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Closed for the 2022 Season
2023 Season Hours:
Opening Day: Friday, May 12, 2023
Open Monday – Saturday 9 – 5 pm
Closed Sunday
Closing Day:
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Opening Day: Friday, May 12, 2023
Open Monday – Saturday 9 – 5 pm
Closed Sunday
Closing Day:
Saturday, October 28, 2023
The Farm:
In the 1860’s Anders Sjoquist and son Carl Robert (CR) immigrated to the US from Sweden. As many people did, they Americanized their name and changed the last name to Seaquist. In the late 1800’s it was discovered that Door County has a unique climate and soil to nurture and grow tart cherry trees, thus the industry began. Anders and CR planted their first orchard in the early 1910’s and then passed the orchard onto CR’s son John, who then passed it onto his son, Dale. Although Anders, Carl and John were also doing other things like commercial fishing, carpentry and more, Dale became a full-time cherry grower. In the 1960’s, he expanded the orchard to 100 acres of cherries and apples. The cherry industry was booming in Door County at this time, with around 700 growers on the peninsula. Like the rest of Door County, all the cherries had to be harvested by hand! This took many workers, so during cherry harvest Door County was flooded with people to help pick cherries. Our farm had help from northern Michigan each year to help us pick our cherries. Pictured here is Dale Seaquist and Johnny Sans, who became his close friend when his parents came each year to help pick. (photo from around 1934).
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the cherry industry began evolving with the invention of machine harvesters. This allowed farms to expand acreage! We got our first “shaker” in 1972.
Dale’s children all began working on the farm as soon as they could walk and his son, Jim, took particular interest in cherries. He went to college at Michigan State studying horticulture. He returned from college and in 1983 Dale and Jim formed a partnership and doubled the acreage to 200 acres. At that time the focus became more on tart cherries, less on other fruit. From the 1990’s to the present day, the largest changes came with planting new orchards every year since then. Our farm is now 1,300 acres and spans from Sturgeon Bay to Sister Bay. The farm is now operated by Jim, his brother Zach, and sons Cole and Justin.
The Market:
In 1985 Dale and his wife Kristin and Jim and his wife Robin decided to build a farm market. People quickly fell in love with our pies, bakery and enjoyed having a place to come buy our cherries and apples. In 2014 our farm market was remodeled to help the flow of our market and improve our bakery area and bakery cold storage. Today our market is a prime destination for locals and visitors. Taste our famous bakery items, handcrafted canned products or our farm fresh fruits, browse unique gifts and enjoy family time on our playground.
The Processing Plant:
In 1992 Jim purchased a cherry processing plant in Egg Harbor that would allow us to not only harvest our own fruit, but to process it as well. At the time it was one of many cherry processing plants in Door County, but present day it is now the only one. In 2024 it processed 15 million pounds of cherries!
The Canning Company:
In 2010 Jim and Dale purchased a small canning company that had been making the jams for our farm market. Jim’s son Cole and wife Lisa learned the ins and outs of how to stir up those same recipes. In 2012 they built a production facility to house the canning kitchen, provide a new place for our apples to be processed and to house cold storage to supply the canning kitchen and wholesale divisions. Like much of our business, the canning kitchen has evolved and grown over the years!
Today, we have about 15 family members managing the business and an amazing team of 50-100 employees! We thank God for providing us a business that has allowed our family to work with one another and be able to steward the land that we have been given.
