Verger Belliveau Orchard

Our orchard is busy year round! Apples are grown on fruit trees, planted in the orchard in early spring. It takes several years for newly planted apple trees to produce fruit. When growing season starts the tree branches are pruned to allow for new growth. This helps in the production of a good selection of healthy apples. Early spring is a busy time at the orchard, with extensive pruning and the planting of new varieties of apple trees.

In late May the trees start to blossom and the beauty of the apple orchard is revealed. During apple blossom season in the spring the apple trees are in full bloom and the orchards are at the height of their beauty.

When blossoms appear on apple trees in the spring they are pollinated with pollen from another blossom, thereby enabling an apple to grow. This cross pollination is typically carried out by bees as they deposit pollen while buzzing around from blossom to blossom, collecting nectar.

Pollination is the most important event in the yearly production cycle of apples. In an apple orchard, bees play a significant role in this natural process, producing honey as a result. Our popular, Canada No.1 Golden liquid honey is collected from beehives at our Orchard.

Once the blossoms pollinate, around the end of June, the apples are formed and begin to grow. Early varieties are ready to harvest mid-August. Gravenstein, Yellow Transparent and Vista Mac are several apples that make their appearance early. Harvest continues into the fall for many apples such as Cortland and McIntosh.

Also during the summer, in late July, our cherry trees are full of fruit and ready to be harvested. We grow both sweet and sour cherries in our Orchard. Our sour cherries are available at our U-Pick.

The fall harvest is a busy and exciting time at the orchard. Apples are carefully picked from the trees by hand and put in bins. They are brought to the packing or storage facility where they kept in cold storage or controlled atmosphere storage facilities until they are ready to be graded. Grading is the selection of apples according to sizes and standards set by the industry and government. Apples to be graded are placed on a packaging and automated selection line that sorts the apples by colour and size. Once graded the apples are packed and shipped to customers.

The Orchard continues to expand and today offers many different varieties of apples. From traditional favourites to exciting new introductions, we have an apple to suit everyone's taste. Some of the more popular varieties of our local apples include McIntosh, Cortland, Russet and Spartan, among others. In addition to our New Brunswick grown apples, we offer a variety of quality, fresh apples from other parts of North America. New introductions include JonaGold, Ginger Gold and Honey Crisp.

At Verger Belliveau Orchard, we take great pride in ensuring that only the best quality apples are sold to our customers. From our orchard we produce an extensive line of products, from our old-fashioned apple cider to our unique tasting sparkling apple juices and Canada No.1 liquid honey. We are also pleased to offer a wide selection of award winning, apple-based Belliveau fruit wines including apple, blueberry, pear, cherry and raspberry.

"There's always something new...See you at the Orchard!"