“A couple years ago it was drought. Last year it was too much rain. This year it was the heat and humidity!” said Tim Anderson of the mercurial nature of apple harvests of late. 

The owner of Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard in Greenville said that summer heat sped up the ripening process this year.

“This is not a challenge per se, but it makes it tough to plan how long your pick your own will be available for,” he said. 

Windy Hill’s season reflects how growers are at the mercy of the weather.

“We had a somewhat light crop of Cortlands this year,” Anderson said. “This was mainly due to odd timing during bloom and light pollination, but they taste great this season.”

Along with McIntosh, Cortlands and Macouns are their most popular varieties. 

“Our goal is to offer our customers a great experience and an enjoyable time with their family,” Anderson said. “With the corn maze, farm animals and plenty of treats and gift shop items, we hope they are able to soak up the season here.

A recent Saturday at Windy Hill saw families entering the corn maze, filling pick-your-own bags and taking photos in the hay bale shed. 

“Our Macouns are very popular for eating apples, and they taste excellent this year,” Anderson said.

In Lyndeborough, Wayne Colsia of Paradise Farm has found this year more challenging.

“It seems to be one weather event after another for the past four or five years,” he said. “We had a late-season frost that wiped out 90% of our apple crop.”

The frost occurred in the spring, on a night when the temperature dropped to 28 degrees, Colsia said.  Seventy percent of Colsia’s usual crop is Macoun apples

“At first we had a lot of blossoms,” he said. “We thought it would be a great year.”

The farm, which Colsia and his wife Adrienne own, did not produce enough apples to offer pick-your-own this year.

“We only sold at farmers’ markets,” he said. “We had a pretty good peach crop, but they were small this year. But they were small this year, because the summer was dry and hot.”

Colsia said Paradise Farm’s year wasn’t typical for growers.

“We’re at 1,000 feet in terms of elevation,” he said. “Orchards at lower elevations didn’t get hit the way we did in the spring. The weather is more extreme in recent years – both hotter and colder.” 

Farmers, however, are eternal optimists, Colsia said.

“We like to say, ‘There’s always next year,’ ” he said.