Rock Ridge Orchard brings the farm to schools
Dan and Julie Knetter own Rock Ridge Orchard in rural Edgar, which Dan said is the first commercial apple orchard in central Wisconsin to participate in the Wisconsin Farm to School movement. They educate school students on the different varieties of apples while providing nutritious locally-grown apples school lunch programs.
He said Rock Ridge Orchard currently serves 52,000 students in 137 Wisconsin schools from late August through December with Farm to School. The couple’s main apple orchard is on STH 153 in the town of Emmett where they also have a wedding barn, but they bought 18 acres of land on CTH H three years ago to construct another apple orchard. They planted just over 5,000 apple trees in the new orchard during the past two springs to give them a total of over 12,000 apple trees in both orchards.
Dan and Julie Knetter said they developed this newlyplanted apple orchard on CTH H so they could expand their Farm to School program to more students and schools in the state.
“We are teaching kids where their food comes from,” Julie Knetter said.
The couple is working with the University of Minnesota apple breeding program, and they planted five trial apple trees in their new orchard that aren’t named yet. Dan Knetter said Rock Ridge Orchard is the first commercial apple orchard in Wisconsin to grow First Kiss apples developed by the University of Minnesota apple breeding program. He said First Kiss apples are a cross between Honeycrisp and Monarch apples.
“First Kiss has the crunch and juiciness of Honeycrisp apples and the tartness of Monarch apples which are a southern apple,” he said. “First Kiss apples will ripen in mid to late August compared to the majority of other apple varieties that ripen in mid September to late October.”
The couple said the new apple orchard is a few years from being ready to harvest for the Farm to School program, but when it’s ready, school children will be able to taste new varieties of apples like First Kiss, Kudos and Triumph. The Knetter’s also planted Firestorm apples in the new orchard, which are a strain of Honeycrisp that has a solid red color.
Dan Knetter grew up on his parent’s dairy farm located just to the east of where his main apple orchard, barn and house are now located. He was a dairy and ginseng farmer in his early adult life before getting out in the 1990s when milk and ginseng prices were low. He felt that he could fill a niche left behind when DuBay Orchards closed. He planted some apple test plots and received guidance from the Wisconsin Apple Growers Association on how to maintain them.
In 2004, he planted his first 200 apple trees consisting of Cortland and Honeycrisp varieties. Rock Ridge Orchard today has 37 different varieties of apple trees. The orchard still has Wolf River, Duchess and Fireside heirloom apple trees, which Dan Knetter said most other apple orchards no longer grow.
“They are an antique variety of apples that older people enjoy using for baking,” he said.
People driving on STH 153 will see the main orchard’s apple trees have netting on top of them which Dan Knetter utilizes to protect the older trees from hail damage and insect pests like the Japanese beetle.
Rock Ridge Orchard, which got its name because of the large rocks beneath the soil, has diversified its business model over the years. Dan and Julie Knetter had a wedding barn constructed on the apple orchard property in 2017. They also have Pizza In The Orchard on Thursday nights and Friday Night Flights, both with live music, during the summer. Dan Knetter said Rock Ridge Orchard has 50 part-time employees and a full-time manager.
“We had a record 630 people attend our first Pizza in the Orchard this summer,” he said.
