Maine farmers make festival a sweet success Unity holds its first apple day

UNITY – If the tantalizing smell of spiced cider and apple pie didn’t get to visitors at the community’s first Great Maine Apple Day held Saturday, the sweet-sounding names of Maine’s native apples may have: Beauties of Wellington, Red St. Laurence, Striped Harvey, Winter Fameuse and Summer Sweeting.

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners farm site was the location for the festival, the first of its kind and a groundbreaking cooperative effort between MOFGA, FEDCO Seeds, the Maine Pomological Society, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and the Maine Department of Agriculture.

The event, which organizers hope to make an annual attraction, was intended to illustrate the rich history and the diverse future of Maine’s apple industry.

“It used to be we all sold apples fresh,” said Judy Dimock of North Star Orchards in Madison. “But now we are selling new varieties, new products and diversifying.” Dimock’s family began by selling apples wholesale and now operates a year-round gift shop, creates a line of jams and jellies and offers events such as pick-your-own and Halloween pumpkin contests.

One successful diversification is under way at Valley View Orchard in Hebron, which bakes and sells more than 100,000 pies annually. Jim and Jean Kroitzsh began with 60 acres of apple orchard in 1987.

“We tried just selling straight apples,” said Jim Kroitzsh on Saturday, “but we just couldn’t make it.” Using his mother’s apple pie recipe, Kroitzsh started a bakery in the farm’s garage. He sold 5,000 pies the first year. “That was enough to get us out of trouble,” he said.

This year, the farm is turning out 145 pies an hour and marketing them in southern Maine and Massachusetts. New technology to be installed later this month will allow the farm to bake 300 pies an hour.

Kroitzsh further diversifies by selling peeled apples to bakeries. “We take a cider apple that is worth 7 cents a pound, peel it and sell it for 90 cents a pound,” he said.

Ellen McAdam of McDougal Orchard in Springvale has diversified into packages of already-cored, sliced apples. Already extremely popular on the West Coast, McAdam said the sliced product “is a boom waiting to happen.”

Using a grant from the Maine Department of Agriculture, a farm building was renovated into a processing facility, and as soon as the last of the equipment – a key slicer – is delivered, the family will be in production next spring. McAdam said she already has three markets lined up – the Sanford school system, Hannaford’s in Sanford and a local restaurant.

“It’s just another way to promote a healthy product,” said McAdam.

Dimock said Maine’s apple growers are finding many different ways to adapt to a changing market. They are looking forward to the next century, while still retaining the aura of the past.

“People are looking for respite and comfort, especially now,” sad Dimock. “If we can hold onto that part of our farms that gives them that comfort, while still diversifying, that will be our survival.”

Alongside the traditional baskets of fresh apples, producers at the Great Maine Apple Day offered sliced apples, apple pies, apple cider molasses, apple granola, and apple walnut pie mix. But it wasn’t a day to just eat and buy apples and apple products. Classes and workshops were offered in cider making, wine making, baking apple desserts and the history of Maine apples.

John Bunker of FEDCO seeds tree nursery division and a volunteer at MOFGA said that apples can be tied to patriotism right now. “Why buy local? It is the ultimate in patriotism to buy from your neighbor. If you have concerns about food security, visit the farm down the road and determine the level of integrity for yourself.”

Support for Maine’s apple industry by Maine consumers will mean success, said Bunker.