If you've driven by our store recently, you may have noticed high fences surrounding the orchards. This isn't to keep people out, but to keep the growing number of white tail deer from feeding on the apple buds during the winter. Deer are particularly found of apple buds, and in addition to grazing on them, the saliva left behind is toxic to the tree. Some years we've lost up to 25% of our apple crop to deer damage!

The increased deer population over the last decade has made the fencing and absolute must! We've previously tried hanging bars of hand-soap from the trees, and using "Hinder" (a detergent-based deer repellant) around the orchard perimeters, but those options just don't work! The best solution and the one that has been effective in other areas of the country is fencing. The fences are 8 feet in height with wooden support posts spaced 10 to 15 feet apart. The fencing is made of twelve-gauge wire and is attached to each post by approximately ten nails.