LIVERMORE — Many apple orchard owners across western Maine say they are having a great season despite several hailstorms this year.

A few orchards did have hail damage, but there was plenty of rain after the extended winter to grow good-sized apples.

“It’s looking like a real good crop,” Rob Boothby, a sixth-generation farmer and owner of Boothby’s Orchard & Farm at 366 Boothby Road in Livermore, said Wednesday afternoon.

“We’ve been unscathed, so far, by hail, and that’s the way we hope it will go,” he said. “We’ve had plenty of water, but no hail.”

That’s why he said he believes they’ll have an exceptional season.

“I would say, this is going to be a better year than most,” Boothby said. “Most of our business is weather related and we’re a pick-your-own apple orchard now and that’s what really helps. This is going to be a fantastic year. It certainly has the makings of it. As you can see out there, there are lots of apples.”

They opened for the season on Aug. 16 and hope to extend it all the way to Christmas by selling stored Honeycrisp apples and wine, and late-season apples, called Crispin or Mutsu.

“They’re ready when it’s like snowing,” Boothby said of Crispins, which originated in Japan in the 1930s.

They also ship apples to several farmstands across the state.

Their inaugural handmade apple wines were well received by customers on Maine Maple Sunday in March, Boothby said. So instead of selling their abundance of leftover apples to commercial growers, they’re now making Honey Crisp White, Orchard White and Harvest Blend wines.

Many of their approximately 3,000 trees are grown in a high-density operation, started in 1994, which uses wire trellises with trees planted 6 feet apart in rows, and with 15 feet between rows.

The trees were laden with apples on Wednesday. Paula Reds are ripening now and people are already arriving to pick them.

 “Oh they’re looking a little small, but it’s early yet,” Boothby said of the Paula Reds. “They come on pretty fast at the end. Paula Red, a nice early variety, they’re pretty tart right now, but they’re good. They’re crisp and they’re fresh and that’s what counts.”

“And they’ll evolve daily and weekly,” he said. “In two weeks, they’ll be a lot sweeter. We pick those right through August and maybe into September.”

He’s also got McIntosh and Cortlands. This is the first year he’s had any size for these two varieties due to two years of frost.

Boothby has also started growing Macouns, which will be ready to pick in September. Among the other apples are Northern Spy, golden delicious, Honeycrisp, Gala and Jonagold.

“People get into apples earlier and earlier,” he said. “We have a lot of green Mac freaks. People have been picking their own McIntosh already and there’s some people that just love them. They love that tartness. They just crave it.”

In West Paris at 27 Bethel Road, Cooper Farms manager Sue Silver said they’re getting early Paula Reds.

“So far, so good,” she said. “We lost a few apples to hail and one orchard was hurt by it, but this has been a good growing season for apples.”

They have several orchards spread across the state and sell to grocery stores, but don’t offer pick-your-own apples.

“Conditions were good this year with a lot of water, so we’ll have good size to our apples,” Silver said.

Tom Gyger of Five Fields Farm at 720 South Bridgton Road in Bridgton said their apples were also growing like gangbusters.

“With all the water we got and temperatures approaching 80 degrees, they’re just going like crazy,” he said. “At this stage, it’s not unlike a baby in the third trimester. They put on size to beat the band. We have good crops of apples.”

Like Silver, he said there’s some hail damage.

“Hail renders orchards worthless,” Gyger said. “It punctures apples and dents them. Once the skin is punctured, it will never heal properly.”

He said his friend, Chris Cooper of Cooper Farms in West Paris, has told him that hail can cause $100,000 in damage every 30 seconds to an apple orchard.

“Most orchards I know have escaped total devastation from hail this season,” Gyger said.

He said they also have Paula Reds, golden delicious, Macouns, Cortlands, lady apples, Honeycrisp, McIntosh, red delicious and ginger gold, another early season variety that can be harvested in August.

Kathryn King of Greenwood Orchards at 174 Auburn Road in Turner said their apples are doing well.

They grow Maine Jersey Macs, Pristine, and an older variety called Green Duchess, Vista Bella, Paula Reds, McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Cortland, Spencer and Honey Gold varieties.

“We’ve been fortunate, so far,” King said. “Our apples are sizing up well. We’re picking a third variety now and we’ll pick Paula Reds next week.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com