It's produced a bumper crop of apples and now farmer Steve Tilse has a spring in his step.

Last year the conditions were so severe that the orchard did not produce a single apple. Luckily a few showers of rain - and a bit of irrigating, has put it back on track.

With more apples than usual on hand to make cider the Tilse's offered 200 kilograms to Slow Food Hunter Valley.

Volunteers picked Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples over the weekend and will sell them for $2.50 a kilogram at the Slow Food Earth Market in The Levee from 12.30pm on Thursday and at Maitland TASTE Festival over the weekend.

"They'll taste their best, people are so entrenched in buying an apple every day of the year in the supermarket but that's not the best way," Mr Tilse said.

"Before refrigeration we would sell semi-trailer loads at our Scone outlet, but the supermarkets have since killed that."

The Tilse family started making cider - instead of selling apples, in 2005 to find a more sustainable platform for the fruit.

"Making cider is more controlled, it's easier to store in a bottle and kegs than it is in a solid form," he said. 

"The cost to produce it is about the same, it's still a fine line to make a profit."

Anyone who misses out on the apples can find them at the Bolwarra General Store and Cafe.