SkagitValleyFruit -------- About us

Our farm:
The farm was bought in 1991 and Jones Creek Farms was created . The farm,
once a dairy, had been abandoned for 14 years. The buildings on the property
were in bad shape and the land was overrun with brush and weeds. The barn was torn up and had about a foot of silt from years of floods that had gone un-checked on the farm. The first few years were spent both building and restoring buildings, fences and removing weeds.
The barn finally reached a point of repainting and a new roof  and the Jones Creek Farms logo was created.
Jones Creek Farms was now ready to begin and after a few tries at various ventures we began our first serious crop which was the garlic. Soon after that, in the fall of 1993 the first
trees of the orchard were planted. The vision was to provide great fruit with
lots of variety to the community. JCF began to look for the unusual and
historic strains of tree fruit.
Our research showed us that the Skagit valley used
to be one of the largest growing regions for apple production, famous for
growing such well known and loved varieties such as the King and Gravenstein
apples but, as apples became popular to grow, the apple industry was moved to
Eastern Washington. Sadly, most of the original orchards in the Skagit valley
were lost to urban growth, torn down for super malls and housing
developments. And even more sad was the fact that most of the varieties that grow well here did not do well in eastern Washington and so fell into obscurity. Lucky for JCF however, some grafting wood of the very rare local strains of some varieties was saved from the
orchards before they were cut down and the King and Gravenstien apples we
now sell are remnants from the past! A good example is our 'Sheets Gravenstien' variety which came from the original 'Sheets' orchard which was torn out and now has the Bellis Fair Mall in the city of Bellingham sitting in its location.

The orchard is always evolving, always experimenting, removing and/or adding varieties to our selections. We also 
apply this evolving diversity to all of our farming. Always trying new varieties of heirloom tomatoes. We have
recently become more interested in the pumpkin crop. Doubling our growing area in 2009 and doubling that in 2010. There is certainly a great many varieties to choose from. We are returning to growing Artichokes for the 2010
season. This is never a big crop for us but it is a natural fit. Our ground and climate is good and the garlic crop makes
it possible to grow without the worry of it's major pest .... the aphid.