We have added 15 new apple trees to the orchard this spring, including six new varieties! Our new varieties include both heritage varieties as well as some newer varieties. All of the trees planted this year are bare root trees. This means that the root stock has developed roots about one foot in length, with a grafted piece of apple tree about four- to six-inches long. New buds are growing from the grafted piece before we plant the new tree. It usually takes about five years for a bare root apple tree to grow enough to produce fruit!

The picture to the left is a bare root Gala apple tree with new growth above the graft! The white on the trunk is actually wax holding the graft into the root stock. The wax also protects the open wound on the tree while the scar tissue grows and seals the graft joint. (The taller single-trunk trees are four-year old Fuji apple trees, which were planted last year.)

Our new apples trees include the following varieties:

• Baldwin,
• Enterprise,
• Esopus Spitzenburg, 
• Gala,
• Royal Limbertwig, and
• Ruby Limbertwig.

​We now have more than 120 apple trees, with more than 80 trees producing apples this year. 22 varieties are now growing. Honey Crisp is a modern apple which had a few apples available last year. We expect more this year. Fuji is another modern apple, but our trees are not yet producing apples. Liberty is a newer disease-resistant apple, which is a sweet-tasting crisp apple with more than 20 trees producing pickable fruit.

Some of our heritage apples include Missouri Pippen (which originated here in Johnson County, Missouri), Jefferies, Ben Davis, and Arkansas Black. Some of the heritage apples have unique names, such as Peasegoode Nonesuch, Redfree, or Red Prince. Some names originate from characteristics of the tree, such as Red Limbertwig or our two new Limbertwigs (Royal and Ruby). And any apple with the name "Pippen" included means that the original tree was grown from a seed!

Most apple trees are reproduced today by taking a cutting from the original tree and grafting it onto a root stock variety. The root stock controls the size of the mature tree. Almost all of our trees are semi-dwarf in size. The fruit grows on the tree which grows above the graft, maintaining the same taste, size, and shape of the apples grown on the original tree.

We hope to invite guests to the orchard this fall to pick apples. Of course, if the global COVID-19 pandemic is still with us, we will have to observe physical distancing! Stay tuned for more information!

Are you eating at home more often this spring? Don't want to go to the grocery store as often? We provide locally-grown and processed grass-fed Belted Galloway beef. Belted Galloway beef has less saturated fat and higher amounts of CLAs, which are good fats. See the U.S. Belted Galloway Society page for nutritional information.

Spring Sales!

• We have a steer going to butcher on April 13, 2020. There are 3 split quarters available for purchase. We have reduced our price to $400 per quarter and you pay the processing at Powell Meat in Clinton, MO. If you have never ordered beef by the quarter, we'd be happy to talk you through the process and explain how this works!
• Ground beef will be available April 6, 2020. We have reduced the price on healthy grass-fed ground beef, all from a single animal. Ground beef comes in 1 lb plastic tubes. We have reduced our price to $5.50/lb or $50 if you buy 10 lbs at one time.

Individual cuts of beef are also available. We also sell honey, apple butter, and blackberry jam produced and made on our farm. Please see the order form on the Cattle page for more details.

As always, we can deliver in the Warrensburg/Knob Noster area with a $50 minimum order!