My exposeure to apples began with a small hobby orchard at our house in Ohio. The orchard was planted along with the house in 1969, my parent moved there in 1978. My father was initially interested in the orchard and learned proper spraying and pruning techinques from a farmer down the road from us. I learned through both of my parents how to create, maintain and run an orchard. I remember when I was younger, climbing trees, picking fruit and help my mother with the sale stand. We sold apples there every year we were in Ohio, except 1984 when all of the blossoms froze off of the tree. We moved to New York in 1989 and the next year my parents established the inital 16 trees that became the present orchard I run. Over the next 15 year, the orchard expanded to over 80 trees and I became the sole caretaker. It's a lot of work but very rewarding. Looking towards the future, we are going to selectivily expand operations and continue with improving our cider producing capabilities. My hope is to build and create a new 125 tree orchard with intrigated operations on a piece of land away from the homestead.