We have five family farms on the Old Mission Peninsula, and manage farms for at least four other landowners. The oldest farm is the original family homestead, which was settled by Oscar Sundeen, a Swede, in the early 1880's. The Sundeen (or Sundign) farm has been in the same family for four generations. Over the years, the original farm was expanded and other farms were purchased. Our most recent acquisition occurred in 1998, with the purchase of 83 acres on Blue Water Road. This farm is known as the Rose Ridge Farm, which was part of the Lardie Centennial Farm.
All of our farms have orchards planted in sweet and tart cherries. These orchards are known as "blocks" of cherries because they are planted in a relatively uniform manner. Most blocks are even (or same) age stands of trees; but occasionally an orchard of mixed age trees can be found. This latter condition is usually less desireable because it is harder to harvest mixed age blocks of cherries. Most cherry blocks are planted twenty feet on center (symbolized as 20' OC). These means that each row of cherry trees is separated from its neighboring rows by 20 feet, and each tree in a row is separated from its neighbors in a row by twenty feet. This uniformity in block plantings produce beautiful patterns on the landscape, but more importantly, it makes mechanical harvesting more efficient to perform. Not all trees are mechanically harvested, however. Our young blocks are hand picked until they are approximately 8 years old to prevent damage to the tree from the mechanical shaking. Likewise, any fruit that is destined for retail sales is hand-picked; this is to insure that only the highest quality fresh fruit (with no bruising) goes to market.
Because we are in the cherry business for the long-haul, our orchards are in a rotation system, which means that approximately 25% of our cherries are young stock (0-10 years old), 50% are in the high production ages of 11-25 years, and 25% are going out of production (20-35 years old). This insures a continuity to the cherry operation. Dave Edmondson, the fourth generation on the farm, is the manager and the "brains" of the operation. He handles all the commercial aspects of production. Jo Westphal, his partner, handles all of the retail sales relating to fresh and processed farm products. Together, with help from our families, we try to bring you the finest fruit from this part of Michigan.
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