It may be bone-chilling cold outside, but inside the farm market at Moreland Fruit Farm it feels and smells like walking into Grandmas kitchen.
Its nice and warm. Jars of jams of all kinds line the shelves.
Take a deep breath.
Smells like apples, apples, apples.
Its appropriate, since the farms main and most popular crop is apples, 40 types in all. Among them is the Melrose apple, Ohios official state apple and one first produced at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station (now the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center). According to farm owner Fred Finney, the Melrose is a very tasty fruit with a marketing problem.
Its not an attractive specimen, he said, which is difficult in a world where people like a hard, crisp apple year around. Still, he said, the Melrose – a marriage of the Jonathan and Red Delicious – has its fans, including a woman in Florida who just recently received a shipment from Moreland.
Apples and orchards have changed over the years, said Finney, who began working at Moreland on a temporary basis in the late 1960s. The farm got its start in 1935
with owner Harry Young, a pathologist at the nearby experiment station. It stayed in the family until the mid 1960s, when it was bought by the Davis-Melrose Co., which also owned the Melrose Orchard in Wooster.
Finney returned to Moreland in 1971, after stint in the Army. At first, he and wife Marilyn lived in a mobile home on the property and later built a house there. In 1985, he bought the 70-acre farm. The Melrose Orchard was at first leased and later sold.
Now, there are raspberries, strawberries, grapes, peaches, nectarines, grown on the farm, Finney said, and a few little odd things like currants and gooseberries. The life cycle of an orchard is roughly 25 years, though a few older trees remain. Varieties change, Finney said, cultural practices change but a lot of our business is old-time varieties, including Cortland, Lodi and Jonathan. Over the past decade, he said, organizations like the Midwest Apple Improvement Association have found new apple varieties that have lots of flavor and are not as susceptible to diseases. A good example is the Evercrisp, which Finney said can be left on a table for months, only to remain hard and crisp.
In addition, Moreland is growing lots more blueberries than ever, in response to public demand. According to Finney, Blueberries are the one fruit in the U.S. that has been increasing in per capita consumption for the last 20 years.
Also growing in popularity? Peppers, he said. Finney said his son, Steve, is especially interested in that market, with 20 different kinds sold, including the hot peppers, like jalapenos.
Twenty different types of vegetables also are sold directly from the farm, at farm markets and through wholesale contracts.
In other words, Finney said, theres seldom a down time. Even in the cold of winter, when the orchards trees are bare, vegetable seeding is beginning. By the first of February, the greenhouse will open for the first flower.
Apples from the last growing season are held in Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage at 30 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit in carbon dioxide to keep them crisp, while the Amish community typically will be buying apples for a seasons worth of applesauce.
And thanks to high tunnels, plastic-covered greenhouses with no heat, even the vegetables are getting an early start in the ground. High tunnels began in Europe and have been used even in cold New England temperatures. A year ago at Moreland, Finney said, lettuce, and spinach were started in October. The high tunnel was closed up for the winter and, in spring, the plants were still found growing.
Successful high tunnel farming can be done in Ohio, Finney said. We can extend the growing season. It will take a while for people to get used to that.
In all his years at Moreland, Finney said the hardest change to get used to has been the increasing amount of governmental involvement in agriculture. A few years ago, he recalled, Moreland had routine visits from three different governmental agencies in just a few days. The Food and Drug Administration wanted to check on the cucumbers and peppers and the Ohio Department of Agriculture came to have a chat with workers about worker protection practices. And because Moreland uses migrant workers during the height of the harvest, the Department of Labor stopped by to make sure everyone was treated well and that the housing was safe.
Now, Finney said, he is dealing with new food safety regulations. While they do not take effect until 2015, he said, It takes a while to get up to speed on them.
Moreland is in what Finney calls a generational hold right now, as he waits to see if any of his grandchildren have an interest in the family business. Son Steve works on the farm and handles the wholesale business. And even son, Chris, an attorney, and Brian, a teacher, pitch in. None of them wanted anything to do with (the farm), Finney said, but theyre all back in a certain way now.
Finney himself isnt stopping. After decades at Moreland, the Marshallville native said he and his wife were just recently declared Citizens of Moreland at a community meeting.
