Lehman's Orchard

History:

The present farm was traded by Ralph Lehman in 1929 for a farm in Northern Indiana. Ralph Lehman, a school teacher, tried many different crops and finally settled on raising 40 acres of tart cherries.

From the beginning, the cherries were always hand harvested.

Ralph and his wife, Raphael had one child, Sarajane. Sarajane married William Lecklider and their middle son, Steve now operates the orchard full time.

The second and third generation fruit growers (William, Sarajane, and son Steve) took over Lehman's Orchard in 1992 and have since added many other fruit crops sold at the farm and at various Chicago farmer's markets.

In 1951 Ralph Lehman added the tart cherry pitting machine and a building to wash, clean and sort the cherries. Through the years, we had sold many different crop related items and then in 2008, the Winery/Cidery was added to the Farm Market.