MN Local Spotlight: Hoch Orchard
Family-Farmed
Hoch Orchard has been in the family since the early 1950s but it wasn’t until 1997 when Harry and Jackie Hoch and their family moved back to the Le Crescent, MN farm after leaving the Twin Cities that they started switching things up.
Hoch Orchard is farmed entirely using organic practices and completed the transition to become certified organic in 2010. As a vertically integrated farm, Hoch Orchard only sells fruit they grow. This way the consumer knows exactly where their food came from, who produced it, and how it was produced! They even operate a cider mill and commercial kitchen to create jellies, juices, and sauces right where the fruit is grown.
While growing over 30 apple varieties, Hoch Orchard is far from a one-crop farm. They also produce strawberries, blueberries, apricots, tart cherries, and multiple varieties of raspberries and plums.
Waste Not, Want Not
What’s even more impressive is that the farm is treated as a single entity. Every single apple or fruit is used. Whether it’s sold fresh to consumers, processed into juice, jams, sauce, or fed to pigs, you’ll never find a wasted piece of fruit or apples left on the trees. The pigs at Hoch Orchard eat the fallen apples throughout the farm to benefit the soil and crops by disrupting the pest cycles by building up a better utilization of the fruit. This process keeps the farm’s ecosystem building upon itself and helps keep it as natural of an ecosystem as possible!
Taste the freshness that Hoch Orchard offers this season! Right now you can pick up a half-gallon of Hoch Orchard Organic Cider for $7.99.
Learn more about Hoch Orchards on their website.