An NC apple farmer’s reflections on recovery a year after Helene
With the North Carolina State Fair opening in about a month, the Carolina Journal followed up with Trey Enloe, the owner of Bright Branch Farms near Hendersonville. Last year, Enloe was the only apple farmer who could make it to the state fair due to Hurricane Helene.
Last year, Bright Branch Farms harvested about 40-50% of its crop before Helene hit, one of the primary advantages that enabled it to make it to the state fair. Hurricane Helene impacted about 20% of the farm’s growing land, and significant damage was caused to the land and the crop.
“Overall, our area as a whole was devastated, and on our farm, we lost a good percentage of our crop from this year. We also lost trees, and this affects the crop for many years in the future,” Enloe told the Carolina Journal during an interview at the state fair last year. “We also had some hardwood trees fall on top of our trees and damage our infrastructure. We use a trellis to grow a lot of our trees, so a lot of that was torn up, and then, of course, the erosion. Anywhere there was a creek or a small river that overflowed its banks, it caused major erosion issues.”
Almost one year later, the Carolina Journal caught up with Enloe to talk about where they are and how far they have come. Bright Branch Farms lost about 4,000 trees to water and wind damage from Hurricane Helene. About 30-40% of the crop could not be harvested due to flooding issues and the crop having hit the ground. An additional 30% was lost in cold storage because there was no power for more than two weeks.
Due to erosion, a significant amount of their infrastructure was also lost, and a considerable amount of sand and silt moved into the fields adjacent to a water source. Creek banks were blown out, and any protection in place was destroyed. Enloe has spent the last year putting temporary solutions in place to get them through so they can do regular, yearly work.
“We’re repairing things where we can and trying to get back to a sense of normal where we can,” said Enloe. “A lot of people fail to see that you know that single moment of impact is significant, but even greater is the loss of time and effort that was put into it to begin with.”
Regarding producing levels, the trees take about 10-12 years to grow back to their pre-Helene levels.
“Our acreage is enough to rotate through our plantings anyway, so essentially what we did is we had plans to rotate some acreage,” continued Enloe. “So we basically altered our plan instead of pushing over something that may have been on the high ground we’ve decided to keep those and what got pushed over by the wind and rain we’ve chosen to obviously regrow that instead. So we obviously we weren’t planning on pushing over 20% of our farm in a single year, but that’s what we were given. So we’ve tried to plant back what we could.”
Enloe said many people don’t realize that apple trees aren’t grown directly from seed. Instead, they’re propagated vegetatively through techniques like grafting or budding. Rather than planting seeds, growers take cuttings and produce new trees. Some growers propagate their own, while others purchase young trees from nurseries. Creating a strong nursery crop or new orchard-ready trees takes two to three years.
Because of timing, growers may purchase tree varieties they didn’t initially want. They can’t afford to wait three years to plant them, and then another five to 10 years — depending on the orchard system they choose — before reaching full production. It’s not the best way to pursue orchard planning, but, he said, “It’s the situation we’ve been presented with, so you find a way to make it work.”
Enloe said one of the most significant differences he noticed from last year is increased diseases.
“There’s a fungal disease called cedar apple rust, and that affects trees and fruit negatively. And that’s just a disease that we’ve never struggled with in our orchard,” continued Enloe. “I wonder if maybe some of that wind and water displaced some of those organisms and caused them to rise up and in places. Insects are the same way; I’ve seen fewer yellow jackets this year, maybe fewer bees in general. And I think that can be backed up by a lot of our beekeeping friends that we work closely with, a lot of them, and said their hives took significant damage and they haven’t quite recovered yet. I think we’re seeing it across the board and adding up in small ways. Not devastating this year’s crop by any means, but it just makes it harder than you would like.”
“Every year we do a specific blend. When you are making cider, it’s kind of like a craft. And we try to put different apples into the blend, so it gives different traits. Certain apples add acidity; certain apples add sweetness, etc,” Enloe told the Carolina Journal last year. “We try to get a good blend, to get a different variety every year.”
Bright Branch Farms sells their blend at the state fair yearly in slushy form and cold or hot spiced (allspice, cinnamon, and clove). Their stand is across from the Tobacco Barn near the Village of Yesteryear.
“This year we’ve got some new varieties we’re going to incorporate into the blend. Evercrisp is one of those,” said Enloe. “It’s a very popular fresh apple, and we want to work that into the juice this year. So I think that will make it a little unique.”
Enloe emphasized the importance of tourism in western North Carolina. He has established good relationships with other local growers and supplies their apple houses and fruit stands. Last year, tourism steeply declined due to Hurricane Helene.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize that we’re open for business. So if there is anything we can do to promote our area in general, that’s going to help everybody out here,” concluded Enloe. “There are a lot of great things that western North Carolina has to offer. I think it’s important to encourage folks to visit. Everybody who comes and visits, those tourism dollars help everybody around here.”
“An NC apple farmer’s reflections on recovery a year after Helene” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.
