SOUTHERN SUSTAINABLE FARMING # 10
MAY 1996
-part 1-
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Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
P.O. Box 324, Elkins, AR 72727
Phone (501) 292-3714; E-mail: HN3551@handsnet.org
Keith Richards, Editor
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SOUTHERN SUSTAINABLE FARMING is the bi-monthly voice of
the Southern SAWG, 50 member organizations working for
more sustainable agriculture in 13 Southern states.
Hard copy subscriptions via U. S. postal service:
$15 per year or $25 for two years
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CONTENTS, part 1:
* JOHNSON'S ORCHARD: PICK-YOUR-OWN, PROCESSING & FUN
* TOP FIVE SUSTAG WEB SITES
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JOHNSON'S ORCHARD: PICK-YOUR-OWN, PROCESSING & FUN
by Debby Wechsler
PEAKS OF OTTER, Virginia--To get to Johnson's
Orchard, five miles off the highway between Bedford and
Roanoke, just watch for the hand-painted signs on the main
road. Then, follow the little yellow paper apples with
"Follow me!" written on them. You'll know when you get
there--more hand-painted signs guide you in, and a tall
statue of Johnny Appleseed overlooks the orchard. Though
operated for more than 75 years as a wholesale orchard,
Danny and Nancy Johnson's farm now welcomes and
enjoys customers, offering them pick-your-own fruit, apple
products, and entertainment.
The farm was started by Danny's grandfather in the early
1900s, and Danny has worked on it all his life. Of its 230
acres, 78 acres are planted in fruit, now mostly semi-dwarf
trees. Twenty acres are wooded, and the rest are in pasture
and hay (they have about 70 cattle and 20-30 ewes). Until
1984, the Johnsons were raising mostly red and yellow
delicious apples, wholesaling to fresh markets. But in 1984,
the apples were damaged by a hailstorm. In order to sell the
fruit, the Johnsons started offering pick-our-own. Recalls
Danny, "Nancy advertised them as 'Dimple Darlings' and
people are still asking for them." The Johnsons realized
that they were well-sited for pick-your own, and that selling
direct not only offered them greater profit but also suited
their personalities.
Processing Products To Attract Customers
As they began dealing directly with customers, they also
began processing their fruit. "The first year we went pick-
your-own," says Danny, "there was such a big demand for
apple butter, we tried to get a charitable organization to
make it. We'd furnish the apples for free, but we couldn't
get anyone to do it, so in 1985, we started doing apple
butter ourselves." They made their own stainless steel
kettle with the help of friends who worked in a machine
shop and bought a gas-fired candy stove at a flea market.
They started with a church group's recipe and modified it as
they went along.
Now, besides the pick-your-own and apple butter, they
sell "select-your-own" apples out of bulk bins, cider,
pickled peppers, honey, preserves, relishes, and salad
dressings. They also offer a small assortment of apple-
related gift items. In recent years, they have planted a
number of older and unusual varieties of apples besides the
basics they had raised to wholesale.
The farm store is in a large barn/packing shed--the old
apple-grading machinery in the back of the room is rarely
used these days. The Johnsons also own and operate a
country "convenience store" about five miles away. Besides
the usual food items and a wide range of supplies, like
stove wicks and hardware, the store sells their apples and
cider. For nine years, they also operated a farm-vacation
weekly rental in an old house on the farm, but stopped a
few years ago because of worries about liability and
insurance.
Their processed products serve more to increase the
variety of items they offer and to "bring people in," than to
use unsalable fruit. The actual amount of fruit processed is
a small proportion of the crop, but people come back year
after year for apple butter and cider. Once, recalls Danny,
he was asked to send a basket of the orchard's products to
the governor of Virginia. A while later, he received a letter
from someone in Georgia who wanted to buy some of that
good apple butter he had at his lunch with the governor.
Making Apple Butter
To make their apple butter, the Johnsons use good-
quality apples, peeling and coring them on an old-fashioned
hand peeler. Then, the apples are quartered by hand and
chopped up in an old cider-mill hand grinder; this allows
more to fit in the kettle and helps the apples cook faster.
Nancy's 76-year-old mother and two of her friends peel and
cut the apples for fun and barter.
Their hand-made kettle holds 18 bushels; they start with
about 15 bushels and add the rest as it cooks. They add
about five gallons of apple cider for liquid, sugar, and
various spices, usually as extracts. A metal blade at the
bottom of the kettle, rotated by a small electric motor on
the top, stirs the apple butter as it cooks. Someone needs to
be around while it's cooking, in case the power goes off--
then, says Danny, "You need to stir like crazy." It takes a
full 12-hour day to make a batch. The Johnsons cook apple
butter four or five times over the season, making about 60
gallons in each batch. The apple butter sells for $6/quart,
$3.50/pint.
Cider-making and Other Products
Cider-making is their other main processing operation.
The Johnsons have just finished redoing their cider-making
area attached to the shop. "Before," explains Danny, "you
had to get down on your knees to do the bottling at the
holding tank spigot, and the room and floor were really
hard to clean." They put in smooth, washable paneled walls
and a smooth, slanted concrete floor with a drain in the
lower end and moved the bottling operation to the
basement of their barn--the cider flows down a pipe and
can be bottled by someone standing comfortably at a table.
