Door County in Wisconsin is an idyllic place. Occupying a peninsula between the western edge of Lake Michigan and Green Bay, the region draws thousands of city slickers from all over the Midwest every summer. Visitors enjoy the historic lighthouses, the fish boils and the bucketfuls of fresh cherries.
For more than 55 years, the Wood family has helped make Door County special. They operate Wood Orchard, growing apples, cherries, morel mushrooms and other delights. In recent years, they’ve started cultivating SweeTango apples.
Steve Wood, whose father established the orchard in 1955, says the SweeTango routinely amazes apple lovers. He remembers getting a sneak preview a few years ago while the apple was still in development.
“I would venture to say all three of us, my dad, myself and my son thought it was best apple we’ve ever tasted,” Steve said. “It’s a very complex flavor and a very good-looking apple.”
Wood Orchard has grown from a 40-acre operation in the 1950s to about 200 acres across several Door County parcels today. In the late 1990s, the orchard added a market in Egg Harbor.
Steve’s father, Jim Wood, passed away a few years ago.
“Of course, I still think about him a lot,” Steve said. “In fact, I was picking a few SweeTangos the other day to test the maturity and I thought about him because that’s something he would’ve been doing. He was our horticulturist. So he’s still very much in our minds and i just know he would’ve been thrilled with how SweeTango is coming along.”
Steve’s son, Jeff Wood, helps run the orchard, carrying the operation into a third generation.
For years, Wood Orchard has grown Honeycrisp apples, one of the parents of SweeTango (the other parent is Zestar!). To Steve, Honeycrisp raised the bar for apples everywhere.
“Honeycrisp has really made people aware how good an apple can be,” he said. “When they try new apples now, they are much more critical. If they don’t get that ‘Wow’ sensation, they go back to Honeycrisp.”
When SweeTango came along, Wood Orchard jumped at the chance to join Next Big Thing, A Growers Cooperative. The cooperative, led by Pepin Heights Orchards in Lake City, Minn., grows and markets SweeTango apples. Under a “managed release” program between the University of Minnesota and Pepin Heights, only orchards in the cooperative can grow SweeTango, which ensures the trees and apples meet high quality standards.
The SweeTango is quickly earning a lot of fans, Steve said.
“SweeTango definitely is giving them the ‘Wow.’ I think Honeycrisp, SweeTango and maybe others coming down the pike are really going to increase apple consumption.”
Wood Orchard has planted about 10,000 Minneiska trees, the cultivar that produces SweeTango. Steve said the SweeTango apples will be ready for harvesting beginning about Sept. 8.