Bushels of VT Apples Ready Around Labor Day

Most Vermont apple orchards are thriving... so say growers and state agriculture experts. Orchards are picking some early varieties, and the 2009 apple harvest is expected to begin in earnest around Labor Day, almost right on schedule. Celia Hackett is a co-owner of Hackett's Orchard and she says her apple crop is great this year because quote--"Things unfolded perfectly." She tells the Burlington Free Press that a spell of mild, sunny weather in mid-May allowed bees to invade her blooming orchard in South Hero and pollinate flowers. Hackett says that produced so many apples that workers had to thin developing fruit from some trees. Ag experts say Hackett is just a the crop and that there are bushels of apples waiting for a good set of choppers all over Vermont.