2024 Pick your own apples...opening day: August 24, 2024!
Apple Orchard Chronicles
Spring/Summer 2023: This winter/spring we've been busy pruning our apple trees in between baseball and softball games! We also had to invest in some creative irrigation systems as it's been a dry spring/summer. But our apples are looking good and we are looking forward to our fall season soon!
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Spring 2022: We have started pruning...more to add soon. We had lots of help to finish up pruning and are looking forward to a great growing season.
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Fall 2021: Unfortunately, the frost during bloom time this spring reduced our apple crop this year. Our Zestars were unharmed but many of our other varieties are not at full production. Hopefully Mother Nature will be kinder next year!
Spring 2021: We are back in the orchards pruning...our trees look great! We have also been working to fix fences and trellis. Another cold snap is predicted tomorrow (April 20). Thankfully activities are getting back to normal, so we have been working in the orchards as much as possible. We hope to have a great crop again this fall!
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Fall 2020:
We had a great pick your own apples season! Thanks to everyone that came out to pick apples! 2020 sure has been an interesting year! We are so thankful for our customers, staff, friends and family! |
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Spring 2020: Our orchards have never looked better! Due to quarantine, we have been able to spend a lot of time pruning, taking care of tree branches, fixing fence and taking care of all of our trees. Our kids didn't have anywhere else to be either, so they became apprentice pruners and did a great job. It was a great season to work in the orchards. We were able to protect our trees from the cold snaps in April and are looking forward to a great season of apples. We also planted some new trees.
Summer 2019: We have been busy taking care of trees. As our trees grow, we have been working to train their branches and bending over the tops. We have been focusing a lot of our time on our lower orchard, Arrowhead Orchard, making sure our newest trees are supported. We have lots of varieties in this orchard and this year lots of Zestar are ready! We are looking forward to starting pick your own season on August 24, 2019! Come on out and pick some apples!
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Spring 2019: We finished up pruning a few months ago. And have been monitoring our trees closely as they come out of the deep freeze winter. Our trees are looking good and we are looking forward to a great summer growing season!
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Fall 2018: We are in the midst of harvesting our abundant apple crop!
This year we are also doing Pick Your Own apples!
Check Facebook for the latest updates and picking schedule!
We have finished up with Zestar and Gala are next. Then Honeycrisp and Cortland from the top 100 orchard. In the lower (newer) orchard, we have also had small (and delicious) crops of Stansa and Gingergold with more varieties to come. In addition to having pick your own apples, we will also have apples for sale at the Snack Barn on the weekends at the farm. We will also have our apples for sale at our town location, Orchard Station. Stay updated on Facebook and our website, or just come on out!
This year we are also doing Pick Your Own apples!
Check Facebook for the latest updates and picking schedule!
We have finished up with Zestar and Gala are next. Then Honeycrisp and Cortland from the top 100 orchard. In the lower (newer) orchard, we have also had small (and delicious) crops of Stansa and Gingergold with more varieties to come. In addition to having pick your own apples, we will also have apples for sale at the Snack Barn on the weekends at the farm. We will also have our apples for sale at our town location, Orchard Station. Stay updated on Facebook and our website, or just come on out!
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The apples are growing...and so are we!
At Dittmar Farms and Orchard we have close to 800 apple trees. Our first orchard of 100 trees was planted in 2014 and planted another orchard on the farm in 2017 with 700 more. Not sure if we are still calling this a "hobby"?? Read on to find out more... |
Spring 2018: We worked on pruning our trees and getting them ready for the growing season ahead. The first 100 are looking great and we are looking forward to a nice crop this fall! Our newer orchard also is doing great. We had lots of pruning to do on some of the Zestars - they are growing like crazy! The other trees won't fruit this year as we want them to focus on growing into nice, healthy trees first.
Apples, Apples, Apples...
