MOUNT VERNON— When Monte Marti first planted 100 apple trees in his front yard 20 years ago, he didn’t plan to start a business. He just wanted to grow a few trees.

“Really, it’s just for fun,” he said. “The best part is the people that come by.”

His 40-acre property, just west of Mount Vernon, has become known to locals as the Big Apple Orchard — a small-town treasure that feels more like a community gathering place than a commercial enterprise.

Marti, who grew up on a dairy farm in northeast Iowa, never expected to become an orchard owner. A childhood trip to Washington State first sparked his fascination with fruit trees, but it wasn’t until years later, after he and his wife moved to Mount Vernon, that he decided to plant his own.

“I grew up on a farm and always figured I’d keep farming in some way,” he said. “When I was in high school, we went on a dairy tour in Washington, and we stopped at a few orchards. Maybe it started there.”

His orchard draws several hundred visitors each weekend in the fall. Families come to pick apples, pose for photos by the statue of the riverboat figure holding an apple, and enjoy homemade treats baked right on-site.

A community gathering place

Big Apple Orchard isn’t a place built around profit. Visitors can wander freely among the trees, and Marti doesn’t charge admission.

“We keep everything on the low end of what the cost can be,” he said. “It’s really more about just creating an opportunity for you to come out.”

For Marti, the orchard’s busiest weekends aren’t about sales. They’re about seeing familiar faces — neighbors, classmates, and friends he hasn’t seen in years — who stop by to pick apples or chat.

“Your friends will show up that you don’t see otherwise,” he said. “Your neighbors will come by and visit a little bit. The neatest thing is meeting new people.”

One of those visitors left a lasting impression. A few years ago, an older woman arrived unannounced. Marti’s wife mentioned she didn’t want to reveal who she was — but when Marti came outside, he immediately recognized her.

“It turned out she was my bus driver when I was a kid,” he said. “I always told people I had this great bus driver, but I never told her. And here she was, at my orchard, all these years later.”

As it turned out, she had driven him for nine years, starting when he was in kindergarten — the same year he met his future wife.

“She took me to kindergarten,” he said, smiling.

Stories like that, Marti said, are what make the orchard worth it.

“That’s the best part of all of it,” he said.

The baker behind the sweetness

Inside the orchard’s small kitchen, the air smells like cinnamon and apples. Denise Brannaman has been part of that rhythm for six seasons. She’s the orchard’s baker and a longtime friend of the Marti family.

“Our kids and their kids went to school together,” Brannaman said. “We were even in 4-H together.”

Each Thursday, she begins preparing for the weekend rush, making turnovers, cheesecakes, apple bars, and caramel apple cake. She also bakes three different sizes of apple crisp — one of the orchard’s most popular items.

Some recipes came with the orchard. Others, she said, come from her own kitchen and even from her grandmother.

“It’s heartwarming to know we can take those apples and turn them into treats and let everybody enjoy them,” she said.

Brannaman’s favorite part of the job, though, isn’t the baking. It’s the people — both the ones she works with and the ones who visit.

“The Martis are wonderful people,” she said. “They give of themselves, they sacrifice, and they just love having people here.”

One of her fondest memories came just before her mother passed away.

“She was sitting right there under that Gala apple tree,” Brannaman said, gesturing toward the orchard. “We’d gotten her an apple crisp and some ice cream, and she looked around and said, ‘This place, it’s like a little slice of heaven.’”

The orchard life

Though Marti describes the orchard as a hobby, it requires year-round care. Pruning trees in winter and spring can take weeks, and fall weekends are long and busy.

Still, he insists there’s no “worst part.”

“It just gets busy,” he said with a shrug. “But if there’s a family event or something with the kids, we just don’t open that weekend. It’s really that simple.”

Even the off-season is filled with visitors. School groups and families often stop by for informal tours.

“I gave a couple tours to the preschoolers this week,” Marti said. “It’s all about legacy — teaching people a little bit about apples and just giving them space to enjoy it.”

Marti’s enthusiasm for community extends beyond the orchard. The local middle school cross-country team recently used the orchard grounds for practice.

“I’ve always talked about having a cross-country course out here,” he said, laughing. “After they ran a couple laps, I put frozen donuts on the trees, and they had to grab them as they ran by.”

Growing more than apples

Over the years Marti has also planted 1,000 pine trees behind the orchard. His original plan was to sell them as Christmas trees — until he realized he couldn’t bring himself to cut them down.

“They were too nice,” he said. “I just let them grow.”

Like those pines, the orchard itself has grown into something more than what Marti envisioned when he first dug holes in the front yard.

He calls it an “open house for seven weekends,” where everyone is welcome.

Big Apple Orchard recently closed for the season after its seventh weekend, wrapping up another year of apple picking, baked goods, and community connection.

For Brannaman, it’s that same sense of warmth that keeps her coming back year after year.

“It’s kind of this little orchard off the beaten path,” she said. “And that’s what makes it special.”