History:
In the 1870's, someone (perhaps Johnny Appleseed himself!) planted apple trees at our original Galesville orchard.
In 1952, Allen and Lois Kaste purchased the Galesville orchard and operated Kaste's Morningside Orchard for 50 years.
In 2001, Tom and Deb Ferguson and their children Jill, Andy and Joe took over the original Galesville orchard. At the time, all we knew about apples was that there were red ones and green ones!
In 2011, the Fergusons purchased the Eau Claire orchard, which was first planted with apple trees in the 1980's. 40,000 new Pazazz trees were planted in 2014.
In 2015, the Ferguson family added another orchard, formerly McIlquham Orchards, in Chippewa Falls. The Chippewa Falls orchard has been growing apples for nearly 100 years!
In 2018, the Fergusons underwent their largest expansion yet, purchasing the Pepin Heights orchard in Lake City, Minnesota, making Ferguson's Orchards the largest apple orchard in the Midwest excluding Michigan. We just love growing apples!
Today, the Fergusons grow delicious apples on approximately 250,000 apple trees in Galesville, Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and Lake City, Minnesota. The orchards are spread out in hopes that any severe weather like summer hail or a spring freeze will miss some of the orchards and still allow us to have a crop.
The Ferguson family tree has grown quite large - Tom and Deb Ferguson, who first moved the family from sunny Southern California to the original Galesville orchard, are now joined by a second generation of apple growers. Andy Ferguson became a co-owner in 2013 and he and his wife Ashley live and work on the Eau Claire orchard with their young daughter and new baby girl. Joe Ferguson became a co-owner in 2016 and he and his wife Amanda live and work on the Galesville orchard with their son and new baby girl!
