Rogers Orchards, in Southington, Connecticut, is an agricultural-produce company owned and operated by members of the same family since its founding in 1807 and one of the leading agricultural producers in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. Totaling , it is Southington's largest farm and the largest

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

-grower in the state, selling

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

to local stores and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

at its farmers' markets. It harvests and sells twenty varieties of apples annually, with McIntosh,

Macoun 'Macoun' apples are a cross between the 'McIntosh' and 'Jersey Black' cultivars. The Macoun ("Ma-cown," after the variety's namesake, Canadian horticulturalist W.T. Macoun, but sometimes also pronounced either "Ma-coon" or "McCowan") was devel ...

, Cortland, and

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

among its most popular. Rogers Orchards also harvests and sells

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

es,

nectarines The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fuz ...

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...

pumpkin A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus ''Cucurbita'' that has culinary and cultural significance but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning. The term ''pumpkin'' is sometimes use ...

s, and other

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s in season, and sells

baked good Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferr ...

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

and

syrups In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...

, cut flowers, other farm-specialty products, and

firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...

Company history

Founded by Chauncey Merriman in 1807, this family farm began operating in 1809, after Merriman's son, Anson, and four-year-old grandson, Josiah, began its apple orchards by planting one thousand

Baldwin apple The Baldwin apple is a bright red winter apple, very good in quality, and easily shipped. It was for many years the most popular apple in New England, New York, and for export from the United States of America. It has also been known as 'Calville ...

trees by hand. Once popular, now rare Baldwin apples, unlike other varieties, have been prized for the making of traditional

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

. Spanning "eight generations", the family farm, which came to be called Rogers Orchards, expanded to a operation split between two locations, the Home Farm and Sunnymount Farm, both located in Southington. John Rogers, the president of Rogers Orchards and the great-great-great-great grandson of Chauncey Merriman, runs the operation, which has an estimated 18 employees.

Trade association memberships

Rogers Orchards is an active member of trade organizations of Connecticut fruit growers, including: the Connecticut Pomological Society; the Connecticut Apple Marketing Board; the New England Apple Association; and the New England Apple Council. Rogers Orchards President John Rogers is a member of the board of directors and secretary-treasurer of the New England Apple Association and a former president of the Connecticut Pomological Society.

Site of Connecticut farm investment program launch

On July 25, 2008, Connecticut Governor

M. Jodi Rell Mary Carolyn "Jodi" Rell (née Reavis; born June 16, 1946) is an American former Republican politician and the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 until 2011. Rell also served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut. Rell was C ...

used Rogers Orchards as a setting to announce the launch of a $500,000 investment program designed to aid Connecticut's farmers. Rogers Orchards President John Rogers acknowledged in a newspaper interview that he did not know why the governor chose his farm as the setting for her visit and announcement, but that he was pleased by her presence and support of local independent farming operations.

Notes

References

*Brooks, Patricia, and Lester Brooks. ''Food Lovers' Guide to Connecticut: Best Local Specialties, Markets, Recipes, Restaurants, Events, and More''. Insiders' Guide ser. 2nd ed. 2004. Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press (Morris Book Publishing LLC), 2007. (10). {{ISBN, 978-0-7627-2861-9 (13)
138303
(index). (

Google Book Search Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

Limited Preview.) *Scannell, James W.
Connecticut Pomological Society Records: Table of Contents
' (Archive Finding Aid). Archives & Special Collections at the

Thomas J. Dodd Thomas Joseph Dodd (May 15, 1907 – May 24, 1971) was an American attorney and diplomat who served as a United States Senator and Representative from Connecticut. He is the father of former U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd and Thomas J. Dodd Jr., ...

Research Center.

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

Libraries. Accessed August 14, 2008.

External links

Rogers Orchards
– Official site Agriculture companies of the United States Companies based in Hartford County, Connecticut Farms in Connecticut Southington, Connecticut American companies established in 1807 1807 establishments in Connecticut