This year our apples were ready a little earlier than expected. We picked and sold all the Zestar in early August. Then the Galas, Honeycrisp, and Cortland were ready in September. Our poor Gala trees were loaded down with so many perfect lunchbox apples! And this year we finally had a full crop of Honeycrisp. We have Galas and Honeycrisp for sale at the farm and at our new town location Orchard Station. We are using our Cortlands for our delicious caramel apples (these are my favorite trees)! There was nothing better than taste testing all the apples while picking! Apologies for the terrible pun, but they were definitely the "fruits of our labor". (9/19/17)
This year our apples were ready a little earlier than expected. We picked and sold all the Zestar in early August. Then the Galas, Honeycrisp, and Cortland were ready in September. Our poor Gala trees were loaded down with so many perfect lunchbox apples! And this year we finally had a full crop of Honeycrisp. We have Galas and Honeycrisp for sale at the farm and at our new town location Orchard Station. We are using our Cortlands for our delicious caramel apples (these are my favorite trees)! There was nothing better than taste testing all the apples while picking! Apologies for the terrible pun, but they were definitely the "fruits of our labor". (9/19/17)
Spring Planting
In early May, we planted about 600 more apple trees in our lower orchard which we refer to as Arrowhead Orchard. We have many, many varieties down there and after about five months in the ground, they are looking great. A huge thanks to everyone that helped! (9/19/17)
In early May, we planted about 600 more apple trees in our lower orchard which we refer to as Arrowhead Orchard. We have many, many varieties down there and after about five months in the ground, they are looking great. A huge thanks to everyone that helped! (9/19/17)
Winter Work, and now Spring!
Over the winter, we pruned the original 100 trees and are looking forward to our second fruit year on those trees. Hoping for some Honeycrisp this year! This spring we have been working to prune our newbie trees in the new orchard. Our fence building crew (Mike, Rick, Connor and Cora), have been busy building the new fence to expand this new orchard while we await our 500 trees that should arrive at the end of April. We are very excited to expand our apple orchards. This Fall we hope to be open on Saturdays in September to sell apples! (4/2/17)
Over the winter, we pruned the original 100 trees and are looking forward to our second fruit year on those trees. Hoping for some Honeycrisp this year! This spring we have been working to prune our newbie trees in the new orchard. Our fence building crew (Mike, Rick, Connor and Cora), have been busy building the new fence to expand this new orchard while we await our 500 trees that should arrive at the end of April. We are very excited to expand our apple orchards. This Fall we hope to be open on Saturdays in September to sell apples! (4/2/17)
Our First Fruit Year...
In mid-August we picked our first crop of Zestars and had about 2 1/2 bushels. They were delicious and disappeared quickly to all our family and friends who have been waiting as anxiously as we have for the first produce off this orchard! In late August we picked our first crop of Galas and have about 4 bushels to sell. Unfortunately our Honeycrisp trees did not produce fruit this year due to drought conditions last fall, so we will be awaiting our first crop of Honeycrisp next year (good things come to those who wait - right??). Yet to come this fall will be our first crop of Cortlands
and they are looking great! (8/0/16)
In mid-August we picked our first crop of Zestars and had about 2 1/2 bushels. They were delicious and disappeared quickly to all our family and friends who have been waiting as anxiously as we have for the first produce off this orchard! In late August we picked our first crop of Galas and have about 4 bushels to sell. Unfortunately our Honeycrisp trees did not produce fruit this year due to drought conditions last fall, so we will be awaiting our first crop of Honeycrisp next year (good things come to those who wait - right??). Yet to come this fall will be our first crop of Cortlands
and they are looking great! (8/0/16)
Apples, Apples, Apples!!!
So much going on in the apple orchard!!! Our Zestar, Gala and Cortland trees are loaded! We will be picking the Zestars in a couple weeks! We are very excited for our first year fruit production! And in the spring we added a new orchard too! (8/12/16)
So much going on in the apple orchard!!! Our Zestar, Gala and Cortland trees are loaded! We will be picking the Zestars in a couple weeks! We are very excited for our first year fruit production! And in the spring we added a new orchard too! (8/12/16)
We pruned our 100 apple trees a couple of weeks ago (in the rain). Thanks to Ben Metz for his guidance and incredible patience! We have ordered about 500 more apple trees to be planted over the next few years! We hope to have our first small "crop" this fall (2016). (2/17/16)
This winter we are attending conferences in Illinois and Wisconsin - learning more about our apples! (1/24/16)
We tasted the first Zestar and Gala apples from our orchard this week (8/28/15)! Yum! We are very excited for our projected official first "crop" next year!
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Our apple trees are doing great (2015). We had some rodent damage over the winter and are learning lots in regards to pest/disease control, pruning, and training the trees. We allowed a few apples to grow this year (only a few) and it's been nice to see! We have also located some wild apple trees on the farm. We have grafted them and continue to check on them as well!
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We planted 100 apple trees this spring (2014). Zestar, Honeycrisp, Gala and Cortland.
They are looking great and we are learning a lot with lots of great help.
Hopefully we will have apples in three years!
They are looking great and we are learning a lot with lots of great help.
Hopefully we will have apples in three years!