Forrence Orchards, which first started growing apples in 1833, grows anywhere from 500,000 to 700,000 bushels of apples a year.

“It probably wasn’t a standalone orchard back then, as it was a working farm with many other commodities, but shortly after, it became a full-fledged apple orchard,” said Henry Forrence, packing house manager and a fourth-generation family worker for the Peru, NY-based company. “It’s always been a family thing. We’re all engaged in the day-to-day operations of the business.”

As growers and packers, the company deals in McIntosh, Cortland, Empire, Paul Red, Delicious, Gala, Ginger Gold and Honeycrisp apples.

“I’m in the storage and packing side, but we all work closely together in trying to determine the best places to take the apples and where to market them and everything to do with bringing success to the company,” Forrence said. “We were really a Macintosh orchard originally, and Cortland was one we did well with historically. Over the last 25 years or so, we’ve moved into Honeycrisp and in the last 10 years, gotten involved with some of the newer club varieties like SnapDragon and RubyFrost.”

Forrence sits on the board of the organization that runs those two varieties and works to get them more in the public eye.

“There’s sometimes a struggle you have with your end customer; in grocery stores and really all business, there’s an effort to consolidate businesses into larger organizations and then having fewer of them in each marketplace,” he said. “That gives buyers more buying power and their job is to be as profitable as possible while presenting an attractive product to their consumers. So, we’re trying to influence the price in an upward way while dealing with that challenge.”

While a lot of Forrence Orchards’ customers still lie in the Macintosh realm, the company has made a concerted effort to pack other varieties and increase its customer base.

Looking at the upcoming apple harvest, Forrence Orchards isn’t expecting a massive crop like it experienced a couple of years ago, but does believe it will be very solid.

“The weather has cooperated up until this point,” Forrence said in early August, but warned that bad weather can always happen between now and Sept. 15 when apples are scheduled to be picked, which could change things. “We have been fortunate that we have not had the deluge of rain that some others in Southern New York have had. We could us a little more rain, but feel that we are pointed in a decent direction.”

The pandemic presented some challenges of course as the company had to set up the packing house in a way that minimized contagion, though being in the produce industry, that was something it already always concerned about.

“Managing your employees health was something that did require some extra thought and we were lucky to stay away from any large outbreaks,” Forrence said.

As Forrence looks ahead to the fall, he hopes to see more success in the newer club varieties.

“We really like the SnapDragon and the RubyFrost, and EverCrisp is another new apple that we’re giving a shot to,” he said. “We see the potential for these apples to continue to grow in demand. With these new varieties, you’re really looking to get a new consumer almost—someone who may not eat as many apples in a week as they did before. They may enjoy them more than they had with some of the traditional varieties.”