Barnard's Orchard

Hello to you all ! The weather has become more Fall -like as they said it woulld do today. We do still have apples on the trees for you to pick and also that we are picking and putting in our cold storage room for seeling in our store throughout April of next year. Cool nights and clear sunny days bring out the best color formation in the red skinned varieties. The varieties that are yet to be harvested, should benefit from this weather change. We still have several var...ieties available for you to pick including; Golden Delicious , Jonagold, Stayman, Red Delicious, Idared and Mutsu . All of thesse varieties do well as a baking or saucing apple with the exception of the Red Delicious which is perhaps better used for eating out of hand or in salads. Many pie bakers PREFER to combine two or three apple varieties to then have some of the apples cook to a soft texture and others to remain firmer in the pie filling. Mutsu and Stayman are two varieties which will remain firm in a pie . Golden Delicious , Jonagold , and Jonathan tend to become more tender. Stayman was founded by a Dr. Joseph Stayman, a medical Doctor. It originated from a Winesap and was known as Stayman's Winesap. Now it is usually called Stayman. Mutsu was a result of an Apple breeding program in Japan during the 1930's. It is a cross of Golden Delicious and a Japanese variety called Indo. It was released as a variety in the late 1940's and named Mutsu for an Apple growing region in Japan. It is also known in some parts of the world as Crispen. It sounds like a good Fall weather day tomorrow. Our store is open from 9:30til5:30 on Sundays . If you are in the area stop by! We have apples and Cider and lots of other things for sale in the store if you would rather not pick. Thank you for your support ! Lew Barnard See more

Good morning to you all on this beautiful Fall day. It is still pick your own apple time and I just want to put in a word about an apple that is still popular with manhy BUT often confued with the Red Delicious which for reasons has become less popular than it once was. THE GOLDEN DELICIOUS is not at all similar or related to the Red Delicious. It has now reach its prime time for harvest. At this yellow or Golden stage it is a crisp, but not hard, good flavored Apple tha...t believe it or not is GREAT for pie baking , making applesauce and is a very good apple to jut eat out of hand. It does mellow in storage and lose its cripness in storage BUT NOW IS PRIME TIME !! Call 610-347-2151 if you have questions about picking. If you are in this area, this is the weekend for the UNIONVILLE FAIR. It has many fun and educations events for the young and interesting exibits and events for all ages. It showcases local agriculltue which we are all involved in because we all eat the products of agriculture grown somewhere. it is a go to place for today Saturday and tomorrow Sunday. I know Bailys Dairy is there amongst many others and they are serving up APPLE CIDER FLOATS, which I have had and they are tersiffic. Stop by the Orchard if you can ! Thank you for your support ! Lew Barnard. See more

Hello to you this evening ! It is now Fall and the Apple harvest season is here. We have Apples for sale in our store or you can walk to the orchard and pick them yourself./ Tomorrow, Sunday Sept. 26 the store is open from 9:30 Am until 5:30 PM. For picking you must arrive to start picking before 4:30 PM. Red Deliciou, Goldan Delicious, Empire, Jonagold and Jonathan are all available and plentiful for picking this week. The Red Delicious and Golden Deliciou are not act...ually related to each other. The Red Delicious a good eating and salad Apple hails from Iowa originally and the Golden Delicious, good for pies, sauce, and eating , was discovered in West Virginia. The Jonagold was a result of crossing the Golden Delicious with a Jonathon Apple In new York at Cornell University by Dr. Roger Way. It is an outstanding all around use Apple. The Jonathan, a good all purpose Apple was found growing in Ulster County New York by Jonathon Hausbrook sometime in the late 1800's Empire, another good all purpose Apple was , again , a result of Dr. Way breeding a Red Delicious with a MacIntosh at Geneva New York. This time of year many of us are ALL ABOUT APPLES. aCTUALLY APPLES ARE ALL ABOUT PEOPLE ! People who saw opportunities to propagate and or breed fruit with what they thought and hoped were qualities that other would find desirable ! Better not bore you any more !! Stop by our orchard if you are in the area. We have CIDER and pumpkins as well. Thank you for your support ! Lew Barnard. See more

Hello to you all on this beautiful day. We are open today SUNDAY Sept. 19 and will be open onSundays through November for sure ! We do have Jonathan, Empire and MacIntosh Applkes fpr picking today and other varieties will be available byb next week and other s as they ripen in their time of ripening. We are open until 5:30 onSundays and 6 Pm. Monday through Saturday. To pick Apples you have to arrive to begin picking no later than an hour before our closing time. IWe are listed as being closed Sunjdays on faceblook on Sundays and apparantly also by google. I am not sure how to change those listings but we are trying ! Thank you for tuning in and hope you stop by if you are in the area !! Thank You ! It is APPLES CIDER TIME also. Thank you for your support !

