The core of Dawson’s Orchard is family. For three — hopefully, four — generations, the Dawson family has been growing on a 40-acre spot in Enon Valley, PA, starting with chickens in 1946 and eventually, when the “chicken business flew the coop” in the 1960s, growing into a well-established fruit farm with a focus on family values and high-quality produce.
Today, Dawson’s is run by George and Janet Dawson’s (the orchard’s founders) youngest daughter, Carolyn, and her two children, Karen Peterson and Stephen Cowher. Apples are their main crop — every year, they harvest about 12 thousand bushels — though they also grow a few acres of peaches, nectarines, pears, plums, blueberries, and blackberries.
As part of its mission to grow the highest-quality produce possible, Dawson’s uses an Integrated Pest Management system to manage their 40-acre orchard sustainably. This ecosystem-based strategy uses a combination of biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and the use of resistant varieties — not pesticides — to prevent damage.
“We have about 15 apple varieties here, ranging from Red Delicious to newer plantings like Honeycrisp,” Karen said.
How do they decide what to plant? They guess. Karen explains that it takes around three years for a new apple tree to be fruitful, and because of that, they have to try and predict what varieties will be most popular among the masses for the next 20 years. Though, she adds that they’ve been happy with their current variety and don’t imagine much change in the future.
As the orchard has passed down through three generations, Dawson’s continues to adapt and grow, improving as both growers and stewards of the land. One of these adaptations, Karen notes, is a shift to a wholesale-focused model, a change they’re thankful Harvie thas a part of.
“Harvie has allowed us to keep a connection with customers on a more individual level. It’s been a great resource for distributing our non-apple crops to fruit lovers around the region,” Karen said.
You can find Dawson’s fruit in our store every week! And, thanks to advances in storage rooms, Karen says their apples taste almost as good in April as they did after their first pick in September or October.