WAPWALLOPEN, Pa. — Owner Greg Heller doesn't have much time to harvest his apple crop at Heller Orchards in Wapwallowpen.
"The window is September 1 to November 1," Heller said.
Greg and his team can pick through an acre a day. With 60 acres of apples, that doesn't leave time for any days off.
"We're here seven days a week."
Luckily, apple picking isn't what it used to be. Now, harvesting apple crop looks a little something like this with the use of the Munkchof Pluk-O-Trak.
The apple goes from tree to hand to a belt on the machine's arm and then to another to gently place the apple in a 20-bushel bin.
The machine has changed the game in apple picking, allowing a crew to fill a bin in under 20 minutes without any worries of bruising during the harvest process.
"The quality of the fruit is so much better because we're able to throw out the bad ones, and I have a little better handle on what's going on here," Heller said.
Apples that make their way into the bins will be sold in the farm store or to commercial customers. The not-so-pretty apples will be turned into juice.
Heller says that without this technology during a time of staffing shortages, he wouldn't have enough time to harvest all his crop, and the result wouldn't be as sweet.
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