Pleasant View Orchard

About

In 2002, we planted 180 trees on what had been a hay field. That next winter was very severe, with virtually no snow cover. The next Spring, we expected all our trees would be dead. Quite the contrary, as every tree survived. At that time, as we were in our late 50’s, Hal was contemplating what our retirement years would be like. He decided he wanted an active retirement, and had a vision of turning this experiment into a retirement business. All he had to do, was convince his wife, Carol. After several weeks of prodding, she decided to humor him, and consented. However, if Hal was to be busy in the orchard, Carol wanted to incorporate a bakery into the operation. Hal decided to humor her, and our business was born.

We adopted the motto, “If you rest, you rust.”  True to that motto, there wasn’t much time to rest.  Over the next 6 years, we planted about 2000 apple trees, 75 cherry trees, and assortment of other fruits – apricots, plums, pears, grapes, blueberries, currants, gooseberries, and elderberries. We also put up a commercial bakery, retail shop, storage barn, and refrigerated building. Hal continues to experiment with new varieties, often doing his own grafting.

We both enjoy what we do, and enjoy taking our products to the farmer’s market as well as selling at our retail shop. We have come to know many wonderful people, and get great satisfaction, when they tell us how much they enjoy our products. This truly has been a labor of love.