Our network of growers spans more than 11,000 acres of prime apple-growing land. They are passionate people who take pride in producing quality, flavorful fruit. Many of our growers come from multi-generational family farms and were born with “green thumbs”.
Walter E. Swindeman, Sr. was a grocery wholesaler bothered by the poor-quality apples he’d see in his customers’ produce sections. “When I retire, I’m going to raise good apples as a hobby,” Walter told his wife. “Then, I’m going back to call on my old customers and supply them with quality apples.” This one thought sprouted Applewood Orchards, which was founded in 1935. Today, eight decades & 500+ acres later in SE MI and another 160 acres in the works along Lake Michigan in Oceana County, Walter’s third and fourth generations run the family-owned business.
Apples:
When Patrick was younger he worked with his father, Bill, on their small family orchard. In 2004, he began renting orchards in the area—subsequently, purchasing additional farms and taking over the family farm from his father. Patrick has steadily planted new trees of popular varieties such as Gala, Honeycrisp, and Fuji. He has also invested in fans for most of his farms to move warmer air from above to prevent frost damage to blossoms in the spring.
Apples:
Steffens Orchards is a family-farm operation currently operating over 300 acres of apples. The Steffens family arrived from Germany in 1846 and settled in Alpine Township in 1852. The parcel where the farm market is, was purchased in 1983—at that time, not even one apple tree existed there. Today, Rob and Christine Steffens, the fourth generation, own, operate, and manage the farms and market.
Apples:
In 2011, Ryan purchased his first 40 acres of open ground where he planted all apples. Then, in 2015, he purchased an additional 80 acres of apples trees. He’s now a fifth generation grower on 120 acres!
Apples:
Busy Picking Apples – Look for more information soon!
Apples:
Fifth generation farmer who bought his first farm in 2009. Since then, he has added 100 acres. Randy enjoys all aspects of farming, from planting the trees, harvesting the apples, to filling his controlled atmosphere storage and trucking the fruit when it is sold.
Apples:
Rodney is a fourth generation farmer with 300 acres! In 2018, their farm became a Centennial farm. Rodney is blessed to farm with his two sons, Ryan and Randy.
Apples:
Growing up, Caleb Coulter worked on his grandfather’s farm. When his grandfather needed help he would assist on any task around the farm observing and getting a grip on what it takes to be a farmer. Caleb Explained: “Since then farming is all I ever wanted to do, plus I only wanted to be like my grandfather.” Just 13 farmer generations later in the family; Caleb Coulter is enjoying what he does in carrying out that family tradition in farming.
The Asparagus Season in Michigan lasts from approx. May 10th – June 25th. This is a tight window for the harvesting season, so New Era’s American Asparagus must be sharp day in and day out on production. Product trace-ability is a priority, every box/label is accounted for from when it is filled with product to when it is shipped to the customer. Caleb is in his 22nd year of Farming, and 3rd year of Packing at the farm.
What separates New Era’s American Asparagus from any Asparagus packing shed in the entire state is that product is cooled with a Hydrocooler immediately after harvest. The product is then placed in a cooler prior to packing inside a completely refrigerated packing room. Caleb Explained: “We keep this process as short as possible to increase our customer’s shelf life & quality of the product.” New Era’s American Asparagus grows over 300 acres and manages an additional 600+ acres. New Era’s American Asparagus Packing, LLC. Represents a grower base of over 1,600 acres of Fresh Michigan Asparagus grown along the Shores of Lake Michigan.
Crop:
Growing up, Caleb Coulter said that he started working in the apple orchards by the time he could walk. He would tag along with his Grandpa daily and often “I spent many of my childhood days napping on the fender of a tractor as I rode along.” Caleb purchased his first 100-acre Farm in the Fall of 1996 right after graduating high school. At that time, he grew Pickles to finance planting more orchards to expand. Overall, Caleb has been on his own for over 20 years now and has over 35 years in experience around Apples.
Today; American Apple, LLC. Grows over 180 acres across 13 varieties of Michigan Apples just 7 miles inland from shores of beautiful Lake Michigan. This gives American Apple, LLC. Excellent growing conditions during most seasons with frost protection from the lake in the spring & cooler nights along the fall seasons. This allows American Apple, LLC. To pack premium flavored apples along with excellent coloring on some of the hard to color Apple varieties.
Production at American Apple, LLC. Is high quality and state-of-the-art packing facility. It is designed to be very energy efficient with the most advanced refrigeration for apples available with no ammonia in use. The fruit is all harvested on trailers a very unique way of harvesting fruit. The boxes never come in contact with the ground at the orchard. This gives American Apple LLC. the ability to keep the suburb freshness from when the fruit is picked to when it gets moved inside to the cooler. Each day American Apple, LLC. picks the fruit; it is put in the cooler by the end of the day. The goal is to get the fruit into the coolers within the hour of harvest.
Crop: Apples
We represent an amazing group of growers that inspire our mission: to bring quality apples and amazing flavor to market. At Applewood Fresh, we consider ourselves more than just customer service (but we excel at that too). We are in the business of cultivating relationships. That means our strategy to representation is not a one-size-fits-all. We approach each one of our growers uniquely. We start with listening, learning, and understanding. Then we take it from there.
