About us:
John Barden and Hazel Dean were married in 1930 and founded Barden Family Orchard in 1931. They planted some of the first apple trees along the eastern edge of the orchard. These trees are the oldest trees on the farm, and are evidence to John Barden's keen interest in the science of apple growing. They were "grafted" many years ago, meaning that a new cutting was placed in the notch of a branch of an existing tree to produce an additional variety on that tree. These particular trees have a mixture of Cortland, Macintosh, and Macoun branches on them. John was excited to experiment with new apple varieties and enjoyed growing fruit into his early 80's.
Like his grandfather, Gilbert also has a strong interest in horticulture, and loves to farm. In the 1980's, he and his grandfather began to replant much of the orchard to both semi dwarf apple trees as well as peaches. He also began to plant pumpkins and winter squash for more diversity. This was an exciting change for the customers. Not only could they pick apples and peaches, but they could also pick a pumpkin for Halloween.
Barden Family Orchard now grows many varieties of apples, pumpkins, winter squash, peaches, and sweet corn, and has added raspberries, tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and eggplant. We are excited to offer blueberries in 2009. We thank our customers for their encouragement, ideas and patience as we have grown.
Hours
Mon - Sun: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