The press set-up is conventional--the apples are fed up an
auger from outside the room and fall into the grinder. Then
the ground-up mash is spread on felted cloth blankets,
which are folded in layers on wooden frames, and then
pressed. The pomace, or pressed-out mash, is loaded into
an old manure feeder and taken to the cows, who love to
eat it.
They make 5,000-10,000 gallons of cider a year, using a
blend of apple varieties. They use good apples for cider--
seconds, often, and some of the small apples, but if they
use all small apples, the cider doesn't taste good. They do
not press drops--instead, they invite the Society of St.
Andrew, a church-related group of gleaners, to pick up
drops. The gleaners come weekly during the season,
sometimes even more often.
At $3.00/gallon and 3 gallons to the bushel, whether
cider is much of a moneymaker depends on the price of
apples that year. Some years, when apples sell pick-your-
own for only $7/bu, cider returns at least two dollars more.
This year, they are selling apples for 8.50/bu PYO--not
much different, but cider uses less marketable apples and is
always a good customer draw.
The Johnsons make their own pickled peppers and
relishes, but buy salad dressings, preserves, and syrups
from McCutcheons' Orchard in Frederick, MD.
Occasionally they make other items--Nancy used to make
Damson preserves, but it was time-consuming and she
couldn't meet demand. Nancy is currently experimenting
with making an apple cake in a jar--it sells well, especially
when they give samples.
Labor and time are always an issue for the orchard's
farming, processing, and marketing operations. It is always
a consideration in developing a new product or offering a
new feature on the farm. The orchard has one full-time
employee and around 12 part-timers. The Johnsons hire
pruners, pickers, and people to help in the store and with
processing. Much is family labor, but needs are constantly
shifting, and the available help is variable as well. They
often need to scare up additional workers at short notice--
for example, they often find themselves asking a retiree to
help out.
Fun and Education On the Farm
Over the years, the Johnsons have worked to develop a
loyal pool of return customers and reach out to new ones.
They advertise in weekly newspapers and have a toll-free
number (1-800-PIC-OURS). They hold a Fall Festival in
mid-September with music, crafts, sheep shearing, wagon
rides, an antique tractor pull, goat races, face painting, and
of course, cider pressing and apple-butter making. They
also host many school field trips and other tours, often for
retired folks. Last year they set up a covered pavilion with
picnic tables for the benefit of these groups.
Johnson's Orchard makes a big effort to provide a fun
and educational experience for school children. When a
school group is scheduled, the Johnsons set up teaching
stations and demonstrations. They've built a small cabin
and furnished it to show how things were done in "the old
days," and teach about Johnny Appleseed. Danny explains
to children why their fruit has sooty blotch (because they
spray less), and teaches them not to bruise fruit: "Do you
want to hear an apple cry?" he asks, as he pinches an apple.
For older groups and college students he provides more
advanced information--horticultural students, for example,
are often interested in the old varieties. The orchard
charges $2/child for school groups, but offers scholarships
for those few that teachers say can't afford it. Danny
clearly enjoys working with children, but also recognizes
them as the consumers of tomorrow.
Currently, the Johnsons are working on setting up a
winery and plan to make apple wine--again, something else
to bring people in. Wineries have become relatively
common in Virginia, and are good tourist attractions. They
have finished a 10-foot by 18-foot basement room under
the shop for the winery, but have been involved in
exhaustive negotiations with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms about locks and other security
arrangements. They don't know when they will eventually
get a permit and be able to start up. They plan to make
1000 gallons or less a year and maybe hard cider as well.
The Johnsons are confident they will be able to
produce a good product, but have been frustrated by the
regulatory process. BATF has been very bureaucratic and
hard to work with--a far cry, says Danny, from the friendly,
cooperative relationships they've had with their local health
department and other local regulators. But, if their current
operation is any indication, the winery will also attract
enthusiastic customers who, after they pick a bushel or two
of apples, will also pick up a bottle of wine along with their
pickles, cider, and apple butter.
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TOP FIVE SUSTAG SITES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Five best World Wide Web sites for information on
sustainable agriculture, according to Nathan Boone with
AgAccess:
AgriGator -- One of the most complete indexes of ag
information, at the University of Florida's Institute of Food
and Agricultural Sciences.
http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/www/agator_home.htm
National Integrated Pest Management Network, North
Carolina Component -- The National IPM Network is a
University/Extension/Government/Industry supported
WWW system to provide the most accurate urban and
agricultural IPM information.
http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/
North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service's Gopher
Server -- You'll find the following resources: Agricultural
Market News, CYFERNET Information Service, Cover-
Crop Handbook, Current Research Information from
USDA, Research Results Database from USDA,
Sustainable Agriculture Directory, Showcase of
SustainableAgriculture Info. & Education Materials,
Sustainable Agriculture State Laws,
Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE)
Projects, Water Quality Database from US Cooperative
Extension System.
gopher://gopher.ces.ncsu.edu:70/11/national
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
(AFSIC).
http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/AgrEnv/AltFarm
Not Just Cows -- A guide to Internet/Bitnet Resources in
Agriculture.
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/sci/njc.html
For more information, you can go to the agAccess
Agricultural Information Clearinghouse.
http://www.mother.com/agaccess
Connect Mail Sent: May 10, 1996 8:10 am PDT Item: R00RA2S