CHESTERLAND, OH — Usually, this time of year we're all picking pumpkins and apples. However, there may be fewer apples to pick at some fruit farms on the east side.
At Patterson’s fruit farm, for more than 150 years, David Patterson’s family has specialized in the crispest bite you can pick.
“We have 27 different kinds on the farm, and so there's always, always some tart ones to sweet ones,” David said. “The key to best apple is have the right blend of sweetness and tartness. So, you need a lot of acid, you need a little bit of sweet.”
This year, the orchards are running a little light after multiple tornados tore through northeast Ohio in early August, destroying a third of their apple crop and 170 trees.
“So, the high winds drop the apples to the ground, and they're too young. They're too immature to do anything with them. So, we just lost those apples,” David said.
David says the apples were hit with hail in July, but that did not impact them too much.
“The hail will come and hit and make a slice in the apple. The apple will still grow but it'll leave that mark,” David said.
So, to fill the shelves in their market, they depended on other local farms in the area.
“A lot of them are on the west side... Elyria, Berlin Heights, that area is where we get a lot of our apples from,” David said.
The good news is there are still more than 2000 bushels filled with apples ready for customers to pick their own. That's because at Patterson’s, they believe no matter who you are, nothing beats biting into an apple straight from the tree.
So, if you want to go apple picking, they say get out there before they run out.
