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Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards continues to offer apples and a whole lot more
When the Kercher family first moved from Ohio to northern Indiana in 1851, they started growing apples.
Apples are still at the heart of Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards in Goshen, Indiana.
Back in 1851, the family mainly grew apples for its own use, but in 1922, William Wheeler Kercher – who is generally known by either “W.W.” or “Wheeler” – started growing apples commercially on 40 acres. One hundred years later, the farm now consists of 600 acres, including around 50 acres of apples as well as sweet corn, pumpkins, cabbage, squash, peaches and a variety of other produce.
“But we always grew apples,” noted Maureen Kercher.
Kercher’s motto is “Family-Owned and Farmed Since 1922,” and it’s easy to understand why. Tom and Maureen Kercher, who represent the farm’s fourth generation, currently run the farm, along with their children, Bill and Mollie. Other family, including Tom’s sister and her husband, Janet and Steve Dudley, as well as Tom and Maureen’s other daughter, Laura, are also involved in the business.
When the Kerchers first moved to Indiana, they brought apple trees from Johnny Appleseed’s nursery in Ohio. Today they grow 19 different kinds of apples, including Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Gala and old favorites such as Golden Delicious and Granny Smith.
“Originally grocery stores wanted a red apple, a yellow apple and a green apple,” Maureen explained. “So we grew Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious and Granny Smith.” But now consumers are aware that there are a lot of tasty varieties out there.
“Some of the old varieties have lasted – like Stayman Winesap and Cortland – but it’s really changed,” she said. “That’s why we grow so many different kinds.”
In the early days, apples were sold from Wheeler’s garage or were sold door-to-door from a wagon. These days, Kercher’s sells apples from its farm store, located on Goshen’s south side along the Elkhart River, just a little south of where Wheeler planted those first few apple trees.
But wholesale also is a big part of Kercher’s business. Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Martin’s Super Markets and others are among those Kercher’s sells to. Apples make up a lot of these shipments, but they also sell produce, particularly sweet corn.
“We’re a large sweet corn grower,” Maureen said, noting that they were in the process of shipping some to Canada. Right now it’s all Kercher’s sweet corn that’s being sold, but they do sometimes buy from other local growers, and if another local producer has an oversupply of apples or pumpkins, they sometimes wholesale those as well.
“The majority of what we sell wholesale is our own, but we do wholesale others’ crops too,” Maureen said. “We’ve built those relationships and it works for us.”
Kercher’s expanded its production of vegetables significantly in the 1990s – out of necessity. Retail consolidations and a huge growth in imports from China completely disrupted the market for apples.
“It took a long time to dig ourselves out of that situation,” Maureen said. “We had 265,000 bushels of apples to sell, and the whole industry was imploding. That’s when we started growing sweet corn and things like that.”
She also credited Kercher’s customers with helping to keep them in business.
“They feel like they have ownership in Kercher’s. They are very, very supportive of us. It’s amazing to watch,” Maureen said.
The farm is celebrating its 100th anniversary throughout 2022. They are giving away a $100 gift certificate each month, there are historical displays on the farm, and a special exhibit also is planned at the local historical society. Additional activities also are slated for the fall when Kercher’s school field trips, hayrides and other fall agritourism activities start.
“We decided we weren’t going to do one major blow-out party – just a party the whole year,” said Maureen.
Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards
(574) 533-6311
19498 County Road 38,
Goshen, IN 46526
