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  • From left, Eric Mustard, of Maple City, hands out SweeTango apples; Megan Greenway, of Traverse City, holds a bag of apples; and Monica Cornell, of Kingsley, and Jessica McLean, of Escanaba, taste a SweeTango apple at the Bakker's Acres stand Saturday at the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market. Record-Eagle/Keith King

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  • Eric Mustard holds SweeTango apples from Bakker's Acres to hand out as samples at the farmers market. Record-Eagle/Keith King

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  • Bags of SweeTango apples from Bakker's Acres are displayed on a table Saturday during the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market. Record-Eagle/Keith King

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September 5, 2010

Apple yield bountiful despite freeze

Yield is bountiful despite being affected by freeze

BY SHERI McWHIRTER smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — It's the season of bounty in northern Michigan, but some area apple farmers say they had to contend with this growing season's ups and downs that both helped and hindered their harvests.

Tom Brodhagen, owner of Maple Ridge Orchards near Empire, stood in the drizzling rain Saturday morning and sold bags of McIntosh apples to shoppers at the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market in Traverse City. He said the apples he has this fall look good, but there are far fewer of them than usual.

"We're at about 20 percent of our normal crop. I got hit hard by the mid-May freeze," he said. "We're not wholesaling much this year, but we have plenty for the farmers market."

Brodhagen said he didn't lose his McIntosh apples to the blight problem reported this season in some local areas, but the early spring warm-up and re-freeze nipped his apple trees and heavily impacted his crop.

Nearby, grower Alan Bakker from Bakker's Acres in Suttons Bay sorted through tubs of SweeTango apples, a new variety that's a hybrid between Honeycrisp and Zestar apples. He freely gave away sample apples to shoppers, an attempt to wow their palates and lure them to his market table.

"We'll probably start picking commercially on Monday," Bakker said.

His apple crop is about 80 percent of his usual harvest after losing some to both springtime frost and the McIntosh blight problem. But the apples that survived grew well this summer, he said.

"Everything is two weeks early from the summer and the heat, as well as the early spring," Bakker said. "We got excellent size on the apples with the good rain."

Robynn James, of Williamsburg, bit into a SweeTango apple and said it's good and tart.

"But I prefer Honeycrisp and I like to buy the traditional apples like Ida Reds and Jonathan apples," she said.

James also said she prefers to buy her apples from local growers, like those at the farmers market.

Both Brodhagen and Bakker said they'll be selling their apples at the farmers market through October.

In Antrim County, Altonen Orchards has about 75 percent of their usual apple crop, said Brian Altonen.

"It was a scary spring with some frosty nights in May," he said.

His family's orchards also struggled with the McIntosh blight issue.

"It killed some trees, but pretty minimally when compared to the frost," Altonen said.

He said the warmer-than-usual summer conditions helped, though.

"It got dry a couple times, but it seemed the rain came right as we needed it," Altonen said.

Another autumn crop that fared well is pumpkins, he said.

"They're beautiful. Pumpkins and squash both turned out so nice. It was just the warm, nice weather," Altonen said.

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