On Monday, April 29th the Olde Ripton Garden Club went on a field trip to Beardsley Cider Mill and Orchard in Shelton, CT.

The Beardsley’s have been farming in the White Hills section of Shelton since 1849.  Everything from hay to turkeys have been raised on the farm, including apples planted in the 1920s.  They have re-planted thousands of dwarf apple trees in their fields for the Pick-Your-Own orchard.

We were met by Dan Beardsley, who showed us around the orchard.

Dan explained the process used to cultivate the dwarf apple trees that are grown at the orchard.

We were shown new grafted dwarf fruit trees that Beardsley’s Orchard planted this season.

They have about 14,000 dwarf apple trees and several varieties in their Pick-Your-Own orchard. The trees will only grow to a maximum of 10 to 12 feet for easy picking.

Here Dan explained to us the methods used to prune the apple trees.

He showed us how the flowers of the apple trees need to be checked and pruned so that each flower will only produce one apple.

 

A view of the orchard shows some of the trees that we were able to see.

Everyone arriving at the Beardsley Cider Mill and Orchard.

 

Very important to the pollination of the orchard are bees, here is a bee from one of the many bee hives situated around the orchard.