TORONTO FRUIT FARM HISTORY

With farm family roots in historic Fairfield County, we grow 30 acres of fruit trees perched atop beautiful Appalachian foothills.

OUR HISTORY

Local stories tell of a visit by Johnny Appleseed to Sarah Sain and her children, who once lived on this farm.  Whether the story is legend or fact, the family continue today in the tradition of growing apples and other good produce on these rolling  hills.

FIRST GENERATION

A portion of what now is TORONTO FRUIT FARM came as a gift from William Wikoff to his daughter Berenice in the early 1900s.  In agriculture, Berenice and Ray were innovative for their time, plowing contour ridges to reclaim badly eroded hillside fields.  The contour ridges served to catch rain and enhance soil drainage for the apples and peach trees they planted there.  In their early years they also kept Leghorn chickens and later milked a Jersey dairy herd.

SECOND GENERATION

Two sons, Russell and Harold, took on the farm operation after returning from service in World War II.  When Harold went to preaching, Russell sold the dairy herd in order to concentrate on the orchard.  He built up the business delivering apples from Athens, 50 miles southeast, to Columbus, 50 miles northwest.  Later Russell added a cider press to the operation for our own use, and also began custom-pressing apples for other orchards as well.

THIRD GENERATION

Again, two sons, Ralph and Carl, shared the farm work with their father for some years.  Carl moved on to other life interests, leaving Ralph to manage the orchard.  Loyal local customers helped us develop our own farm market.  The old milking parlor in the corner of the barn has changed into the sales area for our products.  Ralph also has added a different kind of "crop".  With good management of our woodlot, and the addition of a portable sawmill, he is able to selectively harvest timber, sawing it into lumber for sale as well as doing custom saw-milling for others.

"A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold."  Proverbs 22:1