About Moreland Fruit Farm

Moreland Fruit Farm was started in 1935 by Dr. Robert Young, a pathologist at the Ohio Experiment Station (now the OARDC). In the early 1960's the farm was purchased by the Davis-Melrose Company of Wooster.

After graduating from The Ohio State University in 1968, Fred Finney began working on the farm as a temporary employee. Following a stint in the Army, Fred and his wife, Marilyn, moved to the farm in 1971 where he served as orchard manager. The main crops grown were apples, peaches, cherries, black raspberries and grapes.

Most of the apples were marketed through Davis-Melrose Company's market in Wooster, Melrose Orchard, and stored away from the farm. A small shed was used for our pick your own customers. In 1982 a new building was erected to serve as a storage and farm market.

Fred and Marilyn bought the farm in 1984. New blocks of apple trees were planted as well as raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. Blueberries were becoming popular so they were added along with small plantings of gooseberries, currants and elderberries. In the early 90's vegetable crops and fall mums were added to our yearly plantings. Three greenhouses have been put up to start our own vegetable plants and to grow potted flowers and hanging baskets.

On our farm, we use an Integrated Pest Management approach to disease and insect control. Integrated Pest Management or IPM is a combination of cultural practices, use of resistant varieties and crop protection materials to minimize the effects of disease and insect damage to our crops. During the growing season, pest scouts from The Ohio State University visit our farm looking for signs of diseases on our crops and monitoring the insect traps set in the orchard. They then report their findings to us along with recommendations for improving the growing conditions of our crops.

Today we grow over 30 kinds of apples including the Melrose apple, developed at the Ohio Experiment Station in the 1940's and named for Melrose Orchard in Wooster. The Melrose apple is the state apple of Ohio. Our farm has 125 acres. We grow a little bit of many kinds of fruits and vegetables which makes our diversity of produce unique. We presently have 5 year round employees and 8-10 seasonal employees. Fred and Marilyn, a retired school teacher, have raised their 3 sons on this farm. Eldest son Steve is now an integral part of running the operation.