If you can’t decide which type of apple to take home from the market, stop by the Saratoga Apple table, where Christine Gaud will cut you some slices to taste and make some enjoyable suggestions.
Gaud and her husband, Nate Darrow, own the Saratoga Apple and farm market on Route 29 in Schuylerville. They bring several types of apples to the market year-round, including familiar favorites such as Cortland, McIntosh, and Honeycrisp, and less known varieties like Jonagold and the exotic sounding Belle de Boscoop.
Gaud and Darrow have owned Saratoga Apple since 1994. When they purchased it, 125 acres were being farmed. They have since scaled back to 40 acres of apples, with an additional six to eight cultivated acres producing asparagus and other vegetables, peaches, plums, raspberries and more. Some of the items are grown in adherence to “biologique” methods, the French word which means following practices similar to organic farming.
“This is a busy time of year for us. We continue to bring products to consumers via farmers’ markets in the region, and we also have crowds of people enjoying picking their own apples at the orchard. On the weekend, we have hundreds of people coming out to ride in the wagons, pick apples, sample cider donuts and pies, and enjoy the fall scenery on the ridge in Schuylerville,” notes Gaud.
In addition to selling at farmers’ markets, Saratoga Apple has its own farm market store, which is open seven days a week year-round. The store showcases a variety of produce items, baked goods and pantry items.
Darrow attributes the orchard’s ability to supply fresh apples year-round to the cold storage facilities at both the Schuylerville location and his brother’s orchard in Vermont, which has five controlled atmosphere storage rooms.
“Right now, I’m driving 10 bins a day to Vermont, each containing about 800 pounds of apples, where they will be put into specially regulated cold storage. Next winter and spring, these rooms will be opened one by one. Each will yield very crisp, juicy apples, due to the low oxygen levels which slows the respiration of the apples,” Darrow explains.
With this year’s apple crop producing much better than in 2012 all across New York, Darrow expects to harvest more than 16,000 bushels of apples. That means that customers at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market will have plenty of crisp, juicy apples right through next summer.
