Good Fruit Grower

June 1

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Agricultural entertainment goes beyond you-pick fruit Farm animals and play areas also draw customers. by Richard Lehnert T ougas Family Farm is not the only large pick-your-own operation catering to the people of the city of Boston and its suburbs. During the International Fruit Tree Association meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, in February, attendees visited two other large you-pick operations. One is Parlee Farms, owned by Mark and Ellen Parlee. Started in 1988, the farm has grown to 93 acres and, with the addition of other features, has become an agricultural entertainment destination attended to by 60 seasonal employees. Things can sometimes get out of hand. Mark described how they first got goats to entertain young people. They'd buy them in the spring and sell them in the fall. But, Mark said, they found that pygmy goats were more entertaining than larger goats as they clambered around on the high goat walk, and they seemed to get better with experience. So now, they have goats year-round and try to make sure there are goat kids to be born when there are human kids to watch them. Since these goats are both precocious and polyestrous, that's not difficult. Now, there are sheep, rabbits, and chickens on the farm as well. The farm also has 14 hayride wagons, a hay play area in the fall made up of 150 big round bales, and a Farmer Mark's tractor training course with small electric tractors. The farm stand has grown from a tarp-covered scale on a plank to a 7,500-square-foot building and addition that features picked fruit and Mary's Country Kitchen and Bakery serving doughnuts, baked goods, and ice cream. The land, all protected from development under the Massachusetts farmland preservation program, contains 14 acres of apples with 20 varieties. Half the volume is Honeycrisp. "McIntosh is still the number-one variety in Massachusetts," Mark said, "but people are really going to Honeycrisp." Mark would like to plant other new varieties, many of which he doesn't have access to because they're club varieties. "I think clubs make a mistake when they introduce these new apples," he said. "People who come to farm markets are more interested in new varieties, and this is the place they learn about them." The farm has 10 varieties of blueberries on nine acres, 25 varieties of stone fruits on two acres, 11 varieties of sweet and tart cherries on two acres, plus 8 acres of strawberries, 12 of Your Agricultural Water Quality Specialists • Irrigation Water Quality for optimum irrigation system efficiency and delivery • Irrigation Water Microbiology for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) • Warehouse Process Water Quality for wastewater discharge compliance • Warehouse Water Microbiology for food safety verification program • Drinking Water Potability Tests for worker housing requirement 3019 GS Center Road 1008 W. Ahtanum Road, #2 Wenatchee, WA 98801 Union Gap, WA 98903 509-662-1888 • 800-545-4206 • 509-452-7707 www.cascadeanalytical.com 34 June 2013 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com

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