WAPWALLOPEN, Pa. — "Picking apples is hard work, but this machine makes it easy," said Greg Heller, owner of Heller Orchards.
Under the late summer sun, honey crisp apples up high and low to the ground were being picked at Heller Orchards in Conyngham Township and going into a Pluk-O-Trak now that they're showing red and ready for eating.
"It's apple season," added Greg. "It's just starting and the season, I'd say is a little bit late. But we had, we had a cold May. So, it delayed the crop a little. No, it didn't ruin the crop. The peach crop wasn't so well, but the apple crop's nice."
Once the apples are picked, they are placed in 18-bushel bins until they can be sorted.
Heller says despite all the hot, dry weather this summer, these apples are full of flavor.
"It's weather-related, you know, but the crop's very nice, a little dry, size could be better I think overall. But yeah, I think it's going to make for great fruit," he explained.
The owners tell Newswatch 16 they were able to work throughout the pandemic and business is good, but it did force them to make adjustments to their farm store, and to their fall event schedule.
"We will be set up in the store inside. But right now, we're set up outside, and we normally have an apple fest the third weekend in October, which I had to cancel," said Andrea Heller.
Last year, the Heller's celebrated the 100th year in business, but folks here want to make sure you can still celebrate the fruit of the season this year despite the festival cancellation.
"We still want to provide things to do but we still want to maintain, you know, social distancing and not draw too many people to put anyone at risk. We certainly don't want anyone to get sick," added Andrea.
For a full list of the scaled-back events taking place at the Heller Orchards this season, you can learn more of its Facebook page or website.