Pick an Apple, Win an iPod

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Created on Monday, 10 September 2012 13:26

Written by Joseph Peters

CABOT - Vermont's apple orchards have joined forces to give a few lucky apple pickers some Apple merchandise.

The promotion is being put on by 20 Vermont apple orchards, including Burtt's Apple Orchard in Cabot. Orchards hide one wooden apple among the trees. Find the wooden apple, and you could win an iPad, iPod, or iPod Shuffle.

"It's up to the orchard's managers, employees, whoever, to hide the iPod apple, in the orchard, wherever," said Stephanie Burtt, one of the orchard's owners. "Then, basically, people come and pick, and when they find the iPod apple it says on there, 'Call this number, you've won either an iPod or an iPad.'"

The program, now in its sixth year, serves as incentive for tourists and Vermont residents alike to spend their hard-earned money at local orchards during harvest season.

"I think it's increased business," said Burtt. "A lot of younger people come to pick just because they're looking for the iPod apple.

For a time, it seemed as though the orchards would need the boost. A cold snap in March - and a second cold snap in late April - looked as though it might do serious damage to this year's harvest. Luckily, that doesn't appear to be the case.

"Everyone has apples," said Gail McWilliam Jellie, director of the Division of Agricultural Development for the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, in an interview with the Associated Press. "I haven't heard of anybody that's been wiped out. It's just that some of these places will have less than they usually do."

The apple was named Vermont's state fruit in 1999, and the apple pie is the state pie. The state's 4,000 acres of orchard land oroduce apples from many different varieties, including McIntosh and Red Delicious, and the orchards have noticed an uptick in business as a result of the promotion.

In addition, the orchards are sponsoring Pick For Your Neighbor, a program that allows orchard visitors to donate extra apples to local food banks. Last year's Pick For Your Neighbor raised over 10,000 apples for the food banks.