Why We Grow

Possibly you have farming in your ancestry, too. Maybe you are grower or know a farm family personally.  There are fewer and fewer families farming these days. Many farms and stretches of farmland have been sold to developers or have been gobbled up by commercial or industrial farms. It takes extensive estate planning to be able to pass down a family farm to future generations. Farming is an incredibly hard job. 

Farming means long days, short sleeps and praying for weather needed! Lugging heavy equipment, hot sunny days, driving the rows, and scouting the field.  Keeping up with all the government regulations. It means worrying about too much rain (or not enough rain!) and those pesky pests. 

We are told by many of our market customers that there is nothing like an apple grown in the rich soil of hardy state of Minnesota. Horace Greeley, the same guy who said, “Go West, young man!” also once said, “I would never move to Minnesota because you can’t grow apples there!” Poor Mr. Greeley has been proven wrong and in fact Minnesota grows some of the best (if not the best) apples in the world!   

Customers can tell the difference. Our apples have a deliciousness, freshness, crispness and juiciness not found in a strip mall grocery store chain. A grocery store-bought Honeycrisp grown in Washington state does not taste like a Honeycrisp grown here in Minnesota.  

We believe good farmers nourish and care for the land and its people. The orchard is God’s gift to us. We commit to care for our orchard, its soil and everything in it to grow delicious apples for our customers. We strive to be worthy of your support. 

We want to share our Minnesota-grown apples with every person in state and ship as many apples to people outside of Minnesota as we can, because we believe Minnesota-grown apples are the best apples in the world.  

It brings us much joy to be out in the orchard on a beautiful Fall day: going from tree to tree, picking these wondrous apples, and filling our apple bags to the brim to bring them to you, our customers! 

We hope you love our apples as much as we do.

- The Gilchrist Orchard Family