Experience Mackintosh Fruit Farm

The Mackintosh Fruit Farm is a You Pick farm and more. Right off of Route 7, enjoy lunch featuring the local produce; bring home fresh fruit and vegetables off of the farm. Since 1988, this family owned farm has been known for growing fruit for its fresh picked flavor. They grow strawberries, sweet cherries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, nectarines, peaches, pawpaws, apples, all kinds of vegetables, pumpkins, and they have an apiary for fresh honey. Entrance and parking is free. They have onsite bathrooms and a playground for the kids. Dogs on a leash are welcome.

A great place for kids to explore farm living, check Facebook for the latest updates to events and fresh picking. Outdoor enthusiasts can also enjoy a hike.

Don’t miss the monthly dinner featured during the summer months.

An interview with Lori MacKintosh, co-owner of Mackintosh Fruit Farm

Lori MacKintosh owns and operates MacKintosh Fruit Farm, alongside her husband Bill MacKintosh. Originally from Berryville, Virginia, she and Bill were high school sweethearts who inherited the farm from family about 28 years ago. Beginning with only peach and apple trees, they have expanded the farm and it now offers plenty of fruit and vegetable you-pick options! We sat down with Lori to ask her some questions about local ingredients, growing the crops, and the fun, exciting opportunities to be had at MacKintosh Fruit Farm.

What is your main goal or mission with the farm? What do you aim to do for your customers, and for society in general?
“We want people to care about their food. We want them to appreciate farmers, and to understand all the hard work that goes into farming fresh food. It is so important to know what’s in season and where the food comes from. And now with the younger generations growing up, we want to show kids how to care about their food.”

What do you do throughout the winter months? When would you say your season on the farm dies down and start back up?
“Bill graduated from Ferrum with a business degree, and he works as a consultant. I cut hair, that’s what I have been doing for years now, and my clients just come right here to my home. We both still work full time. He consults and I cut hair and then we also take care of everything here on the farm. The season ends around Christmas, and then starts back up around the end of March, so there’s really only January, February, and then some of March as the ‘winter months’. But there is still a lot of work to do on the farm even during the winter. We have to prune the apple and peach trees. We also have a nursery where we grow trees, so those have to be taken care of. ”

Loving ladybugs – the good bug…

On your website you note that there are good bugs and bad bugs that come around when growing fruit – which bugs are good bugs?
“Bill knows more about the horticulture and the bugs. But ladybugs are good bugs! They are good because they eat the other, bad bugs. Stinkbugs are bad bugs, because they can get onto the fruit and suck some of the juice out, which leaves them with a hard dented spot.”

Speaking of fruit that’s been tampered with, I’ve heard a lot lately about “ugly” fruit, and how it’s much less desirable just because it doesn’t look perfect. What do you think about that?
“We try to put the ‘ugly’ fruit to use in other ways, because we know that people usually will not pick them and we don’t like letting anything go to waste. People only want to pick the pretty fruit. The ‘ugly’ ones are great in recipes for juices, jam, pies, and other things. Occasionally we do specials on certain things, like if we have a lot of cucumbers, we will put them on special so that we can move them faster.”

 Tell us about the fruit you raise…

Which fruit or vegetable requires the most attention and care?
“The fruit is definitely strawberries, and the vegetable, I would say tomatoes.”

Which fruit is most popular to pick at your farm? Which fruit would you say is underrated?
“The most popular fruit to pick are strawberries and peaches. The most underrated are the pawpaws. They are native here, and mostly grow around rivers. But they really only grow in September, and you can’t pick them, they just drop out of the trees.”

Is everything you grow pick-your-own?
“Everything except for the corn, potatoes, and pawpaws because they grow in the ground so they have to be dug up.”

Food Festivals

What are some other fun activities that you offer here?
“Our farm is a great place for rustic events. We’ve hosted everything from rehearsal dinners, to christenings, to weddings, to reunions. Festivals are also popular  but we don’t do too much of the ‘agri-tainment’. We mainly promote ourselves as a you-pick farm. And that has been good for us.  People come from all over the place. Being so close to DC, we get such a diverse crowd of people who come to pick fruit. Eventually, we want to expand the patio area and do some hard cider taste testing. Our son Taylor has already started working on that. But that is something we’d like to do in the future. “

What would you say is the most important part of what you do?
“Growing the right kind of fruit for flavor.”

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