Fresh-picked apples now at Miles Farmers Market

By Laura Briedis

Ohio consistently ranks in the top 10 states in apple production, with nearly 150 apple orchards scattered throughout the state. Lucky for us, one of the best is in Northeast Ohio. When you bite into a crisp apple this fall from Miles Farmers Market, it is likely to be one of Burnham Orchards’ homegrown varieties.

Growing some of the best-tasting fruit in the Midwest in its fertile, lakebed soil, Burnham Orchards supplies apples to the Solon store every fall. Miles Farmers Market picks up apples a couple times a week, right after they are picked in the or-chard in the morning and stocks its store that same day.

“We started the orchard in 1850 from a land grant after our ancestors’ homestead was burned down during the Revolutionary War. We were granted 160 acres in the Western Reserve,” says Joe Burnham, the sixth generation to farm the land in Berlin Heights.

The orchard has 200 acres of apples, 35 acres of peaches and 600 additional acres to grow other fruit, including blackberries, plus fall favorites such as pumpkins, gourds and squash. It also partners with a fermenter to make RedHead Hard Cider on site, where the apples are picked, pressed, fermented and bottled.

“One of our first apple varieties you will find in the store is Ginger Gold, and we harvest others like Pink Lady into mid-November,” Joe says. “One of our most popular is Gold Rush, a niche variety that Miles’ customers really like. It is a yellow apple that is extremely crisp with a unique flavor.”

Burnham Orchards apples are available at Miles Farmers Market, located at 28560 Miles Road, in Solon. Visit MilesFarmersMarket.com for store details.