We still have large amounts of apples on our trees available for picking. The best ones are Empire apples- still crunchy and very tasty! There are also lots of Spartan and Ida Red. They are super sweet and plentiful, especially up in the tops of the trees. We also have a great deal of Golden Delicious and Red Delicious apples out in the orchard. Many of these are starting to drop and fall to the ground though. The weather is very balmy for November – take advantage of the warmer temperatures and come out to ALBION ORCHARDS for a visit and pick some apples!

This coming weekend we will again be welcoming people to pick their own apples : ROYAL GALA Apples will be available. These are considered the sweetest of all apple varieties by many and is also currently the most popular apple variety worldwide. They definitely look pretty as well.

If you want the best selection of larger tree fruit you should plan to be here early on Saturday to “get the big ones”. If you wait until Sunday afternoon there is a good chance that our PYO block of Gala trees will be “picked out” due to the numbers of people expected. Gala are so popular we always sell out of them early every year in the store. Thank-you to all the very nice people who visited our farm this past weekend. Many families enjoyed the nice weather and filled bags with nice big juicy Macintosh apples.

A few things to know before planning your trip to Albion Orchards:

• Pick your own is from 10 am to 4 pm. The store is open until 5 pm .
• No dogs allowed. Please leave pets at home. You can NOT bring your dog into the farm where we are growing food and children are playing .
• Covid masks are required when entering the store. Outside in the orchard there is no need to wear a mask- enjoy the fresh country air!
• There is no admission charge. But there is no admission allowed to those not purchasing / taking part in PYO .
• Cost for PYO Royal Gala is: $20 for 10 pound bags / $40 for 20 lb bags
• There is a minimum of 5 lbs per person in order to pick your own. This means that a maximum of 2 persons may enter PYO area sharing the cost of a single 10 -lb bag. If a 20 lb bag is purchased, a maximum of 4 persons may enter / share the cost.
• If you do not want to purchase the the minimum amount for pick your own apples, sorry but you cannot enter the pick your own/ play area.
• Smaller amounts of Gala apples can be purchased in our store – CHEAPER! Galas in the store are priced at $1.49 /lb We also have other varieties to choose from as well, such as Macintosh (.99 cents/ lb)

Christmas Tree cutting has begun and we are open Wednesday to Sunday until the 22nd of December for Cut Your Own Christmas Trees.  The cost is $55 for any tree up to 8 feet in height.  Larger trees are an additional $5 per foot.  Bring your own saw or borrow one of ours .  We have tree stands available for sale as well ….

We are open for CYO Christmas Trees ….

• HOURS : Tues-Friday 10-6 ……..Saturday /Sunday  10-5
• COST:   $55 up to 8 feet height, taller trees to a max. of $100
• TREE SPECIES AVAILABLE:  Fir ( Caanan, Fraser, Balsam), Spruce (Blue, White)
  

  

  

  

We have saws to loan for your use, but we encourage you to bring your own.  Netting service (tree wrapping) included with purchase of tree.   We also have lots of twine to use for tying/ securing your tree to your vehicle and are happy to assist. 

Are you interested in the process involved to produce fresh apple cider?  Here is a step by step tutorial in the production so you have a better understanding….

• 

  Fresh Picked apples in bins

  First of all you need to grow some good quality fruit – harvested carefully by hand at the optimum time for ripeness which gives the juice sweetness and taste…

• The apples are picked into bins which are carried out of the orchard by tractors.

Bins are stored inside our cooler at a temperature of 1-2 degrees celsius to keep the fruit fresh as possible.  They stay in the apple cooler until the day that they are to be processed, known as the “pressing day”.  We like to use a mixture of apple varieties in order to get more flavor but we almost always include Macintosh apples.

• Bins are loaded 6 at a time and trucked to the processing facility that has all the specialized equipment and machinery to process the fruit.  Six bins of apples weigh close to 6000 lbs and usually yields about 1800 liters of juice.
• Arriving at the pressing facility the bins are unloaded one by one and emptied into a hopper where they are fed by conveyor belt through a washer.
• After being tumbled through a spray washer to remove any leaves or particles of debris, the apples are fed to a high powered chopper / masher which chops and grinds the fruit so that it can be pressed.
• The “mash is then fed onto a special screening process that separates all the solid materials like skin, seeds, and stems.  The liquid is allowed to pass through this specialized filtering process while the solid mash is removed.  This is often used to feed farm animals or just composted back into the farm soil.   Here you can see the apple mash being squeezed using great pressure under a massive stainless steel roller covered by a string cloth filtering material.  Underneath the juice is collected like a waterfall through this filtering material.  It is them pumped through another filter to refine it further before being bottled into plastic jugs….
  

  

  The pure cider is bottled quickly and immediately the jugs are placed back inside the empty apple bins in order to be transported back to the refrigerated cooler in our store – fresh and super healthy for you to drink and enjoy!!!

• 

  

  

  

We are open for Pick Your Own 10 – 4 Saturday and Sunday.  No charge for admission.

Pick your own is cash only- Our Store accepts debit/credit cards.  Please no dogs.

 

This weekend the whole farm and orchards will be open for pick -your-own apples and pumpkins.  Pick-your-own runs from 10 am to 4 pm.  There is NO CHARGE FOR ADMISSION, only for picking.

Apple Varieties available in large quantity for picking include Red Delicious,  Golden Delicious, Empire, Spartan, Ida Red, Granny Smith, Cortland, Mutsu, and Northern Spy.  Apple varieties available for picking in moderate quantities are Granny Smith,  Pink Lady, and Jonagold.  Those that are in very limited quantity include Ambrosia,  Honeycrisp, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Snow and Golden Russet.  Varieties that are now all picked but available in the store include our Pears, Macintosh, Paula Red and Royal Gala. 

We are opening up the Empire apples for PYO this weekend.  They are beautiful.

Prime time for Pick-Your-Own – they are a good size and very very tasty as well..

Please know that we do NOT allow dogs.  Please leave pets at home if you are coming

We have a wonderful selection of very unique gift baskets made specially with carefully selected items of excellent value – honey, jams, cookies, chocolates, decorations, etc.  They are all different and  beautifully presented in various different container styles- bags, tins, wooden boxes and baskets (of course) as well.

We just brought in a tractor trailer load of FRESH CUT CHRISTMAS TREES today too! Come to the farm and pick one out or cut your own from our live trees growing here..