EASY PICKIN'S ORCHARD

The pickin’ is good at Easy Pickin’s Orchard. “We have a good quantity of apples in almost all of our varieties; apples are generally smaller due to drought, but quality and taste are very good,” said owner Brian E. Kelliher.

The three earliest apple varieties were ready for picking in mid-August and are now picked out; but multiple varieties are available for picking through the end of October, with the greatest variety available in late September/early October. But there’s more to pick than apples at the business at 46 Bailey Rd., Enfield: Asian pears in late September/early October; raspberries through late September, plus carrots, leeks, hardy herbs and possibly some other items.

Vegetables at the stand include cabbage, Asian greens, kale, kohlrabi, winter squash, pumpkins, turnips, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.

During the growing seasons, Easy Pickin’s Orchard opens the orchard, one of the vegetable fields and an herb/flower patch to customers. “That’s how pick-your-own (PYO) farms work; we’re just an expansion of the standard model with a wider variety of crops available for PYO than most farms offer,” Kelliher said. “The PYO model has been popular for a few decades; the customer demographic is varied and evolving, and we continue

to enjoy and value this form of customer support and interaction.”

People enjoy picking their own fruits and vegetables for a variety of reasons. “Folks who appreciate fresh local produce and can’t grow everything they need like to be able to pick their own; many folks just like getting to know their food and how it’s grown better,” Kelliher said. “It develops a real appreciation for what fresh, good-quality produce looks and tastes like. Families love the experience of spending time outdoors with their kids, showing them where their food comes from and giving them an appreciation for nature.” Easy Pickin’s Orchard is a 50-acre fruit and vegetable farm; 35 acres are cultivated, and the rest is green space and farm buildings. There are 6 acres of apples, 1 ½ acres of PYO blueberries, an acre of raspberries and several acres of vegetables. The farm produce is available through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, online orders, farmers markets, pick your own and the farm stand.

“Basically, we’re trying to make our produce available to folks through whatever means works best for them – whatever they find both enjoyable and convenient,” Kelliher said. Many customers take advantage of more than one option – some of the CSA customers do a good amount of PYO or order extras or visit Easy Pickin’s Orchard at farmers’ markets. “All of it builds customer loyalty; keeping our hand in at all of it makes us more flexible so we can be responsive to customer interest/ demand.”

October is also when Easy Pickin’s Orchard builds loyalty for off-season sales. “Via email and online marketing, in-person at the stand and farmers’ markets, we let customers know that we have a wide variety of

fruit and vegetables available for purchase at the farm and at the winter farmers’ market we attend,” Kelliher said. Some of what’s available is from the late-season harvest sold from storage: apples and fall vegetables. Some vegetables like lettuce and cooking greens are grown in high-tunnel greenhouses during the winter. “The whole emphasis of our winter storage and growing and our marketing of this availability is to get folks to realize that they can eat locally, seasonally and well pretty much all year round.”

Kelliher’s parents, Francis “Red” and Linda Kelliher, purchased the property in 1951 and first grew tobacco there. The farm now has three full-time and three parttime employees and grows about 40 different produce items.

Kelliher enjoys growing crops but acknowledges the challenges change every year with the weather. “Climate change makes for more unpredictable weather patterns; this affects the growth and ripening of crops,” he said. “We must pay closer attention than ever to crops at every stage of growth and adapt our growing practices to respond to these changes. Irrigation and pest management are key; we’re also trying new varieties of some vegetables that do better under these new conditions. Our high-tunnel greenhouses extend our growing season at both ends which is also a help.”

The goals of the farm are to preserve the property as a food-producing farm; to grow good, healthy food in a sustainable manner; and to protect and provide farmland for future generations. “We hope to contribute to keeping some of the land in this area dedicated to farming and to maintaining open space, both to keep it available for future generations of farmers and to preserve wildlife habitat,” Kelliher said. “’Growing healthy food in a sustainable manner’ describes our farming practices, including Integrated Pest Management. These practices are good for food safety and quality and are environmentally responsible.”

Over the nearly four decades Kelliher has been farming, he has enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing more about and being good at a variety of skills and tasks involved in raising crops and maintaining farmland. Plus there is the constant challenge of having to learn new skills and information and to respond to changing environmental conditions and changing markets.

“It is never static, never boring. At every stage, you see a good return on your efforts and want to keep achieving and improving on that,” he said.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 860-763-3276 OR GO TO EASYPICKINSORCHARD.COM