January 2020 - 6

ONTARIO
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
years ago in 1967, with entertainment
features beginning seven years later. The
employee numbers grew over each year
from four staffers in the winter season to
110 at harvest time.
Now, the farm includes a retail store,
outdoor restaurant, pick-your own
orchards, an adult-sized playground,
petting zoo and a considerable amount
of customer-friendly real estate. Farm
operators want the place to feel like
" Grandpa's backyard " with recreational
activities for all ages.
Specialty apples a hit
The farm, located within an easy drive
from Toronto, is situated on silk loam
over clay and gravel at an elevation of
550 feet. Of the 55 acres in orchard
production, 37 are irrigated. Grown are
28 varieties of apples. Rootstocks used
for plantings have varied over the years,
Chudleigh said.
" For 25 years, we favored the M.9 type
at 800 to 1,000 trees per acre, " he said. " For
the last four years, we have preferred c.935
at 1,100 trees an acre. The farm mulches
one-third of the acreage every year. "
Kerr Mini, Sunrise, Silken, Tolman
Sweet, Tydeman Red, Wealthy and
Creston are among the unique apple
varieties available on the farm.
Chudleigh talked about a 2018 planting
of Creston, " a great retail apple, " that is a
Honeycrisp look-alike. It was planted 30
inches apart on 13.5-foot spacings.
" Honeycrisp, once they start getting
to crop, they don't seem to want to grow
anymore, " he said. " These (Creston)
don't do that. There is less bitter pit. They
are quite a good apple. They have this
one silly, little habit that's obnoxious at
times and that is they like to die in the
wintertime. So we usually have a 100
trees that we're replacing here and have
for the last three or four years. But the
variety is so well accepted that we're
going to go on with it. "
We offer a full
line of fruit &
vegetable
equipment
Box Shuttle
Tree Planter
Ground Hog
Frost Fan
Brownie
3 Pt. Forks
3 Pt. Hi Lift
Durand Wayland
Sprayers
Conveyors
Universal Dump All
PHIL BROWN
WELDING CORP.
4750 8 Mile Rd.
Conklin, MI 49403
Phone: (616) 784-3046
Fax (616) 784-5852
www.philbrownwelding.com
6 | FruitGrowersNews.com
Authorized Durand-Wayland dealer providing
parts & service to all of Michigan
Side and row markers available
" Hydraulic planetary drives on all four wheels, driven
by a hydrostat, provide traction in snow or mud. "
Signage guides visitors through Chudleigh's farm market and orchard.
Chudleigh's son Dean, orchard
managers Bruce Shannon and Riley
Bruce also welcomed the IFTA visitors
to their pick-your-own operation.
Shannon, who is retiring, has been with
Chudleigh's for 46 years.
Shannon described how after seeing
" double-buttered " trees on a trip to
Michigan, he returned to Chudleigh's
farm, knowing he probably could not
secure those type of trees.
" So, we planted young trees, grew two
leaders on them and they kept pace. "
He described a 2017 bi-axle leader
planting of Red Ambrosia that was a little
slow coming into bearing like they prefer.
" The size of the tree matters, " Shannon
said. " These trees were too big of a
diameter when we planted them and
didn't have that young wood-initiated
push when we made this cut. "
Popular pastry picks
Chudleigh's popular Apple Blossom
- a single-serving apple pie dessert - is
served in restaurants and sold in grocery
stores globally, even shipping as far
away as Australia and Dubai.
The Blossoms and Chudleigh's other
Tree Planter
Chudleigh's is home to the Apple Blossom, a popular single-serving dessert.
baked products are manufactured at a
massive 110,000-square-foot bakery with
over 100 full-time employees just down
the road from the farm in Milton. It has
made the business a direct-sale force in
the industry.
During peak times of August through
October, the farm attracts in the
neighborhood of 8,000 visitors a day.
" Remember this is entertainment, "
Chudleigh told the visitors from IFTA,
of which he is a past president. " Even
though we're dispatching apples, we're
entertaining people. It's a big difference
from a standard farm. "
" Our spacings are probably a little
wider than you're used to in a slender
spindle system, " Chudleigh said. " But
Self Propelled Work Platform
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January 2020

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