Apple Hill farmers weather the ups and downs of a changing climate - KCRA Sacramento

Apple Hill farmers weather the ups and downs of a changing climate

This year's big harvest is a welcome change following several challenging years of drought, early frosts and smoke.

After several challenging years, apple and wine-grape growers in El Dorado County have a harvest worth celebrating.

The combination of a wet winter with a mild spring and summer has led to large yields, ready to pick at an ideal time.

Wine grower Paul Bush says this year's crop is both high quantity and quality.

"It looks like it could be one of the best vintages in a very long time," said Bush, who co-owns Madroña Vineyards in Camino.

"We're seeing much more mature characteristics not only with the flavors and the fruit but also with the tannins and the phenolic aspects of the grape at lower sugar levels."

Bush said those characteristics will likely result in nicely balanced wines for 2023.

Just down the road from Bush's vineyard, Tom Heflin and his family run Rainbow Orchards.

"Mother Nature came through for us this year," Heflin said, while marveling at the quantity and size of Cameo apples ready to be picked.

At the start of the 2022 growing season, a series of frosts following a very mild winter devastated the blossoms on trees throughout Apple Hill.

"Well, last year is very simple. Zero," Heflin said. "We had no apples, we had just a few blueberries."

The year before that, several large wildfires created smoky days in the foothills, which may have affected the quality of the region's crops.

Bush and Heflin are no strangers to the ups and downs that come with farming. The two of them combined have nearly 100 years of farming experience, with Madroña getting ready to celebrate 50 years in business and Rainbow Orchards running since 1977.

"It's kind of a roller coaster ride. And you kind of hold on a little bit more than you used to feel that we had to do back in the 80s and 90s," Bush said.

"Holding on" can mean many different things depending on the season. But when thinking several years down the road, Bush said it means trying to select varieties of grapes that will stand up to changes in weather and climate.

"Trying to make sure that the variety that you've chosen for a particular area is the appropriate one as we get more and more frosts or as we get more and more heat during the summer or as things change around," Bush said.

At Rainbow Orchards, Heflin has focused on diversification, planting blueberries and selling a range of farm fresh goodies in the bakeshop.

"Even if there's no apples, people still eat doughnuts," he said with a laugh.

The 2023 harvest is well underway at both farms, but both growers know they won't fully relax until all of their crop has been picked and put to use.

"There's not as much stress and tension. But there's still…it's still in the back of your mind," Heflin said, adding that a quick start to the rainy season could mean trouble for apples that are left on the trees.

At Madroña Vineyards, Bush has reasons to be optimistic for next year, with vines still green even after harvest.

"They're doing the photosynthesis, they're basically storing up the energy for next year's push," Bush said, "but all it takes is a frost in April to change all of the cards on everything."

But whatever next week, next month or next year brings, Bush and Heflin know how to grow where they're planted.

"We embrace what we get every single year," Bush said.