Big Apple Orchard near Cedar Rapids will not open to the public this fall after the owner reported a near-total crop failure driven by early heat and a late freeze.
Monte Marti, who runs Big Apple Orchard in Mount Vernon, Iowa, said his family lost roughly 90 to 95 percent of the apple crop and does not have enough fruit left for a normal pick-your-own season.
The US Sun reported that the orchard will stay closed to visitors this fall, the first time Marti has kept the gates shut to the public since he started the operation.
Marti told KCRG the damage left him with almost nothing to offer customers. “We have a few, but really we lost about 90, 95%,” he said.
Marti traced the failure to a sharp weather swing. In February, the region saw 80-degree days. He said he knew right away that spell would cause trouble.
“In February, we had 80 degree days,” Marti said. “I knew when we had 80 degree days, that wasn’t going to be good.”
Unseasonable freezing temperatures followed in April. That cold kept bees from pollinating blossoms during peak bloom, he said, and the crop never recovered.
The pattern is not new to him. In 2012, a late frost hit the same way. That year he picked only two bushels. He expects a few more than that this season, but not enough to run a public harvest.
“It happened in 2012. It was the same thing, it was the late frost,” Marti said. “And that year I picked two bushels and I think maybe we’ll get a few more than that this year, but it just doesn’t feel right.”
Marti first planted 100 apple trees about two decades ago. In a normal year the orchard runs like an open house for seven weekends, drawing regulars who come as much for the visits as for the fruit.
That side of the business is gone this fall. He said the family will lose thousands of dollars. The harder part, in his telling, is the empty calendar.
“It’s the conversations and the friendships, and it’s seeing people you just wouldn’t otherwise see,” Marti said. “So it’s really like having an open house for seven weekends which is fun, really fun.”
He is not writing off the next season. Apple trees that rest hard one year often rebound the following year, and he is counting on that cycle.
“A lot of times when apples take a year off they do have a good year the next year, so we’re hopeful that next year,” he said.
Mount Vernon sits outside Cedar Rapids in eastern Iowa, where family orchards still mark the fall for a lot of towns. When the crop fails, the loss is not abstract. It is cash, weekends, and a local stop that regulars plan around.
No government action, aid package, or official weather ruling appears in the available account. What is on the record is simpler: early heat, a freeze at bloom, bees that could not work the blossoms, and an owner who will not sell what he does not have.
Marti’s choice was blunt. Without apples to pick, Big Apple Orchard stays closed rather than open half-empty and hope nobody notices.
Family farms and small orchards still eat the first losses when the weather turns. Paper promises do not pollinate trees, and they do not fill a bushel either.