- Growers Band Together
for the Organic Market
Associate Editor
More than three years ago Bear Lake growers Merle Brown from Brown’s Orchard, Calvin Lutz, from Calvin Lutz Farms, Hugh Bowling from Fruitful Acres along with Brian Hackert from Hackert Farms in Ludington, Jarvis Franzblau from Lakeview Orchards in Manistee and Dennis Mackey from Wisconsin banded together and formed Northern Organics, a limited liability corporation. They grow more than 400 acres of organic apples and sell them and some cherries to Eden Foods in Clinton, Mich. Under their own label they also market apple juice, apple sauce, apple butter and vinegar.
“We had talked with Eden Foods. They were willing to expand,” said Lutz about the company that markets a variety of foods that promote good health such as whole grain breads and soy products. Currently Eden Foods buys all of its fruit from Northern Organics totaling one millions pounds of apples and 50 tons of Montmorency tart cherries each year, according to Mark White, buyer for Eden Foods.
Their Northern Organics brands, all processed by Mason County Fruit Packers Co-op, are currently only sold locally, although they hope to branch out further. “Last fall was the first year we had more apples than Eden Foods could use,” said Mackey, who grows many of the standard varieties of apples on 100 acres in Wisconsin. “As more blocks come into organic production, we will be able to strike out with our brand,” said Mackey.
Growers agree there’s a tremendous market for their products but have to contend with growing challenges including greater insect pressures compared to the West Coast. “We may pack out an average of 40% as opposed to 75-80% for conventional growers,” said Mackey. “That’s going to change as better materials become available,” he added.
“It’s nothing really to brag about yet, We haven’t really perfected this system,” said Lutz. He said growers have had to deal with three-year transition periods in their fields, trying to find the right fertilizer and dealing with pests like codling moth. Growers must also deal with biannual bearing where there is a heavy crop one year and a real light crop the next year. “You can’t chemically thin. You can hand thin but that’s really expensive,” Lutz said.
Mackey only uses materials from the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), a non-profit group that gives its seal of approval for products acceptable for organic production. (web site www.omri.org).
Mackey said the University of Iowa has come up with a cornstarch product for a herbicide. Surround, a product cleared for organic use in March, is basically a clay spray on trees that hides apples from insects. “That’s looking real good,” said Mackey. SpinTor, is another product that shows promise, although it has yet to be approved by OMRI.
Mackey is also able to use microfine sulfur and lime sulfur for scab control that works well, although you have to be quick, he said. He can also use copper and Neemix, an organic insecticide made from a tree in India. For fertilizer Lutz uses manure although he said some growers have tried blood meal or soybean meal. He said they’ve had some success using a lot of fish and seaweed.
“We haven’t quite achieved premium price,” said Lutz about selling their organic fruit. He said he has no plans to grow apples conventionally again, although he has cut back his organic apples to 30 acres of Spies, Golden Delicious, Idared, and a limited amount of Jonathon. “I don’t think I’ll ever switch back because of prices for conventional,” Lutz said.
“Compared to managing conventional, it’s a joy to be growing organic,” said Mackey. He believes that growing organically is a better way to treat your parcel of earth while filling a market niche. He said growers can generally figure on a 25-40% premium for organic fruit, with fresh fruit getting a 50% premium or more and juice prices approximately 10-15% more. He sees the potential for growers to make a “living wage” growing organic fruit, although he acknowledges that it is harder to grow organic fruit for the fresh market.
Lutz said there’s also a huge market for organic cherries and he started growing cherries for the organic market a couple of times but had to quit because of leaf spot. He grows 150 acres of tart cherries and 50 acres of sweet cherries conventionally. Eden Foods does buy cherries for organic cherry juice from Franzblau from Manistee and Bowling and Brown from Bear Lake.
“This is our third year selling organic fruit,” said White about Eden Foods, a company that sells all over the United States and Canada. “We’re doing well with it,” said White about organic fruit. “We’re committed to using local Michigan fruit,” he added.
“We would like to see the number of growers in Michigan increase,” White said. He said his company likes to have strong relationships with their growers as a way to ensure they get good product. He said most growers are increasing their organic acreage. Some growers need to put in newer, smaller trees for better yields, a change organic growers will do over time, White said.
“As demand gets better and we get better at growing, we will do more acres and we’ll branch out with other products,” said Mackey. Although West Coast growers have less disease pressure, more varieties of apples are grown in the Midwest. “We have different sugar content. I think it tastes better,” said Mackey.
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