In 1964, local grower Gene Bolster, Dick Bethell, El Dorado County’s pomology specialist and farm advisor, Ed Delfino, the county’s agricultural commissioner, and Bob Tuck, a retired army officer, united to form the Apple Hill Growers Association. “We had an awful pear blight about 40 years ago, and we ranchers had to do something to survive,” Bolster recalls. “Our major crop had been pears.”

A few of the old pear orchards are still around. “An orchard might produce for 50 years,” says Bolster. The pear blight took production from 52,000 tons in 1958 to 8,435 in 1965. It was time for a change.

Bolster and Delfino set out to discover a way to help the ranchers keep their farms and make the rich soil of Camino productive again. In 1962, Bolster and Delfino visited Oak Glen in southern California. “They had a successful marketing program, so we got a copy of their bylaws and improved them,” Delfino says.

“We faced competition from Washington State apples,” Bethell recalls, “and the growers in Camino had to do something.”

Tuck came up with the name “Apple Hill.” “It was amazing how much we accomplished in such a short time,” says Bolster. “We started in mid-June of 1964 and had everything ready for the first press picnic in August.”

During the press picnic, each Apple Hill family hosted individual members of the press for a meal at their home; many of them became close friends. The growers also produced 50,000 paper bags that they passed out at the State Fair that year, offering two pounds of free apples to visitors who brought the bag to Apple Hill.

The Apple Hill Growers Association has grown from 16 original ranchers to over 45 ranches, including Christmas tree growers and wineries and vineyards.

Clarice Larson made a suggetion: why not show visitors how to use apples in cooking and baking? Hers was the first ranch to sample homemade desserts, baked goods, jams, jellies and sauces. In some of the ranch web pages, you will find samples of the growers’ favorite recipes.

“Apple Hill was the first ranch-marketing effort in Northern California,” Delfino says, and its success is shown by the fact that now there are ranch-marketing groups all over. Apple Hill is a great example of government, farmers and media working together for everyone’s good.

At Larson’s Ranch, you will find the Rhode Island Greening, which is believed to be the oldest apple tree in El Dorado County. At Hilltop Ranch, the Bolsters have collected a number of antique varieties, making available some of the apples of your childhood. One of the original fruit stands still exists on Pony Express Trail. Growers Jessie and Ernie Fry sold fruit from their ranch, and legend has it that the ranchers’ wives would bring their fresh eggs and baked goods down to the little fruit stand to make a little “egg” money.

So much of the history of Apple Hill has been preserved. The community has gone to tremendous effort to protect its history and offer the public an opportunity to step back in time, if only for a day. Visitors will find their day filled with old-fashioned fun.

Plan a picnic on the lush land that surrounds these exciting ranches. Their doors are open and the growers have gone the extra mile to ensure your family a day that they will remember.

For more information, call (530) 644-7692 or visit applehill.com.