Sweetser's Apple Barrel and Orchards

We have local pumpkins for just $.59/lb

Local Maine pumpkins are here along with several great varieties of gourds and squash. We have over 10 heirloom varieties of apple in the market now and our delicious Sweetser’s apple cider is moving fast. This Autumn come wander our rows of pumpkins with your family and find the one that’s right for you…Or the one that’s right for each one of you! We have some heavy whoppers, kid-sized pumpkins and everything in between. Remember that wonderful smooth taste of home-made pumpkin pie? There’s nothing like it! Come on over today to pick one out, get a bag of apples and a gallon of cider and celebrate the season!

We have opened the Apple Barrel doors for another season and already have delicious local apples ready for you. We’re open 10am-5:30pm seven days a week, rain or shine! Full service afternoons and weekends. Express service  apples and vegetables each morning, Monday – Friday. Come by to try a Paula Red, one of our first apples of the season. This year we planted lots of new varieties but apples trees take about five years to mature produce fruit, so this year we’ll have 40 varieties of apple but soon we’ll have over 50!

1. Did you know that July is national blueberry month?
2. We at Sweetser’s have around 50 big high-bush blueberry bushes.
3. A cup of blueberries has just 80 calories.
4. We’re selling blueberries 7 days a week for just $5.50 per pint!
5. Our blueberries are 100% hand picked by local folks.
6. We don’t spray our blueberries with any pesticides, fungicides or herbicides.
7. Blueberries are high in antioxidants and phytonutrients which are thought to protect the body from disease and free radicals.
8. Blueberries are high in Vitamin C that helps protect from colds.
9. We sort our berries by hand, giving you only the best of the best.
10. In the time you spent reading this, you could have eaten 100 Sweetser’s blueberries!

Apple Tree Planting, April 2012

Today was another great milestone on the Sweetser Farm. We planted another six varieties of apples in the orchard, raising our total to 46 varieties. When we plant 4 more varieties from FEDCO tree company, we’ll boast 50 varieties of fresh apples. Here is Eben (6th generation), Greg (5th generation) and Dick (4th genertation) in the field on a 70 degree April day. Each of the 33 trees planted today were carefully set in the ground under Connie’s Sweetser eagle eye to insure that the rows were straight.  The hard word of running an orchard seems to result in healthy family members.

Farm Toys

The warm April days have allowed early access to the orchard and gardens. With temps reaching 70 degrees we are able to get all of the tractors out of the barn. Garden prep, transplanting blueberries, apple tree pruning are priority projects.          

  

The strawberry bed

The Strawberry bed is frost covered this morning, April 13, 2012. Time to pull weeds. Dry conditions have allowed us to till the remainder of the garden.

The apple buds are beginning to open

The buds are maturing early this year. Here we see the first tiny leaves breaking out. These hardy fruit trees can still withstand temperatures well below freezing for another couple of weeks, until the blossoms form.

Vintage Wolf River apple tree

This is the Biggest, Baddest, Apple tree in the Sweetser Orchard. And, it grows the biggest apples of any variety. A single Wolf River apple can weigh more than one pound. Last year’s beauty weighed in at 1.25 lbs. This tree awaits its spring pruning to remove the “suckers” growing staight up, but we will leave the upper brances to grow another valuable crop of these heritage apples. This is not an efficient tree to harvest, but it represents the traditional trees that dominated the apple industry for more than a century. This is a popular stop on our orchard walks.

  

 

Honey Crisp Apple Trees

Spring in the orchard is a busy time of year for pruning.  These Honey Crisp semi dwarft apple trees have been trained for several years and only require minimal pruning this spring.

Standard Size Apple Tree

Pruning the 100 year old Standard Trees is a much more complicated and time consuming process. But, these “old friends” produce such a fine tasting apple, we just have to maintain the trees. 

We’re Open Until Mid December from 10-5:30 p.m. and we want to thank our loyal customers by offering a free 1/4 peck of apples with each purchase of $10 or more!