Welcome To Our Orchard

The hay ride will began in about 5 minutes. Please watch your step as you load up on the wagon.

The first stop will be what we call our Old Orchard. This 90 acre farm, with 22 acres in peach trees, was the first orchard Daddy Jack set out in 1951. It was first planted in cotton, but he decided he didn't want to pick anything lower than his knees, so he changed directions and started planting apple trees. This was our only orchard for many years. We started to increase our acreage in 1970, when the first daughter married and brought her new husband home to help.

 Our old orchard is located on the bluff over looking beautiful Reel foot Lake. Popular history says that the lake was formed when the region subsided after the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–1812, and that the Mississippi River flowed backward for 10–24 hours to fill it. Reelfoot Lake if a haven for hunting, fishing, and Eagle watching. 

 In 1979 the baby of the family got married and guess what? Yes, he brought his new bride to the farm, and we purchased our next orchard site.  This is 120 acres of ground with 23 acres planted in peach trees. It too, has a pond located in a hollow between two ridges right behind an ole country church.

Daddy Jack has always been an animal lover. Since all of the farms had been set in orchard he started looking for somewhere to feed a few critters. A farm came up for sale adjacent to the 120 acre farm. Daddy Jack got on his bulldozer and preceded to build a 5 acre lake. He then fenced in the whole 55 acres, built a 20x20 metal barn, and has had cows, pigs, goats, horses and even a lama at one time or another. I told you he was an animal lover, and a smart one too. He would love the animals and get his son and son-in-laws to do all the work.

Sorry folks, we have to make a pit stop at the shop and put some air in this tire before we can go to our next destination. While we are here you can take some pictures if you like, but please don't feed the animals. For you mechanics at heart, the shop is a 60x40 metal building with 2 roll up bay doors and a walk in door, fully equipped to handle any project or repair.

Lets everyone load back up and we will drive about a mile to what we call Bruce's and the Rives Place. It is 130 acres with 65 acres planted in peaches and 5 acres in apples. Daddy Jack just loves to run the dozer and build ponds.  There are 6 ponds on this orchard site.

There are a total of 12 ponds located on all the farms. All joking aside, he really builds them for better air flow to prevent frost damage on the fruit. Although they're also great for irrigation. Luckily we have had very few extreme dry summers and have only lost two complete crops in 59 years so we have not had to irrigate, or cover the trees with ice. We do like to fish though, and the ponds are stocked with some great catches.

As we head back to the barn, I will just mention that we also have 42 acres leased and planted in peaches. Now to our last stop. Ya'll be careful getting off the wagon. Let's take about 5 min. and stretch our legs.

This is the hub of our operation. Here you will find  22 acres of peaches located on a 100 acre farm.  On this farm you will find 3 ponds, the packing shed, loading docks, bakery and the office complex. Ya'll follow me and we will take a quick tour of the packing shed. This metal building is 100x60 and houses a 45x45 cooler.  The fruit is brought in from the orchard and packed for shipping here. We also use it for a seasonal fruit market, box storage, and loading docks. It has running water, electricity, bathroom, and an office.

That completes the orchard part of our tour so now we can explore the other division of our operation The Bakery.  What was at one time our restaurant, and retail market, now is our bakery. The first room is our cook room. All of our canned goods and pie mixes are made here. Two large steam cookers do the job.  Then in the pie kitchen we can make over 5000 pies a day. The pies are then put in a 40x40 freezer where they are  kept at 10 below 0.

Follow me and we will check out where we make those delicious yeast breads.  We mix the dough in this large mixer. The rolls are cut and formed on the Fortuna. Next the rolls are put in the proofing room where they stay until they rise and are ready to cook. We can cook 15 trays at one time in the commercial oven.

The last cooking area is used for pie frying. We have 4 commercial fryers.  We fry 20 pies in each cooker at a time. It takes 8 min. to produce a golden brown fried pie. That equals 80 pies every 8 min.

Every thing we make ends up in this room. Here we wrap, label, and box our products for shipping.

Other areas in this building include a 10x10 walk in cooler, shipping office, 2 executive offices, public restrooms, 1 private restroom, test kitchen, and storage rooms. There is also a large deck with the most beautiful view off the back.

We are at the end of our tour. I want to thank everyone for coming. I had such a good time taking you on a tour of our farm. Please everyone be our guest, take a seat, and you can enjoy a hot fried pie topped with a scoop of ice cream. While your here, don't forget to visit our store.

                                                                                               In loving Memory of Daddy Jack

                                                                             1930 - 2009