By Cliff White
Staff Writer
Falling temperatures, falling leaves, and falling apples. In many ways, fall is a season that describes itself.
A traditional way to celebrate the advent of fall in New England is a trip to pick apples on one of the many orchards that abound in the region. There are at least five farms in the Gazette’s coverage area that allow visitors to carry on their annual custom of roaming the orchards at their own pace and picking apples that look the best to them, even if it means contorting in agony, stretching the extra inch needed to pluck a perfect-looking specimen from a high but droopingly overburdened branch.
Last week, the Rollins family of Windham could be found camouflaged among the thickly grouped lines of apple trees at Randall Farm in Standish. Andrew Rollins used his long reach to pick the choicest apples higher up on branches, handing them to wife, Michelle, and daughter, Ariana.
“We come pick apples every year,” Michelle Rollins said in between catching apples from Andrew and depositing them in a plastic bag held around her wrist. “It’s a family tradition that we’ve done for I don’t know how long.”
Dick Randall, 68, owner of Randall Farm, has many stories to tell about the lifetime he has spent harvesting apples on the orchard located off Route 25, just north of the town’s border with Gorham.
“I was born on this land, raised on this land, and I live on this land,” Randall said. “Whether or not I’ve always loved being a part of it, working on this apple orchard has taken up the better part of my life.”
Randall said his grandfather, Edgar Randall, purchased the original 100-acre plot of land in 1906, and his father extended the plot with purchases of his own. Now, Randall said, with purchases of his own, the parcel has been expanded to 500 acres – 100 acres of which is dedicated to the orchard.
“The orchard dates back to the 1906 purchase by my grandfather, and there are still some trees today that are from the original orchard,” Randall said. “In a way, this orchard is a part of Standish’s history.”
Scott and Laurie Neal have made themselves a part of the orchard’s history; together the couple has put 41 years of labor into the running of the farm’s operations. Laurie has run the farm stand in the summer and helps manage the land in the winter for the past 15 years, and Scott has served as manager of Randall Farm for 26 years. He said in an average year, he handles about 4 million apples, which means in his time on the farm, Neal has had contact with roughly 104 million apples.
“I still eat one every day, to keep the doctor away,” Scott Neal said. “And after all these years, I still think they taste good.”
Moulton Orchards, located on Route 35 in Standish, is one of three farms run by the Ricker family. Peter Ricker helps manage Moulton Orchards. He said operating an orchard, just like any kind of farming, is hard work and can be frustrating at times.
“Farmers absolutely live and die with the conditions of our land and water, and the weather. Sometimes it doesn’t feel very fair that our subsistence may depend on whether it rains or not - something we have no control over,” Ricker said.
“You never know with farming,” Ricker continued. “The crop may be beautiful until the end of July, within a few hours a hailstorm can come through and wipe a whole season away. And of all crops, apples are among the hardest to grow, because they’re basically susceptible to any disease, fungus and insect that attacks fruits in general. But that’s the way of the farmer, and those who haven’t learned to deal with the trials and tribulations usually don’t stay farmers for very long. But for those of us who do stay, there’s a lot of joy in bringing up the crop and seeing all your hard work come to fruition.”
Last year was a rough year for apple farming, Ricker said.
“There were heavy rains during the most important part of the growing season,” Ricker said. “The wetness ruined the blossoms, and a large part of the crop was lost.”
This year has proven to be more bountiful, Ricker said.
“Things are moving along quite smoothly, and business is quite good,” Ricker said.
Dick Randall said running a family farm is not all fun and games.
“It’s a real grind,” Randall said. “But my farm has been through three generations now, and I feel responsible to pass it on so another generation can see what an active farm life is like.”
Regarding the family connections of many of southern Maine’s orchards, Ricker said, “It’s definitely a bond, but there’s ups and downs, and it can be hard to work together to get through the bumps in the road. Our family has been making it work for more than 200 years – we seem to have a knack for it.”
The situation seemed to be more harmonious for those on the other side of the tree. The apple-picking Rollins family said they always had a good time coming to pick apples in the fall, that it was one of the days they most enjoyed in the year.
This year they embarked on their annual pilgrimage to Randall Farm early in the season, Michelle Rollins said, “Well, we just couldn’t wait. Plus, you just don’t know how many days like this we have left. Tomorrow it could snow,” she said, laughing.