Love Creek Orchards 
by Keith Richards 
(This article is excerpted from Making It On the Farm: Increasing Sustainability Through Value-Added Processing and Marketing, published in 1996 by Southern SAWG.)

MEDINA, Texas--For Carol and Baxter Adams, adding value to their apple crop was a natural. "When you have apples, you've got to have apple pies," says Carol. As well as apple cider and applesauce, apple turnovers and apple muffins, apple rings and apple butter, apple jams and apple jellies... well, you get the picture. Altogether, the Adamses produce 33 different products from apples, and numerous other items compatible with their orcharding.

Adding value doesn't only mean processing apples into tasty foods for Carol and Baxter, it also includes adding fun. Soon after they began producing apples, they started hosting an annual party in this tiny town--celebrating the apple harvest with crafts, food, and entertainment. Now their party has become a major festival promoted throughout the state.

The Adamses own three orchards with a total of about 14,000 dwarf trees in the Hill Country west of San Antonio. Two of their orchards, named Love Creek and Medina, produce 11 different varieties of apples, while their "Pick-Your-Own Park" offers apples, peaches, persimmons, pears, grapes, apricots, blackberries, boysenberries, vegetables, and catfish in a park and picnic setting for family outings. All of the Adamses' products are sold from their retail store, Love Creek Orchards Cider Mill & Country Store, in Medina. 

Modern Day Pioneers 

Baxter and Carol bought land on the semi-arid Edwards Plateau in 1981. At that time apple production in the region was unheard of because, in the highly alkaline soils, apple trees were known to be susceptible to the root-attacking fungus Phymatotrichum omnivorum, or cotton root rot. With encouragement from Extension Service horticulturist Loy Shreve, they lowered their soil pH levels, and in 1982 put in 1000 dwarf trees on an espalier system.

Everything was experimental. The couple had raised cattle on their previous ranch, but were new to horticultural crops. Luckily, the experiment produced positive results. The apples grew well, tasted great, and ripened earlier than in any other apple growing region of the country, giving them a marketing edge. Now apples are a burgeoning industry in the area, with over 350,000 trees grown within a 50-mile radius of Medina.

Carol says that Baxter is a natural pioneer, especially in the production and promotion of apples. She is quite a pioneer, too, when it comes to the creation of value-added products and the marketing of them.

As soon as their trees began producing a commercial crop, the Adamses opened a store in Medina to sell fresh fruit and grafted trees. Within a year they began making cider from a hand press and selling it frozen.

"People would come to buy the cider," Carol says, "and ask what else we had." So they added some local crafts and then began making applesauce. As customers requested other products, Carol listened to their suggestions and started a process of creating new foods from their fruit. Each new pastry, jelly, or bread was passed around to employees and family for taste-testing, and the recipes were refined based on their feedback. If a product passed the test, the Adamses would add it to the Love Creek line of apple goodies. By this process of initiating new products based on consumer requests and then taste-testing them "in the family," they were able to start products slowly and let them grow with a minimum of risk. Carol advises other growers, "Start small and build on your successes." 

Commercial Kitchen & Tasting Table Are Focus of Store 

About three years ago, the Adamses expanded the small kitchen in their store to a full-scale commercial kitchen and hired two full-time cooks to produce their value-added products. Now Sandy Parker, their head cook, continues to experiment with new recipes as she makes apple oatmeal cookies, apple nut bread, amaretto apple butter and other products Mondays through Fridays.

The store itself feels like a cross between a boutique and a bakery. Located in an old stone house, it is nestled between two large shade trees on the main highway in Medina. Low-priced craft items and local art are displayed throughout the front three rooms of the store. Carol says they used to carry higher-priced crafts, but found that these didn't sell; tourists, who make up the bulk of their customers, wanted something inexpensive to take home. Numerous small items fitting their themes of apples and country life are stocked in the store, along with Love Creek Orchard T-shirts and a small cookbook of recipes collected by Carol. She says reporters often include recipes from the cookbook with stories about their apple enterprise.

The back room of the store is the heart of Love Creek; it opens into the kitchen so customers can see and smell what's cooking. Here they are encouraged to sample any of the Love Creek products from a tasting table sitting prominently along one wall. Displays of breads, mixes, sauces, syrups, cakes, marmalades, jams, and jellies, as well as bins of fresh apples surround the focal point of the tasting table. It would take a strong-willed person to come away from this room without purchasing at least a couple apple pies and a package of apple flavored coffee.

