Apple Orchards

Rusted Gate Farm has two apple orchards. The first orchard, planted in 2014, grows Honey Crisp, Fuji, Mutsu, Johnagold, Pink Pearl, Golden Delicious, and Gravenstein varieties. The other orchard, planted in February of 2018, grows four heritage wine sap varieties for cooking and cider: Gravenstien, Golden Russets, Arkansas Blacks, and Wickson crabapples.

Heritage Apple Information

Gravenstein 1660: a comeback heirloom apple of large fruit with red stripes. Gravesteins are crisp, juicy, and fine-grained with renowned flavor. They’re often used as a baseline cider. Golden Russets 1845: a nutty heirloom with high sugar and intense flavor for eating, cooking, and cider. The local terroir makes the golden russet unique in Oregon, with high pectin, sweet flesh, and russeting. Arkansas Blacks 1840: a near-black, waxy-skinned apple used for cooking or cider production. Arkansas Blacks are hard, aromatic, juicy, crisp, and high in pectin.

Fireblight Information and Update 2020

Our apples began blossoming in April and shortly after fireblight hit, we aggressively trimmed them to attempt to control it but were unsuccessful. We are hopeful for a more successful season next year. Fireblight is not uncommon to the Rogue Valley and unfortunately not uncommon to us, as we lost our crop this year to it as well. Fireblight is an airborne disease, bacteria which attacks the blossoms on apple and pear trees. It can attack the tree itself, and if untreated, the tree could die. Unfortunately, there is no sure-fire cure for fireblight; your best plan of attack is pruning back the tree and removing any infected stems or branches and disposing of them far from your crops.