The Batches have grown fruit in the State of Washington since 1936. We met them a few years back after they had seen our website and called us to talk about food, fruit, and the farmer’s connection with food lovers. After just a short conversation, we knew we had to work together. The Batches own cherry, apple and pear orchards near the shores of Lake Chelan in the high desert of Central Washington. (sadly, no more apples or pears) They’re blessed with the world’s best growing conditions. But, they wanted to take their quality fruit a step further than the marketplace – all the way to their customers. We discussed the fruit that was usually sold in most grocery stores. Tom Batch cringed as we mentioned the tasteless cherries, the mealy apples and the rock-hard pears we regularly encountered in our local markets. As it turns out Washington produces some of the finest cherries, apples and pears in the world, but most of that fruit is picked too early. Why, because it needs to trucked or trained across the country to reach your supermarkets. Unfortunately, once these fruits are picked the ripening process is altered, and in certain cases stopped altogether.
Below is a recent article by Greg Batch:
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SWEET MEMORIES, KID STUFF AND A GREAT-LOOKING CHERRY CROP
by Greg Batch, of Batch Family Farms in Lake Chelan, WA
As a kid, a trip to visit my grandparents meant a trip to the orchard – a chance to sit on a tractor, climb up into the dusty cab of an ancient flatbed truck with a busted door latch, pull on rubber boots five sizes too big and “help” my grandpa drag ice-cold aluminum sprinkler pipes from one row of trees to the next.
Last weekend, my two young daughters got a taste of the same experience at the cherry orchard with their grandparents.
Saturday afternoon, Ruby and Olive woke up from their naps (about the same time as Grandpa). Dad, my wife Kristen and I piled the kids into their car seats and drove up into the hills above Lake Chelan to see how the cherry crop was coming along. When we turned onto the dusty switchback road that leads up to the orchard, three-year old Ruby reminded us to “be careful of the pits.” Sage advice . . . but about seven weeks early.
Even though we couldn’t eat them, we were all glad to see a beautiful cherry crop growing on the trees. The blooms had almost all fallen off, and on every limb, little green cherries were taking shape. The young Sweetheart trees I remember planting with a shovel four years ago are now about nine feet tall and covered in fruit. Between the hide-and-seek game, tractor rides and running for the sheer joy of it, I think we covered almost every inch of the orchard and saw every branch on every tree.
With full-time office jobs in Portland, OR, we help with the family orchard as much as we can (mostly during harvest), and we hope to be able to take over someday. But for now, we’re glad that Dad/Grandpa enjoys running the place. We can’t wait to taste the sweet rewards in July (and to share them through ChefShop.com). And it’s nice for all of us to know that Grandpa’s always available for tractor rides.
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Listening to Greg Batch talk about farming and his family’s cherry orchards gives you hope that old-fashioned values like hard work, loyalty and pride in the family business have not gone completely out of style. Batch’s Best Family Farms exemplifies the sort of small producer that we at Chefshop.com support in every way we can. Batch’s Best is family-owned and operates on a smaller, human scale, rather than an impersonal, corporate industrial one. The Batches take the time to ensure that all of their fruit is of the highest quality, throughout every step of the growing process. And of course – their cherries are out of this world.
Although he lives the urban professional lifestyle, Greg’s heart clearly belongs to the farm and a part of his soul is in every cherry tree in the Batch family orchard.
We sat down with Greg and his father Tom to talk about family, farming and growing excellent cherries.
Your family has traditionally grown apples; how and why did you make the switch to cherries?
TOM: My wife and I had been farming apples for more than 15 years when the apple market began to weaken, but the real estate market was strong. We were working on a strategy for our retirement, and selling our land was the answer. Greg, our son, has always been interested in farming, and a few years back he purchased an old cherry orchard. Although he now lives and works in the city, we run the cherry business together.
What draws you to farming?
TOM: I grew up on the farm, but after college worked in corporate America for 15 years. Then my wife and I decided the valley would be a good place to raise a family, so we came back and began working in the family apple business. I’m very happy to be on the farm; I really enjoy the work that comes with each season. Right after the harvest, we irrigate, mow and fertilize the orchard; in the winter we invigorate the tree with pruning and shaping, and in the spring we irrigate again, and then enjoy watching the buds pop and the cherries form. It’s like having kids every year!
GREG: I’ve always been drawn to farming, and particularly to the family legacy of our farm. My great-grandparents came to the area as migrant farmworkers, and I feel a strong sense of place and pride in what our family built here. I have a desire and I feel a responsibility to carry on the family tradition, while bringing a modern sensibility to the operation. I love working with my family, and nothing else is quite as gratifying as seeing the results of your own hard work add up to something tangible - and delicious! My dad and I now hope to form new kinds of partnerships with consumers and other farmers to make family farming successful again, while producing a top-quality product. Our program with Chefshop is part of that vision for the future.
Why are cherries grown in the Chelan Valley so extraordinary?
TOM: Our orchard, located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, is in a microclimate perfectly suited to growing cherries. The days are very warm, but the nights are cool, which allows the cherries to “recover” from the heat and gain superior color and sugar.
