Producer

Home Acres Orchard is located about 40 miles south of Missoula in the Bitterroot Valley. We are situated about 800 feet above the valley floor up on the east bench between Stevensville and Corvallis. We started our orchard in 1989, grafting the trees ourselves, while at the same time building a house, putting in fencing, irrigation and utilities. Our 3000 plus trees are planted on 5 acres and the rest of our 40 acres is in pasture. We were Certified Organic in 1994, and have maintained that status until 2006, when we helped to start the Western Montana Sustainable Growers Union.

Given the fact that an orchard by definition is a monoculture, our goal has been to achieve a kind of diversity within this definition. We have planted 18 varieties of apples, 6 varieties of pears, and 3 varieties of Asian pears. Of our stone fruit, we have several varieties of apricots, two varieties of pie cherries, and 4 varieties of plums. In addition, we have many plantings of berries, nuts, wildlife hedges and spruce trees interspersed among the native Ponderosa pines and cottonwood trees. We maintain a rich diverse understory beneath and in between the trees made up of clovers, medics, grasses, wildflowers and herbs. This understory encourages a strong population of beneficial insects, which in turn helps to maintain a natural ecological balance in our orchard. The wildlife plantings offer safe haven and food for many birds, which also help to control insect levels. In addition, it supports a diverse population of wild pollinators, which eliminates the need to bring in honeybees every year. We use a wide variety of natural controls to protect our crop from the many diseases and insects which prey on fruit. For instance, we use mating disruption to prevent coddling moth damage. Pheromone emitters are placed on every tree at the beginning of the season to prevent the male moths from finding the female moths. We have also brought in beneficial insects when the spring is especially cold and our native insects are slow to get started. Although our main fruit crop is apples, our season starts in July when our pie cherries are ripe, quickly followed by apricots and early summer apples. Then the pears and plums ripen and finally the late fall apples. We sell our fruit at the Missoula Farmer’s Market and the Clark Fork River Market from July through October, at the Good Food Store and the University of Montana Dining Services in Missoula, at the Community Food Co-op in Bozeman and at the Real Food Store in Helena. Of course you can also purchase our fruit directly at the orchard. Please call first for an appointment.