Millions
employed at The Apple Farm
A work-force of about 2 million was employed at our farm over
the summer. It's not that we have a high staff turnover, but
rather that the workers are very small. These minuscule fellows
are called T.pyri and they are a tiny translucent spider.
However, they make no web. Instead they are hunters, chasing,
capturing and consuming another orchard pest called the red
spider mite. This red spider mite is a serious pest of fruit
trees, living on the underside of leaves and sucking sap from
the plant. This weakens the tree so that it produces only small
tasteless fruits. Years ago growers had to spray for this pest,
but that was before they understood that if the orchard is left
unsprayed, that T.pyri will do the job instead.
Our
job as growers now is to provide conditions that will encourage
enough T.pyri spiders to live in our trees. These then eat the
red spider mites and so a natural harmony is set up in the
orchard, with numbers of red spider mite remaining low. At The
Apple Farm we have had T.pyri spiders operating as predators for
almost ten years now, and every year they come back to help. And
why wouldn't they - they're getting a free meal.
An Award
We're celebrating at the Apple Farm this week following the news
that ours has been voted the best three star camping and caravan
park in Ireland for the year 2000. It's especially nice to
receive this award as it is voted for by visitors to Ireland
annually, and administered by Bord Failte and The Irish Caravan
Council. Congratulations to all involved, and to the many local
people who by being kind and courteous to tourists in Ireland,
help make peoples holiday in Tipperary memorable.
Karmine
Our apple juice has been given a new
look with a new label. From now on our juice will be branded as
Karmine, reflecting the fact that the majority of our juice is
made from the Karmijn de Sonnaville apple. On the new label we
include some background information on our farm, and also
nutritional information which was not there before. We hope that
you like our new-look label.
Eating apples
Currently we have four varieties of eating apple for sale in our
farm-shop. There is Elstar, a juicy bi-coloured (Red and Yellow)
variety. We also have Jonagored, a crunchy and very firm red
apple. We also have Golden Delicious which are tree- ripened for
the very best flavour. Finally, there is Karmijn de Sonnaville;
an apple widely acclaimed for its excellent taste.
Other fruits
We also grow a small number of pears on our farm. Conference,
Concorde and Doyenne du Comice are the three varieties which we
have. Conference and Concorde bear typical pear- shaped fruits,
while Comice gives the large rounded fruits. All three varieties
grew well this year despite the frost at blossom time. However,
because we only have sixty young trees, the total yields are
very small. Therefore by now they are all sold. With any luck
we'll have more next year, and you'll visit on a day when
they're on display.
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