As you walk around the apple orchards this fall, you’ll likely notice a lot of apples lying on the ground.
And just like every other year, it’s something you probably won’t give much thought to as you proceed to step over the fallen fruit as you pick that perfect apple to add to your bag. But we’ve often wondered, “What becomes of those apples?”
Is it safe to eat them? Are you allowed to pick them up? Do wild animals use them as a personal buffet?
Well, it is safe to eat them, but not recommended (unless it fell when you were picking a different apple). You can pick them up, but they might be a little dirty and there could be bugs crawling all over them. And wildlife probably will eat them, but if you were an animal, wouldn’t you just eat the good ones off the trees like us humans?
But something has to become of them, right?
Yes – but what all depends on the year.
With last year’s super crop, nobody was in the market for dropped apples because there were too many of the picked ones to go around. So most of them just stayed on the ground.
“It’s a market-based deal,” said Chuck Souther, owner of Apple Hill Farm.
If there’s no one out there chomping at the bit to buy them, orchard owners will basically just run them over with a lawn mower and use them to fertilize the ground. Saves money as you don’t have to pay someone to pick them up.
“It takes time and energy to pick them up,” said Todd Larocque, manager of Carter Hill Orchard.
But with how things went this year, with the smaller crop that typically follows a large one, there’s definitely going to be a market for them.
Since you can’t use them for apple cider (unless you have a special sanitizing process), which would be ideal for both Carter Hill and Apple Hill since they make their own cider, they have to be creative.
For Carter Hill, all they really do is sell them by the bin – at a very discounted rate – to people who want to give their animals or wildlife that hang around their house a little special treat.
“It’s better than nothing,” Larocque said. “You can’t do a lot with it.”
Just chalk it up to life on an apple orchard.
“It’s something you live with in the business,” Larocque said. “It’s a lot of waste, but it’s part of the deal.”
“During the picking process, you can’t help but knock a few off,” Souther said.
Apple Hill will also sell them for people to feed to animals/wildlife and in years past there has been a good market for them. And the thought is that will be the case once again.
So at some point there will be a mass pick up and delivery to some commercial cider mills for processing.
“Picking them up is not everybody’s favorite job,” Souther said.
Drops account for about 12 to 15 percent of the apple crop at Apple Hill, so if they can sell them, any money is better than no money.
So next time you’re out picking, be careful not to drop too many on the ground. That’s a lot of good fruit (and money) just lying on the ground.
September 6, 2017
Can you peel and make applesauce from fallen apples?
September 27, 2017
What about the possibility on contracting E. coli from m eating drops?
July 19, 2018
they sell cheap bags of apples in grocery markets for consumption 3.99 a bag…most of the time they are good, but sometimes taste earthy (they look perfect though)…I wonder if they r ones from off the ground?
August 29, 2018
A little common sense will go a long way here, if the fruit is ripe and in good shape, pick it up, wash it off thoroughly and there should be no issues eating it. I’ve picked apples off trees that had worm holes and cut off the 95% good part, washed it and ate it and I’m still here to talk about it. P.S. You can get e-coil off lettuce sold at a grocery store more readily than from fruit off the ground, or salmonella from your favorite restaurant.
September 4, 2019
We are so worried these years. When I was a kid, “drops” and pick them yourself “drops” were used as cooking apples or cider apples. They were just as good as the ones on the trees, just picked them over for worms. Cider apples off the tree had worms just as much as the ones on the ground, unless the farm used too much insecticide. I like to make cider and applesauce, freeze ten gallons of cider and can 75 pints of applesauce, but if I pay the prices for “You Pick” apples, I would loose my shirt. Not too many farms will allow you tp ick up the drops, so tons of apples go to rot in the ground. As a kid though, after the crop was picked, many of us were allowed to pick up the drops at a much reduced cost. Not now though…….let it rot rather than clean the damn things off and let people use them at a reasonable price.
September 10, 2019
I worked in a orchard as a kid we picked up the apples and sold as seconds , lots of people used for canning or the just can’t afford the nicer ones ,I ate lots of apples off ground like you said the world is so afraid one person out of a million might get a tummy ache.
October 21, 2019
What is the best way to get rid of bad fallen apples? Should I take them to the dump? Can I leave them on the ground away from my apple trees?
August 18, 2020
That’s what I want to know . Looks like some are okay and some are not. S’posed to use yr own good judgement. I spread them arnd the yard as spot fertilizer. So far so good