Dick Madden has always loved apple trees. As a young man he worked for Andrew’s Nursery, Faribault picking apples in the fall and planting trees in the spring. In 1978, Dick began planting trees on his own farm. It was the beginning of his long journey to having his own apple orchard. He started with 25 standard trees of his favorite varieties – Honey Gold, Regent, Connell Red, and Haralson. His trees grew huge and close together - just as they were supposed to. When the kids were small he put them on a wagon and had them pick apples as high as they could reach but they just couldn’t quite reach the best apples on top. So he decided to expand by planting dwarf and semi-dwarf trees. However, he never cut down those very first apple trees. Now Madden’s Orchard has nearly 700 apple trees with the addition of Honey Crisp, Fireside, and the newest University of Minnesota variety, as yet unnamed, "1914." Currently, Madden’s Apple Orchard is a family project on evenings and weekends. But as Dick nears retirement he’s really planning to expand his efforts into working full-time on the apple orchard. With the help of Dick’s wife Ann, his three grown kids, an assortment of friends and a bunch of our favorite relatives we grow and pick apples, apples , and more apples!!!
