A Fork in the Road Podcast: Mercier Orchards

Caption

Ariel View of Mercier Orchards

Credit: David Zelski

 

In this episode of the Fork in the Road podcast, host David Zelski takes listeners to the picturesque Mercier Orchards in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. Founded in 1943 by Bill Mercier, this family-run orchard has grown from a small roadside stand into a sprawling 300-acre farm. David explores Mercier Orchards with Dave Lillard, a third-generation farmer and co-owner, to learn the rich history of the orchard and how it has adapted to the changing agricultural landscape over the years.

You'll hear  stories about how the orchard has evolved under the guidance of different generations, from expanding the number of trees per acre to introducing cutting-edge growing techniques. Dave shares how they’ve faced the challenges of early spring frosts and implemented new technology like overhead irrigation and wind machines to protect the delicate crops. Mercier Orchards now offers varieties of apples not found in grocery stores, making it a destination for unique flavors and farm-fresh experiences.

Beyond apples, Mercier Orchards is known for its scratch-made pastries, local honeys, and its thriving agritourism business. Dave explains how the orchard’s you-pick apple events and tractor tours aim to educate visitors about the growing process while offering a fun and interactive way to connect with their food. The orchard also boasts a winery and cider house, producing hard ciders and wines, with some varieties available only on-site, making it a must-visit destination for food and drink enthusiasts.

The episode wraps up with a tour of Mercier's packing facility, where David learns how apples are processed, packed, and shipped nationally. However, the heart of the business remains local, with the majority of its apples sold right in Blue Ridge. The Lillard family’s deep roots in the region, combined with their commitment to innovation, ensure that Mercier Orchards continues to be a beloved staple in Georgia agriculture.

 

TRANSCRIPT: 

 

Dave Lillard: So I can pick an apple exactly when I need to. I don't have to worry about it sitting on a grocery store shelf or anything else, so I pick it when it's at the most ripe, the most optimum sugar, the highest pressure, the most crunch on that piece of fruit so I can deliver it to my customer with the best flavor and the best crunch.

David Zelski: They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well, today we visit an orchard in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which may have doctors running from the hills.

Theme Song: I came from the mud, there's dirt on my hands. Strong like a tree, there's roots where I stand.

David Zelski: I'm David Zelski, and this is the Fork in the Road podcast presented by Georgia Grown and the fine folks at Georgia Public Broadcasting. Each episode, we feature stories from Georgia's farmers, fishermen, merchants, artisans, chefs and others who help provide Georgia grown products to folks in the Peach State and beyond. Today, we're headed north to visit Mercier Orchards, a picturesque 300 acre apple orchard located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The Mercier family has been calling these hills and their ever growing apple shop home since 1943. And just like the family itself and the trees, the once humble apple shack has also grown and evolved into the must see travelers hotspot we witnessed today. And the family couldn't have picked a much better spot. Rolling green hills lined with healthy, well-manicured apple orchards and in every direction the southern Appalachians are the backdrop. I spent the day with Dave Lillard. He's a third generation farmer and one of the co-owners of Mercier Orchards. It was Dave's grandparents in law, Bill and Adele Mercier, who started Mercier Orchards in 1943 as a simple roadside apple stand. Tell me about the beginnings of Mercier and why here in Blue Ridge.

Dave Lillard: So my grandfather in law, Bill Mercier, came to Blue Ridge in the late 30s, early 40s, and this orchard here was already existing at the time. And Bill was an agronomy major. He came here and he worked as the county extension agent. But growing stuff was his hobby. He loved to grow stuff. So in 43, he he purchased a small orchard that had already existed. He bought it from a pharmacist here in town, a Doctor Lloyd. It was about 25 acres and had a couple of tractors and an old barn there on the hill that you can still see. He ran it for several years until about 1965. They built the road over here, old highway five, and when they built the road here in front that comes between Copper Hill and the Kaysville, they decided to take the sales department from the old Apple house, and they built a new apple house here in 65. They they ran that until about '72.

David Zelski: When Bill and Adele Mercier's son, Tim returned home from his military service in 1972. He joined the Apple operation and expanded it ten fold.

Dave Lillard: He really was super interested in fruit. He had a master's degree in plant pathology from the University of Georgia. And he took the orchard to new levels, is what he really did. He started some dwarfing rootstocks, different type planning systems, different, growing systems. And he really expanded the orchard to almost what it is today. If you talk to him, he'll give me the credit. But I'm really not. I'm not going to take the credit. My wife and I, which is Tim's eldest daughter, came back to the farm in the mid 90s, I believe. So we've been here about 25 years, I think.

David Zelski: And Dave got a wealth of farming knowledge from his father in law, Tim.

