Earl Hiller looks at an enterprise apple hanging from a tree in the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Earl Hiller looks for a quality liberty red apple in the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Earl Hiller looks for a quality liberty red apple in the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Earl Hiller looks at an Arkansas black apple hanging from a tree in the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Earl Hiller holds a few of the apples from the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Earl Hiller looks for a few quality apples in the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
A lone Arkansas black apple hangs from a tree in the devastated apple crop at Garden Patch Farm in Homer Glen, IL, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
First corn. Now apples. This spring’s topsy-turvy weather, coupled with a late-summer windstorm, has wreaked havoc on autumn’s harvest. Apple picking, a rite of fall for many families and school groups, has closed early for the season. Some orchards didn’t open at all. Earl Hiller, …