A patio with picnic tables is just outside the back door. This area catches the overflow when the small store becomes crowded. The store is open from 9-5 Monday through Saturday, and 1-5 Sunday every day of the year except Christmas and Easter.

The store isn't their only outlet for sales, though. "Once we got all the products," Carol says, "people started calling and asking us to ship something for them, so we started mail-order sales at Christmas. Now we do it year-round and put out a catalog." The simple, eight-page catalog features gift packs and combinations of products such as the "Hill Country Morning" box of spicy pancake mix, cider sauce, spiced cider syrup, spicy apple butter, and ground apple strudel coffee for $22.95.

Through store, mail-order, and festival sales, the Adamses sell 80 percent of their apples direct to consumers, while packing out the rest wholesale to Texas supermarkets. Carol recommends, "The more direct marketing you do, the better off you are."

Besides producing apple-based products, the Adamses also add value to their overall operation by hosting weekly orchard tours on Saturdays and arranging special tours for groups at other times. They charge a small fee per person, and include lunch or dessert upon request. The tours are especially popular with senior citizen groups, but also appeal to aspiring orchardists. Carol says, "Another value-added product is being available to people who want to learn. We give tours and advise people who want to know about orcharding." 

Creating Word-of-Mouth Advertising 

Carol believes that print advertising isn't generally cost effective for them. "People don't read anymore. They don't even read signs," she says. "Word-of-mouth is our best advertising." By participating in their community, donating to fund-raisers, and treating customers well, Carol and Baxter have built a reputation that spreads the word about their products. They also travel to four or five big festivals each year to reach more people directly.

When they do buy advertising, they are very selective. They advertise in local promotional magazines that cater to tourists who are looking for unique attractions in the area. They also distribute brochures to the local R-V parks and area Chambers of Commerce. For their pick-your-own park, the Adamses advertise in "Our Kids" magazine, a publication for home schoolers. Carol says that parents who school their children at home love the park because they can spend a whole day learning about fruit and vegetables for a reasonable price.

The biggest source of promotion for Love Creek, though, is the Texas International Apple Festival, held right across the street from the Adamses' store. This festival, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year in late July, has put Medina on the map as the "Apple Capital of Texas."

It all started in 1986 in Carol and Baxter's back yard. "The first year we had apples that could go beyond our own lunch," Carol recalls, "we invited the neighbors in to our ranch for a barbecue and tasting. We had so much fun that they wanted to do it again, and others wanted in on it, so the next year we held a big party in town. Thirty-five hundred people showed up."

The following year they moved the party across the street into a pecan grove and promoted it as the Texas International Apple Festival. Now all the other area growers participate, plus crafts people, entertainers, and lots of food vendors. Because of the festival, tourist publications and other media list Medina as the apple capital of Texas and often mention Love Creek Orchards as an attraction.  

Contributing to the Area Economy 

The town of Medina is unincorporated, with a block-long business district lining the main highway. Like many small rural communities, the town has struggled economically in the past few decades. Love Creek Orchards has transformed about half the downtown buildings into working businesses--with their country store, cider mill, packing facility, and offices. Another building houses the apple co-op wholesale store that the Adamses helped start.

At least partly because of the Adamses' commerce and promotion, Medina also has other businesses catering to the apple trade. Additionally, the area under the pecan grove used for the annual festival is now a park with a giant, carved wooden statue of an apple at the entrance.

The Adamses provide employment for at least eight full-time employees and numerous seasonal workers. Baxter and Carol's son-in-law, Chip Landry, is in charge of the apple orchards. Their daughter, Ann Landry, oversees all the growing production other than apples.

Carol is excited by the increasing economy they have inspired. "Young people are coming back. As they see someone make a living [in this area], they get creative to see how they can make a living, too."

As for their own economy, Carol says, "We've never really made a profit yet. We're always putting back in." She feels you need to be ready to put money into a value-added enterprise without taking a profit for at least five years. And the work isn't easy. "We work our hearts out," she adds. "When I see other people my age traveling around, I sometimes wish I had more time, but I see those who do are often neurotic."

For Carol and Baxter, the fulfillment comes from doing something they both are enthusiastic about, from helping others, and from controlling their own destiny.