Burgess Orchards, Chelan
The Burgess Story:
Some years ago sailors Peter and Mary Kay Burgess packed up all their worldly possessions and left their friends and comrades in Port Townsend. They were bound for Tonasket, in the Okanogan country east of the mountains, to grow organic apples on a 12 acres farm in Tonasket, WA. They revamped the orchard, grafting Crimson Gala branches onto the old Rome apples trees, and beginning to work with a luscious white nectarine crop. Their land was certified organic in 2001, and the Burgesses focus on Lapin cherries, Arctic Jay white nectarines and their crisp, sweet and juicy Crimson Gala apples. Their crop schedule keeps them busy during the summers, and leaves them downtime to keep sailing over winters.
Some years ago sailors Peter and Mary Kay Burgess packed up all their worldly possessions and left their friends and comrades in Port Townsend. They were bound for Tonasket, in the Okanogan country east of the mountains, to grow organic apples on a 12 acres farm in Tonasket, WA. They revamped the orchard, grafting Crimson Gala branches onto the old Rome apples trees, and beginning to work with a luscious white nectarine crop. Their land was certified organic in 2001, and the Burgesses focus on Lapin cherries, Arctic Jay white nectarines and their crisp, sweet and juicy Crimson Gala apples. Their crop schedule keeps them busy during the summers, and leaves them downtime to keep sailing over winters.
Our small orchard is located in a side valley of
the Okanogan Valley. The hot summer days and
cool nights are ideal for growing fruit. We
grow Lappins cherries, white flesh nectarines and
gala apples. Our small size allows us to do
the majority of the work ourselves which is ideal
for quality control during every aspect of the
growing season.
Spring is always busy with nurturing the new crop and thinning the fruit that has set to achieve good size. We take an extra step with our cherries by bud thinning before full bloom. This allows the remaining cherries to be larger resulting in “2-bite” cherries. Bud thinning coincides with the spring frost season and we never know if we will lose more buds due to a hard frost, Mother Nature is always in control. Frost and hail are the two biggest weather concerns, we have lost fruit to both over the years. We feel what we have at the end of a growing season is a gift and we are happy to delivery quality tree ripened fruit to our much appreciated customers at the co-op.
~ Peter and Mary Kay Burgess
Spring is always busy with nurturing the new crop and thinning the fruit that has set to achieve good size. We take an extra step with our cherries by bud thinning before full bloom. This allows the remaining cherries to be larger resulting in “2-bite” cherries. Bud thinning coincides with the spring frost season and we never know if we will lose more buds due to a hard frost, Mother Nature is always in control. Frost and hail are the two biggest weather concerns, we have lost fruit to both over the years. We feel what we have at the end of a growing season is a gift and we are happy to delivery quality tree ripened fruit to our much appreciated customers at the co-op.
~ Peter and Mary Kay Burgess
