continues to be the belle of the ball among fresh apples.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Enloe said. “It’s kind of been the premium apple for about 10 years. It’s definitely a harder-to-grow apple, especially for our area. People still like that good clean taste it has.”
Enloe offered an inside tip for when Honeycrisp get scarce.
“Jonagold and early Fujies are all really good apples for people that like Honeycrisp,” he said. “If they find Honeycrisp hard to find I recommend those for folks that like a really sweet apple.”
Enloe grows about 100 acres of apples at the foot of Sugarloaf Mountain. He said the orchards have been blessed, so far this year, with good growing conditions. Although the freeze did cut yield, the area has so far avoided heavy hail damage. Although drought threatened to stunt growth two to three weeks ago, rain showers have come just in time.
“Weather has been really good to us this fall so we’re getting a lot of picking done,” he said. “Everything is starting to get a little bit of color on it. Some of these cold nights help with color.”

DIAMONDS

Nix said you won’t see him at the Apple Festival.
“Hell no, I try to avoid it, just because I don’t like crowds,” he said. “Normally we’re getting into full swing. I’ll do anything to keep from going up there. There’s certain farmers, that’s their main thing for the year. We’re just not set up for that. We’ve done that at one time but that was years ago.”
Enloe said he appreciates the Apple Festival even if he doesn’t get to stroll Main Street. He knows it’s there because sellers who can’t grow enough to meet the demand buy from him.
“And we also see the gain in traffic around the area, which is good thing,” he said. “But overall, the Apple Festival kind of kicks off the fall and you see a boost in tourism and a lot of people buying product. That’s what we’re here for.”