Fruits of Labor
Organic fruit growing isn't an ordinary hobby, but Joe Fahey isn't an ordinary guy. With a background in medical engineering, a strong curiosity about nature and a love of apples, Joe pursued his passion to an intense degree.
"I started planting trees in 2010 on our property in Lisbon. I had been growing fruit as a hobby and trying to manage growing fruit organically with twenty five trees. Then we had the opportunity to purchase trees in Aaron, Wisconsin," he recalls.
Joe and his wife Jennifer intended to move their family to the orchard, but as the apple business expanded, so did their plans. "We had the idea of building the house first and living right at the orchard, but that didn't happen. We have 30,000 trees now and we stayed in Lisbon," Jen Fahey says. "Our house is five minutes away. We're building a farm from the ground up and we started with no buildings," Joe adds. Jen remembers the increasing customer demands clearly, "People were clamoring: 'We want more apples, where are they?' We made the decision to plant more trees instead of building a house.
While Joe didn't grow up on a farm, the seeds of farming were planted at an early age on his extended family's farm. "The farm is alive and well but it was just a weekend thing for me." Joe and Jen grew up in Wausau, attended different high schools and an after school job brought them together. "We worked at the same store. I always joke that I taught him how to bag groceries," Jen laughs.
Joe's passion for tinkering combined with an interest in chemistry led him to explore organic growing. He explains, "The draw was the challenge. Growing apples, even conventionally, was difficult. Growing organic puts it on another level. We never considered doing anything other than organic," Joe says, adding "When you hear organic, you think more people are focused on the earth, but Joe is more focused on the chemistry."
Strict guidelines for growing organic increase the difficulty of Fahey's process. "A conventional orchard would spray Round Up underneath the trees. We can't do that. All of that has to be done by hand. We were on our hands and knees picking weeds. When you put Round Up under a tree, you don't know how that impacts that tree, and we always say, you're going to taste the difference," Jen explains.
That taste difference and new varieties keep Peck & Bushel customers coming back year after year. "We're really excited about the Honeycrisp hybrids," Joe explains. "One of them is River Belle. It's a Honeycrisp hybrid developed near La Crosse. It ripens one week ahead of Honeycrisps and we think it might overtake Honeycrisp. It's a distinct apple for sure."
Organic apple growing is a constantly evolving process, as the Faheys discovered. "Some varieties of fruit have more susceptibility to disease or insects than others and a lot of that is trial and error. Mother Nature is tricky. Just becuase something worked one year, doesn't mean it will work the next. It's 90% hard work and the things we have to do are more labor intensive, things like weed control or the hand manipulation of apple trees," Joe explains.
Labor intensive work requires skilled workers but Joe didn't have to search far to find two dedicated employees. While most teens are playing video games and posting selfies, nineteen-year-old Abby Fahey and her fifteen-year-old brother Charlie have been working in the family business since its inception. From helping plant and pick to owning management and marketing projects, Abby and Charlie's roles have evolved and expanded. Abby says, "I generally lead our small team of staff in jobs around the farm. I've also taken on a larger role in the merchandising side of the business, choosing and placing products to sell in our retail barn. This has been a lot of fun and I'm excited for more people to walk into the barn this year."
Charlie recalls working on the farm as a young boy, "I started working at P&B when I was about 8 years old. Back then I had a very small job. Now I work on graphic design; I work at the checkout counter; I pick apples and do a little bit of everything."
Both kids are proud of Peck & Bushel's success and growth. Abby says, "I'm most proud of seeing our little family farm grow and take off. Knowing that we've done all the work behind it and seeing people start to recognize the name is amazing. It's been good to see first-hand growing up what hard work can do." Both kids also recognize the benefits the business has brought to their lives. Charlie adds, "One day I could be working on irrigation, the other designing the layout of the barn. I'm most proud of how our business has grown from a small fruit stand on the side of the road to a large farm with a retail, cidery and a lot of happy customers.
When I was very young, I really didn't grasp how big this would end up being, and how much it would change everything in my life. But since then I've become quite proud of how my parents worked non-stop to get this business up and running."
