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Click here for a copy of our 2007 Newsletter.
Several years later we purchased an additional 25 adjacent acres to bring our total owned acreage to 40. We also started growing pumpkins in 1984 in a 1⁄2 acre patch for sale in our store or pick-your-own. By 1992, our little store was no longer big enough, so we built a new processing shed and store on the site of the old building. Each year more and more trees were planted as demand for our apples grew, and we now have over 5,000 apple trees in production consisting of more than two dozen varieties. This year we planted 8 acres of pumpkins for our customer’s enjoyment. To help us manage our growth and work load, we brought our son Kevin and his wife Denice into the business in 1993. They purchased the barn/house from us in 1996 and moved in with their sons Max and Jake. Our granddaughter Jenna Hance started working here at the Orchard in 2005. She is now starting her Junior year at NIU, and it is great to have her here as a part of the family business. In 1995 we built our first maze for our visitor's enjoyment. It was made of hay bales and was quite small, but fun for the little ones. Each year since then we have experimented with larger mazes made of various materials. In February of 2000, we contracted with Brett Herbst, of The MAiZE, in Orem, Utah to assist us in the design of our first huge maze. Each year, we decide upon the design and other characteristics that we want in the maze and create a map. We then plant and cut out the maze each spring, and hopefully it will look like it is supposed to! We have added more and more activities and events each year to increase the family oriented fun we offer to our visitors. This has included the Barn Yard activity area, Apple Train, Apple Launcher, hay rides and more. In 2007 we built onto our store to add additional seating space inside and out on the porch. We also expanded the check out lines to handle the crowds on those busy Fall weekends. Our mission is to provide our visitors with a safe, clean, fun and memorable family fall experience. 2007 will be our 24th season, we hope you will bring your family out to visit us this harvest season! -- Jerry and Mary Lynn McArtor, Kevin and Denice McArtor -- |
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Come on out and enjoy the harvest season at Jonamac Orchard, your family's fall tradition!
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The
first apple trees were planted here at this orchard
in 1974 by Retired Air Force Colonel Stan Johnson and his wife, Katie. In 1983,
Stan and Katie wished to retire and contacted us, as
we had a small orchard at our home farm just north of Malta. We purchased
the orchard and the 1984 harvest season was operated under our new name
- Jonamac Orchard, a combination of the names Johnson and McArtor.