Apple picking with sweet favored memory

Apple picking with sweet favored memory

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Always I remember the farm with the rich flavor of apples.

One day on the end of Autumn, I visited Arita fruits farm in Yoichi.
Yoichi is the next town of Otaru, and it takes about less than 1hour and a half from Sapporo. The population is about 20,000.
You may hear about a famous sightseeing spot, Yoichi Nikka Whiskey distilleries if you’re interested in drinking alcohol.
Originally, this town is famous for fruits like cherry, grape, prune, peach, and apple.
There is a street people call “fruits street”. Many fruits farms are in line and next to each other about 20km including Niki, the next town to Yoichi.

Soon after getting off the car, I got such a surprise of the great smell of apple. The owner, Mr. Hitoshi Arita took us to the area of apple trees. He has total 9ha fruits field and 8 kinds of apples. We asked him the number of the apple tree, but he just said “A LOT!”. We all laughed.

We learned how to choose a good apple and how to pick them from him. A good one is fully turned red and good smell. Gently pull a fruit to upper and you can take it off easily. He hired some staffs and his family and they picked all apples by their hand. 1 tree has about 500 apples in 1 year. We really appreciated them to pick one by one with such a huge number of apple. He has own brand of apple, but he just consumes them with family and friends only.

Some of the apples got too ripe and cracked before picking. But he mentioned even the cracked apple tasted so good because too enough sweetness and water could not be held under its skin.

After picking, we heard various things about Yoichi apple and history. Yoichi people first started planing apples in Hokkaido. People kept and flourished the history until today.
This casual chatting and relaxing moment is the one of an enjoyable scene in the activity.

I strongly recommend Yoichi apple picking for the next season and you will not forget about the favor of red fruits!!

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