Orchard manager Joe Pappas, left, with owners Emily Melchoir and Calvin Rodman. The couple bought the established orchard three years to preserve its agricultural legacy.
The kitchen at Sandisfield Orchard started churning out apple cider doughnuts Labor Day weekend.
The barn restoration is one of the latest projects to rejuvenate the orchard.
Sandisfield Orchard offers a dozen types of apples for the picking.
SANDISFIELD, Mass. — Sandisfield Orchard is preparing for the apple-picking season, while working on expansions to support the farm for years to come.
Owners Emily Melchoir and her husband, Calvin Rodman, have worked for the past three years to build up the orchard and its offerings.
Even though the couple didn't have a background in farming, they leaped to buy the New Hartford Road property because they wanted it to stay a farm and not run the risk of someone developing the land.
Since taking on the adventure with her husband and kids, Melchoir said the community has been a big help.
"It's been great. It's been a lot of fun. We've had a lot of support from the local community and from the kind of broader, I don't know, agricultural community, like regionally as well, which has been great," she said. "I think people are really supportive of wanting to see farms get to continue on, and so that's been a lot of fun."
They have planted more apple trees, including heritage varieties, along with peaches and pears that will be ready to pick in a few years. The 150-acre orchard has around 2,000 trees and they are still planting.
"We have 12 mature varieties that we'll have apples for sale from this fall, but we've planted another dozen varieties and peaches and pears that'll be ready in a couple of years. So we've been investing a lot in, you know, in trying to expand the offerings and the things," Melchoir said.
They recently transformed the front of the main house into a cafe, offering bucolic views of the orchard and the mountains.
"We've been gradually increasing our offerings. So we kind of started small with coffee and pastries, and we've been adding more pastries and cookies and some savory things, and then we'll have sandwiches in like two weeks," Melchoir said. "And then the hope is that we can continue to have the cafe open even post-apple season."
They hope to make the orchard a community destination.
"We want people to feel like they can come and hang out here. And then we also hope that outside of the main apple season, the people will come here for the cafe and stuff like that, and view it as a destination for coffee, pastry, sandwiches, those sorts of things," she said.
William and Barbara Riiska had turned the former family dairy farm into Riiska Brook Orchard, planting the first apple trees around 35 years ago. They sold 11 varieties of apples and had pick-your-own for apples and blueberries for decades.
Melchoir and Rodman live down the road and heard the Riiskas were looking to sell. They wanted to keep the acreage from being a development and preserve the farming aspect here in the county.
"We had heard locally that the owners were going to look to sell the orchard, and we bought it because we wanted it to stay a farm," Melchoir said.
Besides bringing in more fruit choices, they are currently working to restore the barn, and plan to open a cidery next year. They also installed an industrial kitchen in the main house, where they make their own treats and their fall staple — apple cider doughnuts.
The orchard is located at 101 New Hartford Road and apple picking season starts this weekend. The cafe is open Friday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Follow their Facebook page for updates.
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