Hello ! and a quick good morning ! Hard to believe mid-September is approaching ! It is a nice morning, I see 66 degrees right now, and this is the first Sunday that our store will be open for this harvest season. All orchards have different apple varieties to offer. While we have Apple varieties we have harvested for sale in our store, MacIntosh is the first variety we offer for YOU TO PICK. Those trees are located in close proximity to the store, and are now mature for picking and you can do that today if you wish ! Many other of our apple varieties will reach their stage of maturity in the coming weeks ! The store is open today from 9:30 AM. til 5:30 in the PM. Thank you for your support and hope your day is great ! Lew Barnard

Hello to you all ! How did September get here so quick ? ! A tree here on the front lawn at the orchard has become somewhat of a landmark. The House was built in 1862 and trees were planted , presumably after that time. The White Pine tree I am referring to is estimated to be about 80 feet tall and has somewhat of a flat top and bare trunk with the exception of English ivy growing on the trunk. Earlier this summer strong winds leaned the tree slightly to the south, we j...ust took note of that this past week. That is not so bad, it has certainly weathered a lot of storms in its lifetime! We also discovered that the tree is hollow from the ground up several feet. It has matured and lived a good life and will need to be taken down soon or nature will do that. Cousin Megan Bittle asked a while back for me to talk about her " favorite tree " 150 years old for a white pine tree is certainly quite an honor ! Another cousin, quite knowledgeable of local history said that some farms have trees dating back to when the Centennial Celebration was held in Philadelphia in 1876. Those who attended got or could get seedling trees to take home to plant. That story was never passed on to my dad or Uncle Sam, to my knowledge, so my guess is that was not the source. Dad said the front yard was originally a horticultural type planting. if divided in half from north to south each side was planted with trees as a mirror image of the other side. That Pine, 2 Smoke Bushes and A Larch tree at the Bank in front are the survivors. We will be open THIS SUNDAY for the first time this season and WILL BE CLOSED LABOR MONDAY.. Apple season in the store has begun. We have Gala, Ginger Gold, Rambo , and yes, we are just beginning to have Honey Crisp avaiolable. IF YOU LIKE GREEN BEANS. We just had a large picking and can sell some half bushel quantities of you want to freeze some for this winter. AND YES ! PEACHES will be in season for about another 10 days. I had better shut up now !! Thank you for supporting our farm. Stop in if you can!! Lew Barnard. See more

Wow ! I just had a piece of this and it is very delicious ! thank you Lisa !! I t was very kind of you !!

Hello to you all . Many years ago my Aunt Jane Chambers, Dads sister, made us some of what she called Blackberry mush. My recollection is that it really tasted good ! She had said she recalled that one of her Aunts had made it when she was a young girl. I have often wondered if it really was a widely known " concoction " so I just looked on the computer and there is at least one recipe for Blackberry Mush ! Here at the orchard we are at the peak of our Blackberry harvest and this week have them priced specially if you buy 2 pints. If you are in our area and want to try making some Blackberry Mush we will be open tomorrow, Saturday from 9 til 6. Also, we have Peaches, Sweet Corn, tomatoes and other fruit and veggies. Stop in if you can. Thank you for supporting our farm ! Lew Barnard.

Hello to you this warm and humid July evening. Oh well, it is Summer after all ! Our store here at the orchard has, as of a couple of days ago, just reopened for the Summer season. We are picking our Homegrown Blueberries, Blackberries and Peaches for sale in our store. I was given a jar of mixed cut up fruit . It had cantaloupe, Blackberries, Blueberries, and Peaches. Wow ! That was refreshing with supper tonight. We also have some Lancaster County Sweet Corn for s...ale tomorrow, Saturday July 18. It is a variety, that I also grow, called Illusion. It is a very nice White Sweet Corn variety, with a normal creamy/crunchy texture. It is a sugary enhanced variety with a good balance of flavor and sweetness. This week we are harvesting, and have for sale, a variety of Blackberry called Ouachita, pronounced wa-sheeta. It is a nicely sweet large size fruit that does NOT make you pucker up like some Blackberries can ! Yes, we do have Peaches also. 2020 is not a bumper crop peach year for most growers due to the April freeze events but they do TASTE GOOD due to the sunny weather. Sunny weather results in better flavor and sweetness in most fruits. Our store will be open Monday through Saturdays, 9 til 6 . We are not opening on Sundays at the present time but will keep you posted as to when that will happen. Thank you for your support of our Farm. Lew Barnard See more

Hello to you all ! our store will still be open this week through Saturday June 13 th. from 9 AM til 6 PM. This Spring we have stayed open about 3 weeks longer than usual because several of our regular customers wanted us to do so because they felt a need to get food items from us during this Covid -19 time period. Also, due to The morning of April 17 th, a portion of the fruit crop was lost due to a 26 degree low temperature during the blossoming and pollination period. ...What looked bleak then, ACTUALLY IS MORE ENCOURAGING NOW ! We will have Peaches but not a bumper crop. At the time of the freeze the prospects for any crop at all looked poor. There will be a Peach crop and an Apple crop, Pears will be a very short crop, Apricots never are a reliable fruit crop in the Eastern United States and we will have none this year but there is always next year !! In the 20 plus years we have had the Apricots I can remember one really terrific crop, a couple of o.k. crops and a lot of missed crops. A nice crop to have some years but not a good way to make a living ! We plan to re-open our store, here at the farm, during MID- JULY and I will post that timing later. In the interim there are vegetable crops to get planted, fruit crops to care for , and lots of weeds to deal with! For the next few weeks that needs to be our priority. For this week we will be stocked with fresh vegetables including Lancaster County Tomatoes that are good flavored ! We still have Fuji and Evercrisp APPLES that are still crisp and good flavored . I wish you well and thank you for supporting our farm. Good Night ! Lewis Barnard See more