North Star Orchard Blog

Spring on the farm means welcoming back warm weather, rain (sigh...), growing and blooming plants, and a bunch of great helpers to work with!

Every year, we welcome back returning helpers, but we are also excited to meet and work with a number of new (in many cases) wannabe farmers.

Looking for a fun and/or educational event for your group? Now's the time to get the thinking caps on and the conversation started and line up some great new experiences to share!

Enjoy a private tasting, workshop or tour. From flavorful to fun to educational, we can tailor a special outing suited to your group’s interests.

Apple geek or apple snob? Which one are you?

Let’s back up a bit, shall we….What exactly IS an apple geek?

As farmers and consumers, why do we need to worry about pollination at all? Easy answer: because one third of the crops we eat rely on it! Any fruiting bodies that we eat, with a few exceptions, rely on pollination and proper fertilization to be recognized as edible. Apples, peaches, plums, zucchini, walnuts, melons, tomatoes, peppers, almonds, and pears all begin as blossoms, and if those flowers aren’t pollinated correctly, it might form a tiny, shriveled, or improperly developed fruit, which no one would want to eat.

Last year was a whirlwind year for us with the launch of our big, beautiful farm store and all the events we planned around it. Did you know we also offered an assortment of workshops as well? From the sound of it - and despite our best efforts - many folks who would have loved to participate simply didn’t hear about them in time to plan accordingly. We don’t want that to happen this year!

The moral of the story: Don't believe everything you read on the internet!

Last year's blog post on this date (April 1st, folks) was a complete farce. It was the ONLY time I've ever tried an April Fool's prank, and gosh..but I nailed it!

Did you get taken in? Don't worry - many people did. Including, believe it or not!, ...

What does November mean to you? Thanksgiving celebrations...the clocks changing...digging out the sweaters and packing away the shorts...cozy evenings with warm drinks and fun movies?

November means all of that to us and more. Here on the farm, November means Gold Rush apple month - that golden time of year we all wait for to harvest and enjoy those awesome apples, make varietal cider, and start cleaning up the farm to ‘put it to bed’ for the winter.

For some of our local community, November also marks the memorable loss of two teens who suddenly and silently lost their lives a couple years ago to odorless carbon monoxide gas.

Winecrisp is a complex, crunchy, sweet, and very hard apple with a fruity sweet flavor (with hints of berry!) and a beautiful dusky red skin.

When we planted this new variety, it was simply known as Co-op 31 (the poor nameless thing). We only planted one tree, just to try it out. There's nothing too exciting-sounding about "Co-op 31", so who wants to risk planting more than one of them?!

At this time of year, school kids across the county get treated to the story of Johnny Appleseed...that guy of old who walked around the country with a cooking pot on his head, spreading apple seeds hither and yon. Sometimes, the kids get treated to a trip to an orchard, but they usually at least make some pretty red construction paper apples, or make some apple prints, and munch on a Red Delicious or Honeycrisp in the process.

But we grownups....WE know the REAL story. Sure, good ol' Johnny Appleseed was getting a bunch of new apple trees out and about across the country at the time. But the goal was hard cider, not Red Delicious. Join us for a special day of hard cider tasting and education at the farm on Saturday, November 11th and taste some of the newest batches of Chester County hard cider...including a blend of apples from NSO!

Shall we take a journey down memory lane to our childhood today?

Back in the day, when we all chewed gum, Bazooka was quite a thing. Pink, perfumy, rock-hard at first (usually), we dug in anyway and then attempted to blow bubbles with it. At least for this chewer, bubble-blowing seemed rather tricky with Bazooka.

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