Hendersonville, North Carolina

“Everybody wants something different,” according to apple grower Anthony Owens. That’s why, in addition to 14 varieties of apples available in both organic and conventional, this small-scale North Carolina farmer produces apple wine, nectarines, and 20 certified organic acres of mixed vegetables. He is also looking into planting peach trees and expanding the range of apple varieties.

Anthony grew up helping his uncle on the 40-acre orchard his granddad planted in the 1950s. He went away to college for a degree in psychology and the thought of moving to the city but then returned to the family farm in the late 1990s to head the operation. Anthony likes farming for the same reason he wanted to become a therapist—he delights in helping people.

“I enjoy the thoughts of a family somewhere eating something we have grown and knowing they are happy,” he says.

Returning to the orchard with a head full of ideas and energy to match, Anthony changed its direction toward more diversification and environmentally friendly growing practices.

Observing a shift in public awareness of the health risks of pesticides and related growth of the organic market, he set about figuring out how to grow apples organically. University researchers warned organic apple production was impossible in North Carolina because of the state’s particularly high rate of disease and insect infestation for apples, he recalls. But Anthony only took the skepticism as a challenge.

He divided the orchard into two sections, ensuring a 125-foot buffer between 30 acres of conventional apples and 10 acres in organic. He spends a lot more time and money maintaining a healthy organic orchard than he’s had to for his conventional apples. But through researching and diligently testing organic methods and products, and drawing on his intimate knowledge of orchard management, this self-taught horticulturalist has had no problem keeping pests off his crops. In 2003, Windy Ridge Farm became the first certified organic apple orchard in the North Carolina.

Anthony sprays the organic trees weekly with non-toxic bacterial and plant-based pesticides which wash off with the rain, and spends a lot of time scouting the orchard for signs of insects or disease. If detected early, outbreaks can be controlled with extra spraying. In the spring, when clusters of blossoms are beginning to bud, he goes tree by tree plucking off all but the most mature bud on each branch to the enable the fruits to grow large. On the conventional fields, the much less time-consuming process of thinning is accomplished using a chemical spray. In addition to Anthony, Windy Ridge is staffed full-time by his cousin and uncle, and a crew of up to 10 at harvest.

The cost per acre to produce apples organically on his farm is four times higher than conventional production, Anthony says, but the organic crop is still more profitable because of the premium price that growing practice fetches. Also boosting the bottom line for his organic plot is a new value-added venture he’s begun with a local organic wine maker. Anthony will use all the small and irregular fruits to make a sweet, apple dessert wine targeted for high-end and specialty retailers.

But even for higher returns, he isn’t considering converting the whole orchard to organic. The steep up-front costs of purchasing pricy pest-control products permitted for organic certification and the stress of having to be more alert for pest outbreaks are the preventative factors. Also, he says, organic growers lack access to the government crop loss insurance programs available to conventional growers. Furthermore, as “everybody wants something different,” some clients prefer conventional fruit because of its lower price.

Anthony has also discovered that everybody wants blemish-free produce. For the organic vegetable plot he established in 2001, which grows heirloom tomatoes, summer squash, green and yellow wax beans, high quality veggies depend on healthy soils, he explained. That’s why Anthony covers the field with rye grass in the winter to plow under as a green manure in the spring time. Windy Ridge Farm achieves high quality fruits through careful pest control and by shipping irregular fruits to an apple sauce producer in New York and the local wine-maker.

As far away as Florida and Vermont, people have gotten wind of Windy Ridge’s reputation for flawless fruits and vegetables and requested shipments, Anthony boasts, but he sticks to a market within a three hour drive of the farm. He delivers to coop grocers and health food chains locally in Hendersonville and Asheville, and as far as Columbia, South Carolina.