Johnson's Orchard: Reaching Out to Consumers
by Debby Wechsler 
(This article was originally printed in Southern Sustainable Farming, issue no. 10, May 1996, pubished by Southern SAWG.) 
 
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 un-salable 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.