PARADISE — Apples are in great abundance at Noble Orchards in Paradise, which presents owner Laurie Noble with a bit of conundrum.
On one hand, a “bumper crop,” as she described it, is good. People love apples and they love supporting a long-established local business.
On the other hand, that many apples can attract unwanted visitors to the orchard. In fact, they already have, and it has reached the point at which the trees themselves are in danger of being damaged.
“The reality is that we have hundreds of tons of apples still out there,” Noble said. “I’d say 80% of our Granny Smith and Fuji trees haven’t been touched.”
Noble Orchards is offering what Noble described as “a major u-pick event” for this weekend, though people are certainly welcome to begin arriving today. She said the company’s suggested price per bushel is $15, equaling about 40 pounds of apples.
Large animals have already started entering the orchard and finding apples on the ground, Noble said. With apples on the trees, animals will climb them and damage the branches. It is therefore to everyone’s advantage to get the fruit out of there, as soon as possible.
Noble recommended that anyone wishing to harvest apples should bring along a wagon, buckets, and a “picking stick” if available. Noble Orchards can provide boxes if visitors desire.
She added that home canners will be thrilled with these apples for making applesauce. The apples are excellent for juicing and making cider. Noble also recommended dehydrating the apples, storing them in the garage for holiday baking, or offering them as gifts.
The Camp Fire, which occurred five years ago this week, was understandably not kind to Noble Orchards — destroying the company’s large cold-storage unit and thus eliminating the ability of the Nobles to store the freshly picked harvest.
Noble said she and her husband, Jim, “have a smaller cold-storage unit — about 8 feet by 20 feet” but that is a long way from being adequate to handle the vast quantity of apples still waiting to be harvested. On top of that — who would do the work? The fire’s resulting population exodus greatly diminished the amount of manpower available.
“We only have eight borrowed bins” to hold harvested fruit, Noble said.
She pointed to the Veterans Day weekend as an outstanding opportunity for families and civic groups to celebrate a patriotic event by picking apples themselves. Jim Noble was a U.S. Army veteran, having served in Vietnam in 1971-72, though he did not see action.
Laurie Noble said this harvest is another bit of good news for the Paradise area as it continues its recovery from the fire. It will provide an opportunity to harvest apples for area food banks.
The orchard is open 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. each day, until the fruit is out of the orchard. Call 530-781-4784 for more information.
