The National Apple Museum, appropriately located in Adams County, has an attractive archive with neat apple-themed postcards like this Image curtesy of the National Apple Museum.
National Apple Harvest Festival: Apple lovers converge in Biglerville
A Scottish preacher stands on a porch. He gazes across the valley in Gardners, Adams County, admiring the hills and lush farmland. “Bonnie Brae,” he whispers to a man named Bill Lott who is standing close by.
It means “beautiful hills” in Gaelic. Lott, who started growing apples in 1927, named his farm “Bronnie Brae,” and that name continues with his great-grand daughter today – Sarah Lott Zost. She’s a fourth-generation apple grower.
As an intelligent woman and hard worker, Sarah Lott Zost isn’t standing in her paternal family’s shadow. After earning a degree in agribusiness management and moving back to the family farm, she’s making a name for herself in the orchards. Lott Zost, along with her team, harvest over 40 million apples a year.
However, growing apples isn’t easy. In a recent article on WitnessingYork.com, Jim McClure and I explore the over-simplified Johnny Appleseed legend: Growing Apples: It’s more than ‘plant the seed, harvest the fruit.”
You can learn more at the National Apple Harvest Festival happening these weekends (Oct. 2-3, Oct. 9-10). The Lotts will be there, a family tradition.
