Maine apple crop more plentiful than last year
Maine’s apple growers are reporting a strong crop this year following a light harvest last season, the Portland Press Herald reported Wednesday.
The crop tends to be cyclical, but experts and apple orchard owners told the paper that a combination of factors likely led to this year’s bumper crop, including good spring and summer weather. The Press Herald reported that trees at some orchards can’t keep their branches off the ground because the crop is so plentiful.
Marilyn Meyerhans, who owns the Apple Farm in Fairfield and Lakeside Orchards in Manchester with her husband, told the paper that she thinks most apple orchards in Maine will do well, predicting that some apple stockpiles will last into the spring.
The state’s apple crop is worth far less than blueberries and potatoes, but Walter Whitcomb, commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, told the paper the apples are an important commodity for both farmers and consumers.
The crop was worth roughly $13 million in 2013, the most recent figure available, according to the paper.
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