Martin's Hillside Orchard

Explore the Orchard

Butterflies Galore!

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The butterfly garden is in full swing these days with plants as high (tall) as an elephant’s eye. Plenty of butterflies around, including monarchs on sunny, warm days as they fuel up for their migration south for the winter.

Monarch on butterfly bush

We finally got around to adding signs out in the garden to identify some of the more unusual plants and fun facts about butterflies. They smell with their feet? Yes, indeed! Here are some pics of the winged visitors we’ve captured the last couple of years.

Bring your cameras!

Check out our Facebook page for additional photos

 

 

American Lady
Painted Lady, American Lady? Not sure

2019 Season

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Thanks for joining us at the orchard this fall. Kudos to the kiddos from Raymond Central’s kindergarten class for this amazing collage. Art comes from the heart and the most experienced artists know they are lucky if they can capture the spontaneity of this kind of artwork

The trees are getting ready for a long winter’s nap

Cider fans:  We  have frozen cider for holiday celebrations. Just give us a call to schedule a pickup.

We look forward to seeing everyone next fall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Weekend of the Season – 10/27-10/28

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Join us for the final weekend of this year’s harvest.  We will be picking our late season applies – Pink Lady and Fuji. Pre-picked apples and apple butter available in the Apple Barn.

Cider too – We also plan to make our last batch of cider this week so should have plenty on hand for the weekend.

What to expect AFTER this weekend?  The orchard will be closed as we’ll be working to tuck in the trees for the winter, prune back the raspberries, oil & grease the tractor.  You know, the usual off season stuff.  And, of course we’ll be planning more fun for next season.

The touch of cold and snow we had earlier in the month is no problem for our late season apples. 

Storing apples – Whether you pick EverCrisp or another variety, follow these tips and you’ll have nice crisp apples well into the holiday season

Pumpkin Love – Don’t forget about the pumpkin patch. The pumpkins aren’t thrilled to have apples intruding on their time in the limelight.  I mean, the month of October has pretty much been their domain for a long time.  But, happily we’ve convinced them to share the stage with the apples. Show them some love and plan a trip to the pumpkin patch today

 

Favorite fall recipes – coming soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Love

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Pumpkin Love – We kind of have a thing for pumpkins. We love poring over seed catalogs in the off-season and checking out new varieties. We carefully map out the patch each year, it’s always different because we are always trying something new. And, we have so many varieties, we end up planting them by hand. One year we used a pick because the ground was so muddy. This year we planted them at 5:30 am the Sunday of Memorial Day to beat the heat. 

Fast forward: The plants bolt from the ground and send runners carpeting the patch in a dense jungle of green.  We weed, water, repeat and the rich Nebraska soil and sun do the rest. Four months later, we peek under that green foliage and it’s like striking the mother lode but it’s not just gold, it’s orange, white, blue, green and pink.  

Why do we like pumpkins so much? We need to do a bit of self-assessment to answer that. I suppose just ‘cuz or just ‘cuz they are awesome doesn’t entirely answer that question.

2018 Season

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We’ll be open Aug 25 through the end of October.

We won the game of Dodge Ball with the hail and the apples are beautiful.  Check the fall u-pick timeline to find out when your favorite apple varieties are ripe for picking.  We can’t wait to see you at the orchard!

Pesky bugs – We seen more than our share of mosquitoes this fall.  Some days they are bad; Other days they aren’t an issue. Kind of hard to predict. Please bring along bug spray so you are prepared either way.

 

New this fall:

  • Open one evening a week – Thursday evenings until sunset
  • Entry fee is $4/person. Fee counts toward $3 of u-pick fruit when you check outsunset at the orchard
  • Jams & jellies, a first for us!  (available beginning Labor Day Weekend)
  • More food options on weekends – pulled pork sandwiches
  • Enhanced picnic area so there is plenty of shade for all
  • Birthday party offering
  • Open Columbus Day!
  • New “knock your socks off” apple (mid-October)

Unfortunately, no peaches this year. The super cold temperatures around New Years took out this year’s crop but the trees are fine. Storing up all that sunshine so they can produce a great crop next year.

Here is link to our weekly newsletter. Archives of this season’s newsletters can be found here.

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