Oregon Heritage Farms

Information

Welcome to POMOLOGY at its finest - the study of growing apples. Oregon Heritage Farms is approximately 400 acres; 140 acres are in apple trees and the remaining is in oats, hay cattle and 5 homes. We are a commercial apple grower and do not allow any u-pics or gleaning on the farm. The apples on the ground are wind falls. Not all apples ripen at the same time and some were selectively picked for the ground to give the tree a better opportunity to grow bigger apples.

We grow about 12 varieties of apples. Commercially, the Janagold, Gala and Honey Crisp. We have planted 20,000 more Honey Crisp trees, so hopefully in the future we will be able to supply the demand. It is currently the most popular apple in the states. Considering there over 7,500 varieties, everyone has a favorite. You can check out a list showing a description of each apple we grow by visiting the Apple Variety page.

You will notice a tree with very small apples in the orchard. THese are crab apples and are the universal pollinator. Some of the apples are sterile, so without this little sour jewel, we would be apple-less! THere are close to 80,000 semi-dwarf apple trees on the farm. It is certainly a year round enterprise. The trees are grown in high tensile wire called an espaller - similar to how grapes are grown. This process makes it easier to pick, prune and spray. Yes, we spray, we are not organic. Plus we can plant more trees per acre thus getting a higher yield. For example: 4 standard trees on a 60x60 plot as apposed to 20 dwarf trees on the same plot. Each dwarf tree produces about 3-4 bushels of apples. A bushel is approximately 40 pounds. Irrigation is done with a drip system with water supplied from the Tualatin River.

The large plastic bins you see in the field when full, weigh about 800 pounds. A good picker can fill 2 of these per day. It is incredibly back breaking work. We employ about 80 pickers at the peak of the season and 40 in our packing plant which is located about 1/2 mile east of here. This is where the apples are washed, sorted, waxed and packaged for shipping to several different areas. In the past that has included Canada, China and South America. Locally it is Albertsons, Thriftway and Safeway. So look for the Oregon label when buying apples in your local stores.

A bit of history: Apples are not native to America but were brought here by the colonists in the 17 th century. The first orchard is on Beacon Hill which overlooks Boston Harbor. Some of the apples in Washington and Jefferson's orchards are the original trees. Apples were referred to in ancient writings as far back as the 4th century BC.

Storage Tip

Please keep your apples stored in a plastic bag with holes at about 32 degrees.