Fifer Orchards, Inc. :: Come to the Grower, where Fresh is Best!

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Fifer's Apple Orchard Quick Tour

Welcome to our apple orchards.

Apples start as a beautiful white flower in the spring. Usually around in April.

Bees are needed to pollinate the flowers. Only pollinated flowers will become an apple.

See the bee hives? They are in these white boxes on this wagon. The hives are on wheels so we can move them from crop to crop as they come in to bloom.

These are baby apples just starting to develop in May and June.

Apples starting to color up as they get bigger.

We grow many 25 different varieties of apples at our orchard. We also grow different sized trees. This style is called a dwarf apple tree because it if very petite in size. The trees only grow to about 7 feet tall and need metal or wood stakes and posts to support them so they don't fall over from the weight of the fruit. Harvest is easier with dwarf trees because their is no need for a ladder.

Here is a traditional sized apple tree. We have to use ladders to get to the top. We use special bags for picking. See the buckle on the side? When the bag is full the picker releases the buckle and apples come out of the bottom of the bag in to big bin boxes. This is more gentle than dumping the apples out of the top.

We pick the apples and place them in to wooden bin boxes. Then we use forklifts to move them from the orchard to the packing house for grading.

Bins are stacked near the packing house until they are ready to be graded on the packing line.

Apples are dunked in water where they are cleaned and washed before they go across the grading line for sizing and packaging.

Apples roll across conveyor belts where workers can pick out any apples with bruises, spots or cracks. Apples with imperfections are called #2's. These #2 apples are used for juice, cider, sauce or pie filling. The best apples are chosen as #1 quality and packaged for fresh market consumption in the grocery store.