“We tell everyone it truly takes a year to grow an apple,” said Joe Fahey, the owner and orchardist at Peck & Bushel Organic Fruit Company in Colgate, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. While apple picking typically runs from August through October, Fahey says it takes the entire winter to prune his 30,000 apple trees, and when spring comes, the trees need tending.
But fall is for harvesting — and Peck & Bushel is one of the largest certified organic apple orchards in the Midwest. Fahey, who has a background in nuclear medical technology, had long dabbled in backyard orcharding before founding the farm in 2010.