Dave Lillard: I gained a bunch of growing knowledge from Tim. He, he took me under his wings. He taught me everything he knew. He introduced me to a bunch of other growers. I gather as much information from them, as I could get, because I came from working in a laboratory in Atlanta, and my wife worked for, a TV show in Atlanta. So I had no idea of what farming was all about. It was really funny. The first day I was here, they they they wanted me to bush hog something, and I was like, I don't even know what that means. What does that mean? He's like 'it's a big lawn mower.' It's like, oh, I know what that is. Okay.

David Zelski: Dave is taking the knowledge and experience of past generations of Mercier Orchards and bringing it into the future with new technology.

Dave Lillard: Just like Bill did, just like Tim did. I'm doing the same thing. A lot of the growing aspects are changing. There's different ways to do things. I kind of relate it. Like my grandfather would put 50 or 60 trees per acre. Tim, my father in law, he might get 4 or 500 trees per acre. Now, when I plant an acre of trees, I try and get about 1200 trees per acre. So the growing systems are all changing. Varieties are changing. So it's really exciting.

David Zelski: That is exciting. Growing apples in a climate like Appalachia has its perks, but it also has some drawbacks.

Dave Lillard: It definitely is challenging here in North Georgia, and we're at the right altitude right now that we can still grow really good quality fruit. We get a lot of good chill hours. We get some some cooler nights kind of in the spring and then in, in the summer. So that really helps form that apple. You can get good good sugar set good color on apples like that. But we also we are subject to a lot of early spring frosts. So that is really one of the biggest adversaries I have right now is because it takes us 5 or 6 months to get there, and then in five minutes of a frost, you could lose an entire crop. So several years ago, they've put in, mitigation measures, which for us would be overhead irrigation, that we have several ways to protect the crop. We have wind machines that can move massive amounts of wind and kind of, mediate that temperature in the springtime. So we do our best. Every once in a while will, you know, we'll lose, lose a few trees, or we'll lose some fruit. Not the trees, but we'll lose some fruit. And, you know, it's just what happens with growers. You ask any grower of anything, anywhere, and they'll tell you the same thing. You know, I'm not preaching anything new to you guys.

David Zelski: Mercier orchards has varieties of apples that you just won't find anywhere else.

Dave Lillard: Because everybody wants something new and different when they come to us. Not your typical stuff that you find in the grocery store. You won't find Crimson Crisp in the grocery store. You won't find Arkansas Black in the grocery store. We have EverCrisp coming along that you won't find in the grocery store. So yeah, they come to us for the kind of, the cutting edge of Apple flavors.

David Zelski: Now apples are the fruit that built Mercier orchards, but it's not the only thing they sell. Fresh, made from scratch pastries are another hot item.

Dave Lillard: Apple's really brought us to the dance. That's what everybody knows us for, Mercier Orchards. But if you pin me down, the biggest sellers is our is our scratch Bakery. We had a lady that owned a restaurant here in Blue Ridge. She owned the place called the Forge Mill. And when she retired from there, we took her on as our head baker, because that's what she liked to do. And she really expanded with fresh breads. Those hand-held fried pies, those little pocket pies, donuts. And unfortunately or fortunately, depends on how you look at it. That's probably our biggest seller. People love to come to the orchard to get those little handheld pies, and they are really good because they're still scratch made. We do everything from making the filling to making the dough.

David Zelski: And with the beautiful, lush scenery surrounding the property, Mercier Orchards could be the perfect spot for your next big event or educational field trip.

Dave Lillard: I'm really hoping that people don't forget that we're in Orchard. We do a lot of events for people, outside events. So we we try and connect a lot of the kids to the farm. We do a lot of you-picks and tractor tours so we can educate a lot of the children. Because most people, you know, even adults don't realize that there's, you know, physically, there's people here digging in the dirt to produce your food. They just think they can go to Ingles 12 months out of the year and get, you know, apples. And they can but it's they don't understand the growing process. So we really like the pick your own started to educate a lot of the kids.

David Zelski: Yeah. That's what I was want to ask, you know when when did you decide this is going to be also an agritourism thing? You know, that's become a big thing in Georgia. And up here in Blue Ridge.

Dave Lillard: I has. And it really didn't start that way. It wasn't, it wasn't really started for agrotourism. The main reason, like I said, we really did it was to educate some of the public. It gives us credibility. So when people come in and they see the fruit on the shelves right there, they and they've been in the orchard, they know this is where it's coming from. You know, they can put a face, a face to their food, they know their grower. And it really has blossomed. We were in agritourism, I think, before agritourism was a thing. But it's really great. It's really exciting to see little kids and even adults out there in the orchard picking their first apple because, you know, most of them have never done it before, and they get that first big crunchy bite and you can just see them light up and they have a great time. So it is fun.

