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Apple Harvest and Fantastic Fall Season in Full Swing

September 27, 2013

Time flies.  We all say it.  It’s a cliché for the ages.  In Vermont though, seasonal change can sometimes feel like a game of hurry up and wait.  The pumpkin and fall ciders hit the shelves.  Football starts as baseball winds down.  The first real chill finds its way into the air.  All of this builds and builds… but summer tends to hang on no matter what delicious seasonal cider is on the shelf.

Then we get “the week”.  You know the one?

You wake up one morning and suddenly the trees have transformed into fine art, the apple and pumpkin harvest peaks, and the transition from late summer to full on autumn feels complete.

This week was “the week” here in Vermont.

Foliage pictures flooded social media, ski resorts boasted the first hint of snow on Vermont’s highest peaks, and the apple orchards called out our names.  Thoughts of cider donuts and fresh baked apple pie danced in our heads.  The sun provided just enough warmth to make a walk around the orchard in that favorite hoodie an endeavor of the highest priority.

Autumn is here!  It’s all happening people!

We decided to take the Woodchuck truck for a spin over to Shoreham, Vermont.  The town is home to Champlain Orchards; the orchards where much of our local juice is sourced from.  The sprawling rows of apple trees were bursting at the seams with a bumper McIntosh crop.  It’s a great year for apples in the Green Mountain State.

Twenty Woodchuck employees also came out and participated in a program called “Pick for Your Neighbor”.  It’s organized by the Vermont Foodbank, which serves as a distribution hub for 270 different food shelves, meal sites, senior centers, and after-school programs.  Pick for Your Neighbor encourages Vermonters to pick an extra bag of apples when in the orchard and donate it to the foodbank.

Here at Woodchuck we spent a crisp fall morning picking apples and donated them all.  130 bushels.  Over 5,000 pounds.  It serves to help our fellow Vermonters in need and because we purchase all those apples, also brings a boost to one of our local apple partners.  In the four years since Woodchuck starting participating, it has donated north of 18,000 pounds of fresh apples to the Vermont Foodbank.

We are lucky to live in such a wonderful corner of the world, where every season brings with it change.  Seasonal change is actually one of few constants around these parts.  That and Middlebury being where some of the best ciders in the world are handcrafted every day.  By looking at our recent construction, that won’t be changing anytime soon!

Wherever you may call home, be sure to get out in the orchards this fall season.  Supporting local agriculture and helping those in need are responsibilities that should never waiver… no matter how fast time flies.

 

 

 

 

 

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