The apple crop might be diminished this season due to uncooperative weather, but local pick-your-own orchards still have some crunchy, sweet fruits available for eating and baking. And though fewer hang from the trees this year, those that ripen are especially sweet.

So says Justin Bell, financial manager at Royal Oak Farm, Inc. in Harvard. 

The original owners purchased a corn and soybean farm to retire 50 years ago.  They planted apple trees to have fresh fruit. “They kept planting apple trees and so they had more apples than they knew what to do with, so they started this operation,” Bell said.