Excerpt from bardenfamilyorchard.com
John Barden and Hazel Dean were married in 1930 and founded Barden Family Orchard in 1931. They planted some of the first apple trees along the eastern edge of the orchard. These trees are the oldest trees on the farm, and are evidence to John Barden’s keen interest in the science of apple growing. They were “grafted” many years ago, meaning that a new cutting was placed in the notch of a branch of an existing tree to produce an additional variety on that tree. These particular trees have a mixture of Cortland, Macintosh, and Macoun branches on them. John was excited to experiment with new apple varieties and enjoyed growing fruit into his early 80’s.
Like his grandfather, Gilbert also has a strong interest in horticulture, and loves to farm. In the 1980’s, he and his grandfather began to replant much of the orchard to both semi dwarf apple trees as well as peaches. He also began to plant pumpkins and winter squash for more diversity. This was an exciting change for the customers. Not only could they pick apples and peaches, but they could also pick a pumpkin for Halloween.
Barden Family Orchard now grows many varieties of apples, pumpkins, winter squash, peaches, and sweet corn, and has added raspberries, tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and eggplant. We are excited to offer blueberries in 2009. We thank our customers for their encouragement, ideas and patience as we have grown.
As our love of farming and the land have expanded, so have our farming and conservation practices. The Natural Resources Conservation Service helped to design a drip irrigation system that was installed on the farm in the early 1990’s. The same type of drip irrigation system was installed in 2008 on the remainder of the farm. This is the most efficient use of one of our most important resources. As members of the Rhode Island Fruit Growers Association (www.rifruitgrowers.org) we attend meetings in cooperation with the Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association. We work closely with the Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts Cooperative Extension Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programs to produce our fruit in the safest and most environmentally conscious manner. We use IPM to more effectively use the safest crop protectants, (IPM http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheet/ipm.htm).
In 2005, we became fulltime farmers, dedicating ourselves to growing quality fruits and vegetables for those who are dedicated to buying locally grown produce. Since then, the entire Barden Family has been involved in the farm. We work together from crop production through harvest, attending farmer’s markets around Rhode Island, and meeting our customers who make their annual trip to pick apples and peaches, or those who purchase freshly picked fruits and vegetables at our new farm market that opened in 2007. Currently, Gilbert, Sandra, Andrew, Stacey, and Luke Barden actively work during the growing season at the farm, and are dedicated to growing the finest quality and best tasting fruit and vegetables for your family. We invite you to come and enjoy our farm.
