U ready? Orchards prepare for Labor Day crowds

“It’s not like going to Disneyland,” said Linda Mark, walking down the dirt road between her grape arbors and the big barn at Wellwood Orchards. “People are pleasant. And instead of the kids getting a bunch of plastic toys they’re going to break or forget about, when you go home you’ve got apples, and Mom’s going to make a pie.”

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U ready? Orchards prepare for Labor Day crowds By GLYNIS HART reporter@eagletimes.com Sep 1, 2018 Riverview Farm, Plainfield Menachem Roth brings his family to the farm for picking, a late-summer ritual. Nancy Franklin of Riverview Farm, right. GLYNIS HART PLAINFIELD and SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — “It’s not like going to Disneyland,” said Linda Mark, walking down the dirt road between her grape arbors and the big barn at Wellwood Orchards. “People are pleasant. And instead of the kids getting a bunch of plastic toys they’re going to break or forget about, when you go home you’ve got apples, and Mom’s going to make a pie.” Saturday, Sept. 1 is Wellwood’s Customer Appreciation Day, as well as the first big day of the U-pick season. It’s also the first day Linda will harvest her new row of table grapes and offer them for sale. She and her three sisters live on or near the 100-acre farm their dad, Roy Mark, still owns, and it’s easy to see why. The farm is on the top of a hill, with rows and rows of fruit trees on both sides of the road. Mount Ascutney and Hawks Mountain rise in the near distance, and in spite of the bustle of activity at the farm — workers moving trucks, goats baaing, chickens chuckling — the place feels close to the sky, and quiet. “We try to make a living, not a killing,” said Linda. “We want to let people enjoy what we grew up with.” In addition to all the fruit to be picked — the farm grows peaches, plums, cherries and pears in addition to the table grapes and all the apples — there’s a petting zoo, wagon rides, games for children, fire trucks, face painting, a magic show from 10 to 11 a.m., a clown, lots of free food and even live music for the adults: Travis Parker and the Imperfectionists. “Everything outside is free,” said Linda. “All the children’s games have prizes, and a lot of our prizes are school supplies.” “It’s a really fun way to get the community out to see what we have,” said her sister, Patty. Roy bought the farm in 1981, but many of the apple trees date from the 1920s. In the spring they start with strawberries, then move through the seasons: raspberries and blueberries, then apples, peaches and plums. They do very little wholesale; almost all their business is the U-pick. Over the years the Marks got rid of the ladders and trimmed their trees down so everything can be reached from the ground. Linda explains that they took out some apple trees to make room for more strawberries, and with others they grafted new shoots onto the older, classic root stock. With judicious trimming over the years, they were able to craft the trees into sturdy trunks with robust root systems and a reachable top layer. “We really strive to make this place a wholesome place, a safe place, an affordable place,” she said. “It’s crazy when all the people get here, but it’s a good crazy.” • • • Across the Connecticut River, in Plainfield, Riverview Farm is also gearing up for the weekend, which promises to be warm, clear and sunny. Riverview still has blueberries to pick. Nancy Franklin, who owns the farm with her husband Paul, said they chose Elliott, a late-harvest variety, on purpose so as not to compete with their neighbors. Like the Marks, the Franklins have been on the farm since 1981. They began with strawberries, but they wanted to start an orchard. The oldest apple trees on their farm were planted in 1983. The farm is tucked on a hillside, overlooking the river, and the farm paths up into the orchard can be too long for little legs, so they provide horse-drawn wagon rides. U-pickers come through the farm store with buckets of blueberries, red raspberries and golden raspberries to get their harvest carefully weighed and give back the white buckets. Moms with babies strapped to their chests, or toddlers trailing by the arm, and fathers with bemused faces drift through the store. No one seems to be in a hurry, but as the saying goes, everything gets done. Riverview Farm has a corn maze, where artist Emily Zea is putting the finishing touches. Friday is her last day to get the maze ready, and she’s been working on it since April. A recent graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, the school for cartooning in White River Junction, Vermont, Zea is leaving in the fall to study for her Master of Fine Arts. She’s planned out the maze with a theme of riverine creatures, fish and waterfowl, and stationed informative signs along the way. Thus, even when a kid reaches a dead end in the maze, they’ll find an interesting fish or a painted bird. Adults who know their birds will be challenged to identify species such as pie-billed grebes, and kids can pretend to be scared of the giant snapping turtle. “We think it’s great. It’s always on our late-summer list to come here,” said Ita Roth. She and her husband Menachem led their three kids into the store to tally up the day’s harvest of berries: elderberries, golden and regular raspberries. Riverview also does cider, unpasteurized, so it can only be bought at the farm or at the farmers’ market. “We’ve made hard cider ourselves just for fun,” said Nancy Franklin. “Last year Paul sold kits for making cider, but this year we’re going to do classes in cider making.” Zea stopped to help Franklin at the counter when the line got long. She’s been coming here for years, she said. A lot of families come to spend the day, there’s so much to do. And, she said, eyes sparkling, “If you come at the right time, you can get maple creamies—maple soft serve ice cream. It’s delicious.”