Farmer of the Month: Steve Frecon of Frecon Farms

If the phrase “orchard” brings to thoughts acres of flat, fertile floor coated in gently waving fruit bushes, go forward and toss that picture out the window. At Frecon Farms—a small household farm—in Boyertown, Pennsylvania—apple and peach bushes cling to rocky slopes steep sufficient for snowboarding. 
“What makes our farm particular?” Steve Frecon mused when The FruitGuys bought him on the road in mid-October to test in on the farm’s fall harvest. “… Awful soil!”
Frecon Farms from above
Awful Soil, Pretty Fruit
Frecon’s 100 and seventeen acres of fruit bushes and bushes—together with apples, peaches, candy cherries, plums, pears, and blueberries—are rooted in rocky clay soils. This may look like a curse, however it’s truly a blessing. The rocks present good drainage and the clay holds in moisture. Plus, the stressed-out bushes produce peaches and apples with a very distinctive taste. 
Saturn peaches rising at Frecon Farms
“A few of our worst floor produces a few of our greatest fruit,” Steve stated. As a co-owner of Frecon and its head of gross sales and rising operations, he is aware of the land higher than anybody. 
Right here at The FruitGuys, we will vouch for that Frecon taste. Yearly, we dance a bit jig when Steve’s first peaches arrive. Throughout apple season, we pack his farm-fresh apples into our fruit containers by hand, delivering time capsules of fall taste to workplaces up and down the East Coast. 
Contemporary fall apples at Frecon Farms
Steve’s Favourite Bites
After we requested Steve which of his fruits he appreciated finest, he gave us a traditional farmer reply.
Farmer Steve Frecon
“My favourite fruit, it modifications by the season,” he stated. “… After we first get into blueberry season, I’m lucky sufficient that I’m consuming blueberries by the fistful like a bag of potato chips as a result of they’re simply in all places: They’re round they usually’re plentiful.” 
When the blueberry ecstasy fades, he craves Spring Snow white peaches in Might, candy Victoria® peaches in August, and Jonagold, McIntosh, and SnapDragon® apples by the autumn. Frecon Farms grows twenty-three apple varieties, so there are many choices to select from. 
“I really feel so dangerous for the Jonagold apple—it doesn’t get the credit score it deserves,” Steve stated. “I feel if there was higher storage know-how round when it got here out Jonagold could be as well-liked as Honeycrisp. I might take it any day over a Honeycrisp apple, which is a lot of the world’s favourite these days.” 

Jonagold apples have pink and yellow pores and skin, a lush sweet-tart taste with notes of honey, and crisp, nearly crackly white flesh. They retailer effectively, however Steve nonetheless prefers to eat his apples once they’re in season. By spring he’s on to different cravings. “I don’t need to see a McIntosh in April—don’t provide me one—however a great MacIntosh in September? You may’t beat it,” Steve stated.
From ‘Household Farm’ to ‘Endlessly Farm’
It’s arduous to say whether or not Steve’s grandfather, Richard S. Frecon, knew in regards to the magic in Frecon Farms’ “awful soil” when he began the operation in 1944. Richard was a United States Division of Agriculture produce inspector who spent his profession trekking forwards and backwards from Maine to Georgia, stopping at farms alongside the way in which. After years of inspecting produce in Boyertown, he determined to arrange store there rising fruit. 
Immediately, Frecon Farms remains to be a household enterprise—however it’s far more than an orchard. Steve, his siblings, and their spouses have made their small household farm an “agritainment” vacation spot. Fall guests can choose their very own apples, purchase recent fruit on the market, or seize a chunk on the bakery, deli, or cider and espresso bar. October highlights embody flakey bourbon-apple pies, scratch-made soups, mouthwatering apple cider donuts, and arduous cider constructed from Frecon’s personal apples. 
“Our mother and father, aunts, and uncles ran the farm from the ‘70s by the 2000s, then the following technology stepped as much as the plate,” Steve stated. 
Henry Frecon along with his homegrown apples
Steve by no means wished to be a farmer. After rising up at Frecon, he left his muddy boots behind for ten years to work in tech. However he couldn’t resist the pull of the household enterprise—and ended up falling in love with the land. Now, he desires to protect it for generations to come back. 
“I spend a number of time desirous about what this place shall be like after me, and I can’t stand the considered it being homes. I’ll be working sooner or later with the state and the county to determine what steps we have to make this a eternally farm,” he stated. 

Adapting to a Altering Local weather
Steve’s household has grown fruit for eighty years. However due to local weather change, apple season appears completely different than it as soon as did. For many years, the small household farm relied on constant rain all year long and weeks of below-freezing temperatures to place its peach bushes into their dormant winter state. Now, Boyertown can go weeks with out rainfall, temperatures not often dip under freezing, and spring is coming sooner than ever. 
“If it wasn’t for the hurricane that handed by the East final week, we wouldn’t have had any rain for occurring two months,” he instructed The FruitGuys, referencing Hurricane Helene.
Pear bushes in bloom at Frecon Farms
An early begin to spring coupled with a late spring freeze could be disastrous for early-blooming crops like cherries, plums, and pears. This yr, a kind of late freezes took out Frecon’s total pear crop. It additionally triggered a visible imperfection referred to as “frost ring” on a number of the farm’s lower-elevation apples. These fruits ended up within the cider bin. Steve is maintaining an in depth eye on these modifications and on the lookout for alternatives to mitigate danger. That may imply including extra irrigation or bringing in followers to flow into and heat the air within the orchard. 
“You gained’t discover a gambler in Las Vegas that’s an even bigger gambler than a fruit grower,” Steve instructed The FruitGuys with a smile. “It’s the best gamble.”
Farmer Steve Frecon
Wish to Attempt a Style?
Steve’s gambles usually repay with scrumptious fruit. To strive it for your self and help different small household farms, too, try The FruitGuys’ seasonal fruit containers. We’re proud to function Frecon Farms’ crisp and juicy apples in our Japanese mixes by the autumn and winter months. 
 



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