Orchard owners are savoring the unexpectedly sweet taste of a bountiful apple harvest this fall across Chester County and surrounding communities.

“I know everyone’s been thrilled with their fruit crops this year, especially apples. Last year we hardly had an apple crop at all, so this is a huge surprise for us,” Amy Johnson, director of agriculture for the nonprofit-run Longview Center for Agriculture near Phoenixville, said in a Daily Local News report. “… It’s our best yield yet.”

Longview is just four years into leasing the former Willow Creek Orchards, but the U.S. Apple Association backs up that claim, stating the industry is a half-million bushels above normal.

“The weather plays a huge part in it, and whether or not we had a frost at the right time this spring,” Highland Orchards’ more seasoned owner Dave Hodge said. “It’s really been a great year all the way around.”

The West Bradford operation and others have made the most of the recent dry spell to get in and easily harvest the bumper crop.

And Longview has done more than merely pick apples; its operator, Greener Partners, has also “(transformed) the farm into a regional hub that reconnects people with the land and the community,” the article explained.

“Our background is growing vegetables and education, but we thought taking on the apple orchard was a bonus because we could hire people that knew orchard keeping and we would learn ourselves,” Johnson said. “Even so, taking care of an orchard properly and organically is a lot of extra steps. Organic farming can be a challenge.”

Read more about this fall’s apple harvest across the region in the Daily Local News here.