By PAT GOUDEY O’BRIEN

The working farm as a tourist destination is becoming more common around Vermont as the agricultural community looks for multiple revenue streams to cope with economic pressures.

Members of one agricultural community with a long history of inviting the public to participate in and celebrate the harvest are the apple orchards that dot Vermont’s mainland and Lake Champlain islands.

As summer draws to an end, the region’s apple harvest comes into season and the pick-your-own activities commence.

Adams Farm Market, Williston

John Adams is owner and operator of Adams Apple Orchard & Farm Market on Old Stage Road in Williston, where he grows about 20 apple varieties on 900 trees covering about seven acres of land. Inviting the public to harvest apples on the property figures prominently in his autumn routine.

“We’re primarily a pick-your-own apple orchard,” Adams said. “Very little goes to other uses.”

While many orchards in the region include a wholesale component, Adams’s apples are all consumed by his farm stand and pick-your-own customers. He starts picking new fruit during summer to sell in his own market as varieties including McIntosh, Jersey Macs and Paula Reds ripen for fresh sale and for use in apple sauce. The orchards are traditionally opened to the public for pick-your-own after Labor Day, he said, and the public can harvest apples daily through most of October.

To encourage the public to make his farm a destination, Adams has held an annual Fall Harvest Festival for the past 16 years. During festival weekend, which took place September 19 and 20, the orchards attracted tourists and local families for public picking and activities including marionette performances, wagon rides, pony rides, an inflatable bounce and a variety of musical performances. His own farm produce is prominently featured along with other Vermont products.

“As many as 6,000 to 8,000 people attend the Fall Harvest Festival,” Adams said. “The only thing larger in Williston is the Fourth of July.”

Most of the people who come to pick their own fruit are interested in the experience, he said, rather than coming for a large volume of apples for other uses.

“It’s a fun thing to do,” he said. “People don’t come for apples to make a lot of pies. They buy a couple of pies.”

Parents bring their children to experience something the parents remember from their own childhood, he said. Typical visitors are families with young children, tourist couples enjoying the local fare and schools and organizations that arrange group outings.

Adams said his orchards were first planted in 1972, with trees ready for pick-your-own harvesting by 1978 or 1979. He harvests from 3,000 to 4,000 bushels annually, mostly McIntosh, but including about 20 varieties altogether.

About 80 percent of his apples are harvested by visitors, he said. The rest are sold at the stand or made into products like apple sauce or cider. He said good cider apples aren’t ready until later in the season, beginning about the time of the Harvest Festival with cider pressing a part of the event.

For Adams, all of his apples are sold or consumed within a season, usually selling out by the time winter holidays arrive. They’re picked by visitors, sold at the market or made into cider and sauce that can be sold the following spring. He doesn’t maintain cold storage to hold fresh apples over the winter, he said.

Chapin Orchard, Essex Junction

John Bove leases and manages the Chapin Orchard at 150 Chapin Road in Essex Junction. The business is owned by Phillip and Helen Murdock, who still live on the land and are involved during harvest, Bove said.

Bove said he maintains about 15 acres of apple trees and another two acres of pumpkins and squash for the fall harvest season, which includes opening the orchard to pick-your-own visitors.

Altogether, he estimates he has about 1,500 trees. This year, he planted Honeycrisp, a good growing variety in the northeastern climate and a sweet apple for fresh eating. Those will be ready for picking in the next season, he said.

Even with the farm stand and pick-your-own orchard only open part of the year, the operation keeps him busy year-round, Bove said.

During the winter, spring and early summer, he employs a couple of people to help maintain the orchards and fields, with about a dozen more helping during harvest season, especially on weekends to assist with tourists and visitors, he said. His own schedule can expand to as many as 80 hours a week during the harvest season.

During the pick-your-own months, the farm features additional activities to attract the typical family visitor including picnic tables and petting animals such as sheep, chickens, rabbits and perhaps some piglets and a calf.

“Coming to Chapin Orchard is an event,” Bove said.

During Chapin Fest weekend, a popular annual festival event, Bove adds attractions like hayrides, musical performances, face-painting and exhibits by crafters and other local vendors.

Weekends are the busiest during harvest season, Bove said. During the week, he offers guided tours for school groups and other organizations. Day care groups enjoy the opportunity to pick their own fruit, he said. Also, during mid-week, he sees pie-makers in the orchards gathering fruit for their own use or to make pies for sale, he said.

“The pick-your-own is our main customer base,” he said. The farm also sells pumpkins, squash and fall decorative items, he said.

The farm stand is open by Labor Day and stays active through Halloween, he said. Some items are available as self-serve prior to opening day and then through Thanksgiving. Bove sells available harvest as wholesale throughout the late fall and early winter; by January, all the apples have been sold, he said.

Bove said about 60 per cent of his harvest is pick-your-own; about 30 percent is sold for retail in the farm’s own market; and the final 10 percent is sold wholesale to specialty markets, Vermont bakeries and to the New England Culinary Institute and The Essex Inn. His annual yield varies, but comes in at from 4,000 to 6,000 bushels, with 80 to 120 apples to a bushel, depending on the variety.

“It’s a variable income, but it’s my ninth year doing it and it affords an annual income,” he said. Bove’s wife is a nurse; between them, they keep afloat and are sending their children to college, he said.

Bove said the Chapin Orchard primarily grows McIntosh apples, but about 30 varieties are available. His staples are McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Red Delicious and Empire, but he also grows some Freedom, William’s Pride, Golden Russet, Paula Red and Honeycrisp, among others.

Allenholm Farm, South Hero

Allenholm Farm at 150 South Street in South Hero has more than 200 acres of orchards, growing varieties including Lodi, Vista Bella, Empire, Gala, Northern Spy, Paula Red, Tolman Sweet and the ever-popular McIntosh.

With more than 300 acres total, additional crops include pumpkin, squash and berries like raspberries, blueberries and sour cherries that are baked into pies that are popular with Allenholm clientele, said Tom Chagnon, who works at the farm owned by Ray and Pam Allen.

Chagnon has worked at Allenholm Farm in the store, orchards and fields for more than four years. He attends to store customers on weekends and works part-time weekdays after school during harvest season. A South Hero resident, Chagnon is a junior this year at Essex High School.

Chagnon said the pick-your-own business is an important segment of the Allenholm operation. To make the visit an experience, the farm includes tractor-pulled wagon rides to the orchards. A petting paddock with sheep and horses, a goat, chickens, rabbits and more is located near the picnic area.

“People can go within walking distance of the farm stand, but we like to have the tractor to give them more of a feeling of a farm,” Chagnon said. “But, there are macs, Cortland and Empire trees within a few hundred feet of the store.”

Allenholm sells apples at the farm store, with additional produce sold wholesale to Hannnaford supermarkets in Vermont, Chagnon said. He said the typical pick-your-own visitors are families on a country outing.

“We open for pick-your-own the weekend after Labor Day,” Chagnon said. In October, the farm is part of the South Hero Apple Fest and Craft Show that celebrates the harvest with local food products, crafters and wagon rides on South Street to mark the culmination of apple season. “Pick-your-own pretty much ends there,” Chagnon said.