Sunny weather continues to headline this Fall season, so get out for apples & pumpkins in your shorts!

Apple Season goes PRIME TIME:

Red Chief, Smoothee Gold, Empires, Fuji, JonaGold, Mutsu

Orchard & Market Hours: Mon-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-6PM

Winery Hours: Sat 12PM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM

Maize Quest: Sat 10AM-4PM, Sun 1PM-6PM

“Farms are the ultimate economic engine for communities.”

‘Buy Local’ isn’t just a tagline it’s a critical choice you make that really makes a difference. This time of year, the farm is buzzing with activity. Harvest is underway, school tours are booking, donuts are frying and payroll is rising. That’s right, payroll. We have a great staff and we’ve been able to increase wages because of choices YOU are making.

Some farm realities you might not have considered:

• When we fill the GIANT combine with fuel for the day, it takes 210 gallons – EACH DAY.
• In peak October season, our farm, maze and winery will employ nearly 100 people each week.
• We are the first job for many local students, because we start hiring and training students at age 14.
• Just to mow our fruit orchards is equivalent to mowing over 50 football fields – ONE TIME!
• Our neighbors store grain in our facility so that they do not have to accept the lower harvest-time price for their crops.
• We invest in soil preparation, seeds, growing, caring for and maintaining our crops with full investment of time and money upfront and throughout the growing season, to then HOPE that the weather works out and we get a good yield at the end of the harvest.

Risk is a part of life as a farmer. It may seem foolish after that list of farm realities to continue farming! Why not sell it all and get a job, right? Our family has been farming for over 180 years, and to us that legacy is important.

As you can see, this farm supports many more people than the McPherson family alone. We are a part of this community and our growth and adaptation to change each and every year, is what keeps this farm, this little economic engine, chugging along.

Why your visit matters. We LOVE being open to YOU, the general public. Think about it.

• When you pick fruit here, you get the freshest product.
• No grocery store middleman stands between you and the farmer. You are investing directly back into this farm.
• No trucks burn fuel to transport our pumpkins, peaches and apples to market.
• Fruit doesn’t sit in boxes in cold storage using electricity to prevent spoilage in the supply chain. You just take them home!
• When you support our farm, you are helping to preserve acres and acres of prime farmland from development, because we can keep farming for you! My old friend Tony Dobroski said, “You preserve the land by preserving the farmer!”
• Our employees are local, so their paychecks stay local, too. You are investing in them when you buy at our farm. There is no ‘overseas ownership or division.’ Every dollar in payroll stays right here, in our community.

Do it for yourself or for us, just do it. The stars align and good things happen when you Buy Local.

YOU are a critical part of the success of this farm.

YOUR choices matter, not just to our family, but to so many others.

YOUR family matters to US, and we work hard to provide the very best fruit, memories and FUN.

It’s Harvest Time, people!

See you soon on [your] farm,

Farmer Hugh

PS Pumpkin Preview Weekend is this Saturday 11AM-4PM, Sunday 2PM-5PM. With the VERY FIRST pumpkin pickers allowed, the big ones go FIRST! Pumpkins are $.75/lb, but NO pumpkin costs you more than $12.00 this weekend!