Apple Hill, CA

Located in the hills along Highway 50 in El Dorado County east of Sacramento, enterprising farmers switched to apple production in the early 1960s, and the area is now renowned for its apples and apple products.

If it weren’t for a turn of misfortune back in the early 1960s, the Apple Hill region of northern California might have been called Pear Hill instead. But when blight decimated the pear orchards, enterprising farmers switched to apple production, and the area is now renowned for its apples and apple products.

Located in the hills along Highway 50 in El Dorado County east of Sacramento, this slice of American pie includes dozens of ranches, orchards, and scenic, meandering roads well-traveled every fall by visitors from as far away as San Francisco.

It began humbly enough in 1951, when Floyd Bolster retired to Camino (pop. 1,100) to buy a ranch with 10 acres of apple trees, fulfilling his dream to be a farmer. Bolster died six years later, but his son, Gene, then took over. In 1964, after the pear blight devastated that local crop, he and 16 other ranchers set up the Apple Hill Growers Association to market themselves and their produce.

Today, the group includes about 50 ranchers producing grapes, berries, pears (again), pumpkins, Christmas trees, wines, apples, pies, breads, jellies, and crafts, among other items—all sold directly from the farms. Local apples include many antique and Oriental varieties seldom found in stores.

Last year, local growers produced more than 9,300 tons of apples and 2,494 tons of pears (down from 52,000 tons before the blight).

Residents Bertie and Eugene Larsen lived through the changes, having been fruit farmers all of their 51 married years.

“In 1952, I learned to pack pears 26 days in a row, 12 hours a day. I was three months pregnant lifting 50 pound boxes of fruit,” says Bertie with a laugh. “We didn’t have time to sit around and wonder if we wanted to work the land; it had to be done.”

“My great-grandfather homesteaded this land,” says Eugene of the more than 150 acres comprising the family plot. “We’ve been here for six generations.”

The Larsen ranch includes fruit from a 19th-century Rhode Island Greening apple tree, which still yields fruit. “Before the Larsens came, the tree was planted by an old gold miner,” Bertie adds.

After graduating from high school in 1950, Eugene fell into farming. “My uncle sold me a piece of ground,” he says. “You don’t anticipate farming when you start out. You work 12-hour days, then you work some more.”

The region offers other attractions as well. High Hill Ranch has a large pond where visitors can feed ducks, fish for trout, and look over a unique collection of 200 apple peelers. “My dad collected them,” says Jerry Visman, owner of the ranch. “Most date from the early 1850s.”

The Larsens offer their own attraction: the Larsen Pioneer Farm Museum. Generations of family and local history are displayed here, including a log cabin, covered wagon, antique farm equipment, dollhouses, and more.

Growers still face stiff competition from Washington state apples but say their rich soil and long “chilling season,” in which the trees are dormant, results in tastier fruits.

There must be something to that, judging by the number of visitors who visit Apple Hill every summer and fall—displacing the pony express riders whose trail once passed through part of the ranch Floyd Bolster bought 50 years ago.

Nancy Duncan is a freelance writer from Diamond Springs, Calif.

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