Paul Post
By Paul Post
This is the most nerve-racking time of year for apple growers as warm weather followed by a sudden cold spell can freeze blooms, effectively ruining an entire crop.
“That’s a really big hazard and with the vagaries of climate catastrophe that we’re in, you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” said David Garvoille, Hicks Orchard business development manager. “Fifty degree temperature swings have become a regular thing. It can be 60 one day and 10 the next.”
Founded in 1905, this family-run Granville operation is New York state’s oldest “you-pick” apple farm, which is coming off its best year ever.
“We had the most insane bumper crop, bigger than anyone alive remembers,” Garvoille said. “One tree fell over it was so weighted down with apples. We have about 20 different varieties and they all ripened at the same time. It was just like a freight train coming at us.”
Last spring remained cold right through Mother’s Day, so when it finally warmed up and blooms emerged, the threat of freezing temperatures had passed. Also, Mother Nature provided perfect conditions for honey bees that were brought in to pollinate the orchard.
“We rented four pallets of bees,” Garvoille said. “Skies were crystal clear with no wind. On a day like that those bees can pollinate all 50 acres in about 30 minutes. We had three days of weather like that. We called the bee owner and said, ‘Come get ‘em, we’re done’.”
While Hicks was enjoying a banner year, things weren’t quite as sweet for the overall New York apple industry. A new report prepared for Farm Credit East indicates that New York has slipped from second to third place nationally behind Michigan, which produced 14 percent of the nation’s crop compared to New York at 12 percent. Washington state is number one at 60 percent.
Final U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics will become available on May 8.
A 2017 Cornell University study said New York’s apple industry had a $2.1 billion economic impact, responsible for 12,000 direct and indirect jobs. Currently, there are approximately 600 orchards across the state growing apples on more than 50,000 acres.
But Bowman Orchard owner Kevin Bowman, of Clifton Park, said “A lot of apple growers have either downsized, quit altogether or gone into other crops that aren’t so labor intensive. What does it mean for our food supply? That’s the big question. As New York food production goes down, what does that do to the economy if we’re importing food from other places. It puts no money into the local economies.”
In addition, New York, which had long been the nation’s third-leading dairy state, has dropped to fifth place as Idaho and Texas have moved up to third and fourth place, respectively, behind California and Wisconsin.
“Those states (Idaho and Texas) are seeing an increase in expansion, in part because of the larger land base and less regulatory and environmental mandates,” said Steve Ammerman, New York Farm Bureau spokesman. “We have said all along that New York can be a challenging state to do business. The higher the labor costs go, for instance, the harder it will be for farms to compete and stay in business. That will have a direct negative impact on the accessibility of local food that doesn’t have to travel thousands of miles to get here, as well as the economies and jobs that New York farms support.”
In February, the state Labor Department adopted controversial new rules that will eventually lower the threshold for paying farmworkers overtime, from 60 to 40 hours per week. Beginning next Jan. 1, it will go from 60 to 56 hours per week, reducing four hours every other year until reaching 40 hours in 2032.
Farmers say this will cut into already thin profit margins, forcing them to layoff off workers and in some cases, go right out of business.
The 2019 Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act also mandates a day of rest each week, or paying overtime to those who would rather work. This, too, creates another financial burden on apple growers during the already-stressful harvest season.
“It’s a challenge because we can’t dictate the weather,” said Cynthia Haskins, New York Apple Association president. “We have to get in, harvest the apples and get out. The apples won’t wait for us. So we’re just being hit a whole lot with labor issues.”
Meanwhile, competition gets tougher each year.
“Every day we compete not only with other apple producing states and countries for shelf space, we compete with everything sold in the produce department,” Haskins said. “For example, there are so many varieties of tomatoes now and they take up more shelf space in supermarkets. What are shoppers going to put in their cart? I hope it’s New York state apples.”
Unlike many employers that can’t seem to find enough help these days, Hicks Orchard has more than enough willing workers, which Garvoille attributes to the farm’s iconic reputation in the surrounding area. “It’s an institution,” he said. “We’re very lucky to have the reputation of being a really supportive and fun place to work. Even though it’s bedlam during apple season, we’ve had almost more staff than we can use, just because of how fond people are of the orchard and its community engagement. The staff really cares about what we do here.”
The farm’s biggest challenge, during this inflationary period, is keeping retail prices within reach of area residents, Garvoille said. Hick Orchard’s fresh, tasty cider donuts attract people from miles around. But they cost $11.75 per dozen now compared to $8.50 three years ago. The price of flour just went up 10 percent, a special type of fryer oil is quite expensive and a block of grease costs $103.
“We don’t want to skimp on ingredients because that’s what makes our donuts amazing,” he said.
On autumn weekends, when the weather is nice, Hick’s Orchard gets up to 10,000 visitors, some coming from as far as New York City and Montreal.
“We’re in a pretty remote location, nine miles from Vermont,” Garvoille said. “We don’t have a big feeder location like farms in the Hudson Valley or near Syracuse. For some local residents, we’re getting a little too rich for their blood. They don’t have deep pockets with disposable income to go to a you-pick farm. That’s kind of a luxury. We don’t want to alienate folks. The challenge is trying to hit the right balance where we make enough revenue to cover expenses and make a bit extra to do farm maintenance while staying loyal to our community.”