First Apples

This morning we picked our first marketable quantities of apples from the farm. These apples have never been sprayed with anything and they are surprisingly free of marks and insect damage. We'll have some containers at the Romney Farmers Market next Saturday. They are small buy very very sweet. We've harvested only small quantities of apples before this. Raising apple trees turned into a continual battle with deer, rabbits, groundhogs, etc not to mention simply hoping for favorable weather conditions. We did lose several large branches laden with apples in a severe storm last Saturday evening. After losing peaches and cherries locally to the spring freeze, some nice fresh sweet apples are very welcome in mid summer.