David Zelski: Mercier Orchards also has a charming little gift shop on site which sells toys and other knickknacks. And that shop is filled with history.

Dave Lillard: So the store itself is, to me, it's really iconic because the original store was built in 65, and it was just a small little area up there as you come in the front door and as my father in law puts it, all we did was shed off and shed off and shed off and it just grows and grows and grows. And there's tons of different stories to this building. You can look at the, the old concrete floor and you can see where there's a rectangle outline on the concrete floor of an old apple box where it had set for too long, and the acid from the apples had etched into the concrete. You can still see studs on the floor and places where we've had posts where there used to be a wall. It's really neat. It really is right now where the apples are being sold in the store. Was my old peach cooler. It was a giant peach cooler. And we stored all our peaches in there. And over here where we have some, housewares and some pet stuff is an old apple cooler. You know, if you were to dig behind those nice, nice wooden walls, you would see an old cooler wall stuck in there. So there's a lot of history in this building. And it's really neat. You know, if people catch one of us in the store, they can always ask us. We'd be. We'd love to talk about it.

David Zelski: And if that wasn't enough, there's also a market where you can pick up locally made honeys, snacks and even a hot breakfast.

Dave Lillard: Well, there's more to it than just bakery and fruit. You know, we have the market where you can buy a lot of local honeys and local products. You know, we try and stress as much local as we do. Anything else we've got, places for your pet. You know, we're pet friendly. You can come see us. We also have a, deli that serves a, a mean breakfast. One of the best in Blue Ridge. That also do sandwiches.

David Zelski: One of the best breakfasts in Blue Ridge. Well, that may sound like hyperbole to you, but I assure you, it's the truth. Another thing Mercier Orchards offers their apples in liquid form. Seems crazy, right? I know, but just listen to Dave describe it.

Dave Lillard: The way I describe our apple cider is, nothing added, nothing taken away. All we do is squeeze. Squeeze the apples, take the juice out of it, put it in a holding tank, let it mix with some other flavored apples and put it in a bottle. It's very simple process. These horizontal tanks are our fresh tanks. This is where we'll make 2500 gallons of cider a day. And what we like to do is we like to let it sit overnight. That way you can blend all the different Apple flavors together. Plus it'll oxidize and give it that really nice rich brown color. So we'll let it sit 24 hours with the stuff we're bottling. Today is what we pressed yesterday. So that's our fresh tank. So you can see some dimple tanks maybe in the background.

David Zelski: And for more party inclined patrons, a few years ago, Mercier Orchards started selling the hard stuff.

Dave Lillard: And about ten years ago, I finally convinced the family to let me put in hard cider. So ever since about 2011, we have a really good hard cider product and wine product that we make here on farm on premises. We either bottle or we can and you can come up and you can have, you know, have a sample flight and take you some home in a growler, in a can. So there's a lot to do when you get here. There really is. Thanks. Maybe in the background. That's our fermentation tanks. That's where we do our hard cider. How long did ferment for? The thing with hard cider is, at least in the way I believe, is the quicker I can get it to my customers, the better off it is. So we can ferment, we can crush an apple, ferment it and bottle it probably within 21 days.

David Zelski: Visitors to Mercier Orchards, who are 21 and up, can enjoy dozens of different drinks and get a sampling of wines from all over Georgia at this winery.

Dave Lillard: Give me something to rest on. I'm not trying to look GQ so this is the winery. This is where, our hard cider and our wine is sampled and sold. We also gather as many local vineyards as we can and bring them in and showcase their wines. Every once in a while, we'll have one of their vendors come and show off their product on the weekend. But there's probably 15 or 16 different Georgia wineries represented right here. You can come get a flight of wine and come get a flight, hard cider and do some sampling and go sit out on our deck. Enjoy the day. Right.

David Zelski: You can find a few varieties of Mercier orchards hard ciders in bars, restaurants and package stores across the state. But for some truly unique flavors you won't find anywhere else. Well, you'll have to come visit Dave on the farm.

Dave Lillard: So we do make a volume of about 2 or 3 traditional hard ciders that we do send to Atlanta and Georgia throughout the state of Georgia. So those three flavors you can find at package stores, restaurants, bars. But if you want some really unique flavors, you got to come see me on the farm, because that's where we make all our real distinct flavors. We make a strawberry hard cider, we make a peach hard cider, we make a jala-peach-o, which is like a a spicy peach cider. We make a sneaky jack, which is cider that's aged in bourbon barrels. So if you want some really unique cider, you got to come see me.

David Zelski: Like every great piece of fruit, the secret to making these apples so tasty begins with the picking and selling apple straight to the consumer means, Dave can assure, the most quality in every bite.

