“Diversification. That’s the key to this operation,” said Al Rose, fourth generation owner of Red Apple Farm in Phillipston with his wife and business partner, Nancy. “We don’t run the business,” Nancy commented. “It runs us.” With its vast orchards plus restaurant/tap room and brew barn, cidery, store, events, and more at 455 Highland Avenue in Phillipston, Red Apple Farm “transforms into a lively marketplace with a rich tapestry of experiences,” according to the website, redapplefarm.com. This multi-faceted farm stays open daily all year with an array of on-site offerings plus inventive experiences nearly every month for families and other visitors. With ninety-eight acres in cultivation, Red Apple Farm also sells its wares in Boston Public Market at 100 Hanover Street and at Wachusett Mountain in Princeton.
After an Easter Great Gathering on Saturday, April 19, to benefit Phillipston Congregational Church, the Roses have planned Enchanted Orchard Renaissance Faire on Saturday and Sunday, May 3 and 4. “Merchants from distant realms and folk from near and far will gather in celebration of May Day and the planting season,” according to the website. Al and Nancy made Red Apple Farm their business and home in 2001 when they came from Chicago to work with Al’s father, Bill Rose, third-generation overseer of the business. With a 1997 master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University in New York state, Al had other experiences that made him well-suited to oversee the apple business. As potato buyer for Frito Lay when he and Nancy lived in Chicago, Al had contacts with seventeen farms, including some on the East Coast and as near as Framingham.
In 1929, the Rose family acquired the orchard at the heart of Red Apple Farm when Al’s grandfather, A. Spaulding Rose, and his wife, Carolyn, bought the apple-rich land from Warren Tyler, then president of Athol Savings Bank. Spaulding had studied pomology, the science of apples. Mr. Tyler began the orchard in 1912 when he bought the property and planted, among other trees, one bearing MacIntosh apples and still producing as the oldest MacIntosh tree in the state. Harry Chester Rose and Cora Spaulding Rose, Spaulding Rose’s parents, financed the 1929 acquisition of the orchard, thus establishing themselves as the first generation of Roses involved with Red Apple Farm. Spaulding cultivated the land with a one-horsepower tractor, according to Al. “That is,” clarified Nancy, “a tractor pulled by one actual horse. Today we use a seventy-five horsepower mechanized tractor.” When the farm and orchard passed to him from Spaulding, Bill Rose ran a diverse business that included considerable wholesale selling to US food chains. In the 1980s, Bill stopped wholesaling. His grandmother Carolyn said, “WHAT????”
From the beginning in 1929, the orchard had an on-site retail store, and Bill expanded retail business with an eye toward agritourism. Red Apple Farm hosted barbecues in the 1980s and hayrides in the 1990s with a petting zoo including goats, pigs, and rabbits. Bill cultivated from sixty to eighty acres of apples at the height of apple production, Al said. Then, he converted some land to grow blueberries, raspberries, peaches, pumpkins, and sunflowers. “For his ninetieth birthday,” offered Nancy, “Bill got a chainsaw to help with farm maintenance.”Al and Nancy expanded the retail business as they took over day-to-day operation. “You know,” said Al, “agriculture is inherently risky. If you’re doing pick-your-own apples, people have to want to pick. We want our business to be sustainable, viable, and relevant.
We have geothermal solar panels and wind turbines. Our employees live locally.” Al credited the late Pat Spaulding — “No relation,” said Nancy — of Spaulding Graphics in Athol with creating the Red Apple Farm logo. Also, he noted, Red Apple Farm had a website before IBM launched its corporate website in 1994. In the earlier 2000s, diversification included weddings and a harvest fest. Although the farm no longer serves as a wedding venue, the harvest fest became the prototype for many events. Along with Easter’s Great Gathering, and Enchanted Orchard Renaissance Faire, Red Apple farm will host Barkin’ Summer Bash dates TBA in early June for dog lovers and their pets.
Writer Marcia Gagliardi lives in Athol. §
Upcoming Events at Red Apple Farm
Saturday, June 21…