Our Family Orchards

In addition to the apples grown in our own Minnesota orchard, Pepin Heights sources HoneyCrisp from carefully selected family orchards in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nova Scotia and other prime HoneyCrisp growing areas.

Meet some of our growers and find out what makes them – and our HoneyCrisp – special.

David Rennhack

Rennhack Orchards | Hart, Michigan

HoneyCrisp is the most challenging apple variety for David Rennhack – but also the most rewarding.

“We’ve done a lot of extra work to grow them right,” said Rennhack, the third generation of growers at his family orchard. “Pepin Heights has such high quality standards that it takes a lot of work. But when you get it right, it’s worth the effort.”

Rennhack was among the earliest HoneyCrisp growers, planting his first trees in 1995. What makes the HoneyCrisp he grows for Pepin Heights so great?

“A lot of it is the geography, the climate conditions in the area they’re being grown in. We have a glacial soil in Michigan -- I think there is something to that. We have the warm days, the cool nights. They really thrive here.”

For the best HoneyCrisp, look for the Pepin Heights label. Beyond that, Rennhack said, color is the best way to judge a quality HoneyCrisp.

“It should have a decent, bright red color, not faded,” he said. “The background color should be yellowish, not green.”

Rennhack’s daughter and son-in-law recently joined the family business as the fourth generation, meaning the orchard’s tradition of great apples should continue for many years to come.

“I like a challenge and I like to do things with quality,” Rennhack said. “When you can take something that’s challenging and produce something that’s quality, it’s very rewarding.”

David White

Interwater Farms | Williamsburg, Michigan

David White grows apples with his two brothers, and their father still puts in a full day at the orchard, more than 30 years after he founded the family farm. White heard about the HoneyCrisp and Pepin Heights from fellow grower Stan Peterson.

“Stan kept telling us how great the apple was,” White said. “He was so persistent that we finally went ahead and tried it. Well, it’s a great piece of fruit, unlike anything else out there. I should have tried it earlier.”

Like all Pepin Heights growers, White takes extra steps to ensure the high quality of his HoneyCrisp. For example, each apple is hand picked, and the stems are clipped by hand to make sure they don’t poke through the skin of their neighbors in the bin.

“We’ve trained all our workers in food safety, and we minimize spraying as much as we can,” White said. “We actually hired a scout who goes through the orchard to see if any pests or disease are out there. We only spray if there’s a real need for it.”

White also says that color is the best gauge of a HoneyCrisp’s quality. All HoneyCrisp are red with a natural yellow or orange undertone, but if the undertone is green, that’s a sign the apple isn’t ripe.

The best judges of quality, of course, are the apple lovers who buy White’s HoneyCrisp, either in supermarkets or at his orchard’s roadside stand.

“They buy them, and then they’re back the next week to buy more,” White said. “That’s the biggest statement: when you see people come back to buy more.”