Apple picking season is underway at a local orchard.
Wagner Orchards & Estate Winery in Maidstone launched its apple picking season this week after a slight delay.
Owner Harold Wagner says apple picking usually starts around Sept. 1 at the farm but the apples weren't quite ready yet.
Wagner says the recent rainfall "sized up" the apples pretty good.
"Now the heat has come along and that has brought them on," he says. "So we start off with Royal Gala, which is a nice early apple, and then we go to Empire and Mutsu, so those come along later."
Wagner says hail from the recent rain storms impacted some of the crop.
"A couple apples got a couple marks on them but other than that they didn't get hit too bad because the apples were a little bit behind," says Wagner. "So they're a little harder and they didn't get damaged by them so it was quite a project but we got through that, it's a good crop anyways."
Photo courtesy: Wagner Orchards & Estate Winery's Facebook page
Wagner says a lot of years we were a little bit dry and the apples weren't too big.
"It was a really weird year because May and June was no rain, dry and then June, July and August it rained and that sized them up likely at the end, so they're not too bad."
Wagner anticipates a busy weekend at the orchard.
He says busyness will last until at least Thanksgiving weekend.
The orchard is located at 1222 Lakeshore Road 103 and is open daily from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.