ON APPLES: We think we got the straight scoop on those “empty”
apple trees.

Bill Jones who owns Rocky Ridge Orchards off Route 321 near Kane
called Thursday and unraveled our mystery about the lack of apples
on trees this year.

Bill reminds us that the temperature in March was 80 degrees but
it had dropped precipitously by April. Most of the apple t

rees were just beginning to bloom when the cold temperatures
hit, and the blossoms were killed.

He call the weather during pollination “ragged.”

Bill, who has 4,500 apple trees, uses a giant “wind machine” to
protect his trees from the cold. It’s 35 feet tall and has a
propellor blade which, essentially, pulls the warmer air from
higher up in the atmosphere down to the location of those
all-important blossoms.

“It’s very effective,” Bill reports. He starts it up usually at
10 or 11 p.m. to protect his trees during the chilliest hours. (He
doesn’t like to run it too much because it uses 10 gallons of
diesel fuel an hour!)

Bill tells us, the overall situation has also not been helped by
the problem with the honey bees.

As a commercial grower, of course, he has a larger stake in
prod

uction than those of us with a couple wild apple trees in the
yard. And, so, he actually “rents” bees.

Some people “grow” bees for just such purposes. They mail them
to those in need, such as greenhouses, Bill reports. The bees are
set free to do their pollinating. Once the job is done, they return
to the make-shift hive and are then returned by mail to the
owners.

While honey bees have been on the decline, Bill notes that
bumble bees continue the job of pollination and, in some ways, are
actually more versatile for the job.

Meanwhile, if you’re one of those people with empty-tree
syndrome, Bill tells us he has lots of apples.

FLIP SIDE: It’s not all famine for blackberry pickers. Donna
Bidwell of Eldred writes, “I live in a log home kinda up on a hill
in Eldred. To get blackberries I simply walk to the edge of our
lawn and they grow all around our house. I have the same amount
(enough for about seven pies) this year as any other. My Mom also
picked some. The only difference was they were a little smaller but
not much.”