I'm here at the Learner Theater with Terry is from the Elkhart County.

Visitor bureau at Terry.

Tell me a little bit about the well crafted video series that we've been highlighting on Experience Michiana over the last couple of months, so we really want to take a deep dive and tell the stories of some of the great creatives, entrepreneurs and successful locally owned businesses that we have in Elkhart County that make make us unique.

What I've loved about this, like it's been everything from Bonneville Mill to the orchestra that performs here at the Learner Theater to, you know, small artists.

And I love that.

Who?

Even one that was out there back in a workshop out there back and and I love that because they all make Elkhart what it is when it comes to the wild crafted series.

It's not about the size.

It's about like the impact and and the work that they're doing.

Yes, yes, it's been really great to show that variety.

And and one of the things I'm happy about, even though it's actually warm out today as we're recording this, I did decide to wear a bit of a fall shirt today, but we're getting into the fall series, into the fall season, and I love the fact that we're going to be focused on Kerchers, because they were one of the organizations and one of the businesses that we highlighted in this well-crafted series that we're going to show.

So for anyone watching, tell us a little bit about and they've been here a long time, right.

Oh, yeah.

Kerchers is I think, 3 or 4 generational family owned orchard.

So they do all sorts of different kinds of produce.

What I think the public is knows them best for is for apples.

And so September and October is really prime time for picking apples.

Everyone has their favorites.

You can go out into their orchard and pick your own apples, or you can just gather up a basket from there from their store.

And and then they have many fun experiences a hayride, pumpkin patch, and apple themed treats that you can buy.

We've done all that now because, you know, having a three year old and a six month old, I mean, the three year old loves all that fall.

It's just my favorite season.

I still call it autumn, though, you know?

It's just it's just my Irish brain still wants to call it.

I'm not sure why.

Why it's different, you know.

Do you know?

Because everything falls to the ground is that way.

Not that you're here to talk about why the seasons are called, what they are.

I can't speak to the the differences.

I just know that fall is also my fall.

Autumn is also my favorite season.

Yeah, no.

It's great.

You know, as you talk about apples, there's also the Nappanee Apple Festival as well.

So is there like a thing with this area in apples or is it just happens to be like that?

You know, that festival?

Well, I think we're just blessed with great growers, entrepreneurs who take that tradition and make it into something fun for the entire community.

The Apple Festival celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, so be sure to.

I think you definitely want to be sure to get their seven foot a piece of their seven foot apple pie and see the drone show, which is their special commemoration of their of their milestone.

These drone shows that are being put on are absolutely incredible.

I don't know, you know, they're phenomenal to watch.

They really are great.

And I know the Nappanee Apple Festival is such a big event on its own.

I mean, it must attract a lot of people into the area.

It does thousands of people, and they're all right within a few blocks of downtown, the food court and vendors all over the place, a carnival for the kids to enjoy.

So and entertainment stages.

So there's will be plenty to do to fill your weekend.

Yeah, it's all happening.

This weekend, of course Kerchers is open all throughout the season, and that's what we're going to have a look at now.

The well crafted series with thanks to the Elkhart County Visitor Bureau.

So let's check out Kirk's in Goshen.

So we at Kerchers, we believe that we have made a well crafted experience for you by growing some of the finest quality fruit and vegetables.

And we love you to come and experience that craft that we've polished and improved over the years.

Purchase has been a part of the Elkhart County Goshen community for 103 years.

So it started with W.W.

Kircher back in 1922, and he had a dream of actually having a commercial apple orchard.

And it started along the Elkhart River on the south side of Goshen.

And he planted 40 acres of trees, thinking, everybody will buy my apples.

And they did.

People sometimes think that Johnny Appleseed was the folklore, but he really was a businessman, and he had a business in Ohio, and they just happened to be in the same town that the Kircher moved from in 1851.

And the creatures brought a lot of seedlings with them when they came to Goshen, and they planted them.

And so the history really goes back for centuries with apples.

And the in 1992, we moved our market from Main Street to this location at 19498 County Road 38, which is just a mile.

It's not even a mile from the old location, but it afforded us the opportunity to be able to open up the fields and say, yes, you can come and pick your own apples now.

Field trips have been a big part of our outreach to the community for many years, way before me, and I've been doing it for 42 years.

So with the opportunity with the kids coming, we thought, well, they're picking apples.

Then everybody else can come pick apples on the weekends.

And then we thought, well, why not?

Hey, rides to the pumpkin patch.

So it just kind of all evolved.

And before entertainment, agriculture was popular, we did it.

We were entertainment agriculture in the 90s.

We opened in April and we closed Christmas Eve.

In between.

There's a whole lot of growing going on.

We start in the spring with flowers and we have asparagus, and then it goes on to strawberries, and then it goes on to blueberries.

And some of these things we don't grow here, but we have other friends that do grow them in the state, and we buy them from them and have them here for the people.

The main season, the fall season really begins about August 1st because that's when the peaches come in and people love our peaches.

Apples.

You pick apples now because of the newer varieties out.

We have a sweet Mya and it starts picking mid August and we are super excited about the sweet Maya.

I always say that you come to Kerchers to get your fall on to to really feel that fall feeling, to see the the corn stalks and to smell the apple pie baking and the apple dumplings baking and to taste the cider and just it just get all the good feels of fall and it makes people happy.

They love fall and they love to enjoy it.

So between the flowers and the pumpkins and the hay rides and just the really nice way you can bring your whole family out and see that generations come out together, they'll come at 11:00 and at 3:00 I'll still see them.

And I thought, what have they been doing all that time?

But they're just enjoying gettin We want to share our orchard with the community.

We know that generations are moving further and further away from the farm, and we want them to be able to enjoy it.

We want to open up our farm in the fall and say, please come pick our apples, pick our pumpkins, and enjoy watching the fruits of our labor being brought in from the fields, wagon loads of pumpkins and wagon loads of corn.

And it's just a lot of fun to see their faces when they see that big load of pumpkins pulling in.

We would love to have you come and visit us at the farm and be a part of that farming experience.

So come on out and come see us.