{"id":118146,"date":"2023-11-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com\/?p=118146"},"modified":"2023-11-13T16:33:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T21:33:24","slug":"after-wet-weekends-the-apple-farmers-are-hurting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com\/2023\/11\/118146\/after-wet-weekends-the-apple-farmers-are-hurting\/","title":{"rendered":"After wet weekends, the apple farmers are hurting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the lower section of an old barn at Wickham\u2019s Fruit Farm in Cut\u00adch\u00adogue, apple farmers store crates overflowing with apples in a cooler. On a fall morning last week, there were an estimated 1,100 bushels of apples in the cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally at this time of year, apple farmers say there might be 300 bushels in cold storage. But this fall was not like those of previous years, with six weekends in a row of rain that kept the steady stream of apple pickers away from the Cut\u00adch\u00adogue farm and other North Fork farms selling their apples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a vast surplus of apples this year,\u201d said Tom Wickham, as he and a visitor toured the farm in Mr. Wickham\u2019s pickup truck. \u201cThe rains kept the apple pickers away, so we have a lot now in cold storage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he said he is not certain yet of the financial fallout for apple farmers of the rainy weekends, he said it is possible this year the farm \u2014 which raises two dozen varieties of apples, from Mutsu to Empire to the crisp and juicy Rubyfrost \u2014 may see a loss. But Mr. Wickham\u2019s optimism on his historic farm runs deep: the coming weekend was predicted to be classic fall weather, which brings out the apple pickers, sometimes by the busload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will have a good weekend,\u201d Mr. Wickham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across New York State\u2019s apple country, apple farmers have been hit hard by the rainy weekends, according to a recent story in The New York Times<\/a><\/em> that focused on orchards in the Hudson River Valley. Some growers said weekend rains, one after another from September into October, cost them half of their autumn income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Hudson Valley apple grower told The New York Times, \u201cI\u2019ve been farming since 1972, and this is the roughest fall I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wickhams have been farming in Cut\u00adch\u00adogue considerably longer. Part of the family\u2019s current farm dates to the mid-1850s; a previous line of Wickhams arrived in Cut\u00adch\u00adogue on a different tract of land in 1699.<\/p>\n\n\n\n