Dave Lillard: So I can pick an apple exactly when I need to. I don't have to worry about it sitting on a grocery store shelf or anything else, so I pick it when it's at the most ripe, the most optimum sugar, the highest pressure, the most crunch on that piece of fruit so I can deliver it to my customer with the best flavor and the best crunch.

David Zelski: It's fair to say the apples from the markets are possibly better than the ones you're going to get.

Dave Lillard: Oh, hands down, my friend. Hands down.

David Zelski: Once the apples are picked, it's off to the packing facility where they get processed and packaged for sale and delivery. I got to hear about the whole process.

Dave Lillard: Well, this is really where it all happens. So what you're looking at kind of behind me right here is, is our packing line. And what happens is once the apples are picked they're picked in 20 bushel bins. We bring them right to the grade line. And they'll go in on the very end of the grade line is basically it's like, as I say, it's a giant bathtub. So you sink a giant 20 bushel bin into this big old bathtub. And that's the easiest way to get that fruit out of that bin. It floats all the apples to the top. So there's a big water flume. And then as it as it's in that bath back there, it also gets sanitized and cleaned. We have computer monitors and some sanitation solution in there to make sure it's a good, clean solution of water. As they come down the line, they there's some polishing brushes there that kind of shine them up.

David Zelski: One part of the packaging process was eventually phased out for a more natural looking apple.

Dave Lillard: We used to wax our apples because a lot of the big producers wanted wax, but when I got here, I just I didn't like it because it was artificial. It kind of gave them a funky glow and it just they tasted a little funny. So I got rid of the wax. So really all we have now is just the polishing brushes that kind of clean them up because apples already have their natural wax, and if you polish them a little, they'll shine up. They'll look real nice, they'll come down the line. We'll have a couple of few folks here that'll pick out all the bad ones. You know, if there are some that are miscolored or some that do have a little disease, and then we'll pick those out and we'll put them in a bin for cider or for pies.

David Zelski: Nothing is going to waste here. Any of the apples that are too small to market by themselves go into Mercier Orchards, delicious baked goods.

Dave Lillard: That grater that you saw it. What it does is it puts out a certain size apple. That'll fit through my peeling machine. So this is where the pie process starts. I'll grade them some apples that are too small to sell on my front, and we'll put them through the peeling machine and slicing machine. We'll cook them up in one of our steam kettles. They go right into the pies.

David Zelski: It's a good looking apple.

Yeah, buddy. Once the pies are made, they get put in our blast freezer and they're frozen. That way they're good and solid. Then we can pack them in boxes and store them away until we're ready to fry them and sell them.

David Zelski: Though they ship their apples. Nationally, most of the retail business seen by Mercier Orchards comes from the people right here in Blue Ridge.

Dave Lillard: I would say probably 70% are sold through my retail market here in Blue Ridge. And you've got to come to Blue Ridge. I'm going to put a plug in for Blue Ridge because this is a great little town. We we still have that hometown feel, it's small, maybe 25,000 people. Is the population of Blue Ridge is an outstanding place to visit. So come see me at the store. But if you can't come see me in the store, we do have outlets in Atlanta. We do some farmer's markets in Atlanta. We have a big distributor that works on the Atlanta farmer's market, and he will distribute our apples. I think Food Depot is one of the big distributors of our apple. You'll see our cider in DeKalb Farmers Market. So we have a lot of outlets in Atlanta.

David Zelski: Whether in the state capital of Atlanta or the rolling hills of Blue Ridge, Mercier Orchards offers everything an Apple enthusiast could want. You can enjoy their products at markets, grocery stores, package stores, bars, restaurants, and more all over the state, or take a visit to their jaw droppingly beautiful farm in North Georgia for an apple experience like no other. And just like every small farm, the most important part of all this family.

Dave Lillard: What I failed to mention, and I should always mention this is, it started as a family organization, and I still believe it is a family organization. There's still several family members that are still involved, but even some of the biggest aspects of the of the whole farm, the bakery, the market, are not run the cider mill are not run by family members anymore. They're run by people. I consider my family like Miss Mandy over here, who took over from my wife several years ago, and she's done a terrific job. She she outworks me. And it just it kills me. But she's the brains now behind all the stuff you see in the store, all the products, all the decorations, the way the store flows. She doesn't, does a great job. We have 100 people that work here that do a really good job, that make us all go forward and look good.

David Zelski: For more stories like this one, you can watch A Fork in the Road on GPB TV or any time on the GPB.org website. That's where you'll also be able to listen to and subscribe to this podcast, or download it on your favorite podcast platform. I'm David Zelski, thanks for listening to A Fork in the Road.

 

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