So, for those of you who don’t know me … the past three years I’ve spent fall up on a farm in Minnesota.
The Orchard Back Story: About 3 years ago Babe and I were living in Minneapolis, MN and had decided to move to Charlotte, NC. The last 3 months in MN I needed to find temporary job. I replied to an add on craigslist to guide children on field trips at an apple orchard for the fall harvest. I mean really, how much fun does that sound like! I called my now great friend Heidi who is the Tour Director and she hired me instantly over the phone. By my standards I had just landed a temporary dream job!
The first season (2007) I helped Heidi with tours and after about a month worked as a cashier in the retail Apple Barn. I did other miscellaneous stuff too like paint signs on sunny days all by myself in the middle of an apple orchard, draw weekly signs with colored chalk, ride on antique tractors, pick and eat top quality apples off the tree every day and take pictures! The barn sells a lot of local and handmade products and art. The orchard was the first place ever to display my photography, I sold about 5 pieces in 2 weeks. Selling my first photograph was absolutely amazing! I love the feeling I get now every time someone buys one of my photographs. I also collectively met a large group of people who I would now call family. The people I worked with on the farm that first year have now become some of my closest and dearest friends (range in age from teenagers to 70′s) for which I am eternally grateful. The last week of the first season Jay and Scott (brothers who run the orchard) asked me if I would consider coming back up from NC next year to manage the Apple Barn … YES!
The second season (2008) Babe drove up with me from NC to MN the first week in September. Betsy (cashier in the barn) offered up what she called a ‘corner’ in her house with a bed that I could stay at for the season. I had never been to Betsy’s house before and what she called a corner was my own room with my own bathroom in a house that sits on 30 acres and is nothing less then spectacular. Throughout 2008 I had helped the orchard with the design and production of marketing materials, materials that were paying off and helped lead to a record breaking season.
This season gave me the butterflies, I showed up two weeks after open and although I had agreed to the job I had never actually managed anything or anyone before and had only very briefly worked in retail establishments and didn’t know that much about the apples. Shit, I was freaking about simple stuff like making the pies and making the coffee. Most of my staff was hired before I arrived and the rest I hired pretty much anyone who walked through the door because we got so busy so fast. This proved problematic, I didn’t get along with some of the staff that had already been hired and a couple that I hired were damn near nuts … combined this damn near drove me nuts on a few occasions. Turns out though I do have a knack for scheduling and positioning people and ended up helping out with the weekend staffing. Most of this season is a blur because we were soooo busy that when there weren’t thousands of people there we were trying to order and put everything back together before they all showed up again the following weekend.
The one very clear memory I have of this season is sitting on a porch talking to Babe on my cell phone and him telling me the economy had crashed and they were out of gas in Charlotte and there were shootings at the gas stations. ALL news to me, for weeks I was on a farm in the country so busy with work that I didn’t have time to even turn on the tv or read the news… FANTASTIC! The orchard felt like a heavenly oasis protected from the madness of the outside world, life was simple, productive and fulfilling. I had so many jobs in the past that in the grand scheme of things were just not necessary, but the fulfillment of providing food – a basic necessity for people just feels so gratifying and ‘right. So, would I drive cross country and relocate next year and do it again … YES YES YES! When I left this year Babe and I moved a few weeks later from Charlotte to where we presently reside – the top of a mountain in Asheville, NC a.k.a. HEAVEN!
The 2009 Fall Harvest -
Well, during 2009 I worked on design, marketing and social media for the orchard. During the summer they were awarded ‘Farm Family of the Year’ by Hennepin County and everyone was getting set for a banner year. This season I was there from the start at the end of August and I was also the ‘buyer’ for the Apple Barn. Meaning I purchased and inventoried everything that we would sell in the barn for the season. The staff that I loved I was in touch with and hired and scheduled before I even drove up. It was setting up to look like an amazing, fun and busy season with all the newbie stress removed. I know knew about the apples, how to bake pies, how to fix the register when it beeps at you, how to order stuff . This year the orchard was also able to put me in my own apartment right next door, my commute was walking up a dirt trail through the orchard to the barn … fantastic x 10.
Oh, it was gonna be good … we thought. The first three weeks were busy getting things prepared in what was extremely warm Minnesota weather. Then in a day it all changed. The whether went from 80 to 40 and the clouds moved in. We saw the sun total for a few sporatic hours over the next 31 days. It rained, it snowed, it froze. Freezing temperatures damaged some of the fragile and most popular apples on the trees. Which almost didn’t matter since it rained and was so cold every weekend that almost no one came out to the farm anyways. The October set records, all within the top ten worst for MN, most rain, most snow, coldest temperatures, fewest days with sun. This led to one of the worst financial seasons for the farm itself.
Now for the good part, because even in the shittiest of circumstances it’s always there. We required very little staff for the year and with little distraction from customers we all spent a lot of quality time together. I drank more wine then I ever have in my life. One night even though I drove the quarter mile to the barn do to the rain I had to walk home because I had just been drank under the table by two 72yr olds and was too tipsy to drive back. I learned much about hard cider and wine making. I learned first hand just how fucking important the sun is! Seriously, I watched all of us turn slightly depressed and miserable 2- 3 weeks into the rain and cold. The day the sun came out was magical. Everyone was smiling and laughing and you would find people just looking up at it in a happy trance. The event season ends the last weekend in October as soon as the season was over the temperature rose by 10-20 degrees and the sun was out almost every day in November.
Below are some of my favorite pictures of the orchard from over the years. For more info on the farm visit MinnetonkaOrchards.com
