In 1978, Dennis Courtier bought Pepin Heights Orchard, a small apple orchard on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in Lake City, Minnesota. More than 20 years later, using farming practices that call for less pesticide use and an intimate understanding of nature's balance, the operation is the largest in Minnesota and produces 20 percent of all apples grown in the state. The farm produces 60-70 varieties of apples for eating and for making cider.
Dennis is committed to stewardship of the land and an approach that takes into account the farm's entire ecosystem. In essence, he views his role as working with nature rather than against it. According to Dennis, "An apple orchard is a complex eco-system into which we reach with the specific purpose of producing a perennial crop. Biologically there is a ton of stuff going on in that ecosystem and as much as possible we try to work with the natural balance of things and to disrupt as little as possible in meeting the goals of producing the crop."
Food Alliance's Midwest program is important to Courtier because, as the population of this country becomes increasingly urban, people become less and less in touch with where their food comes from and how it is produced. "Food Alliance Midwest is about trying to reverse that and to get people thinking about how the food they eat affects them and the world around them." Dennis hopes that people will stop thinking of food production in terms of, "bigger, faster, cheaper." He says, "There are few fundamental pleasures in life greater than picking a Honey Crisp apple off a tree at the peak of its flavor and taking a big bite of it. One tends to perceive the world differently if one is eating good food."
